Please help - Debts here, live in England

bubblybox

Hi there,

Posting on behalf of boyfriends situation - he was out of work for some time and couldnt meet repayments on his car and his credit card. He moved to London for work and whilst he can't make full repayments he is paying off as much as he can.

As has been mentioned on this thread he is being harassed by MBNA and letters coming through the door. Problem is he is only in Dublin on Fri evening to Sunday evening. I am trying to get him into BOI (where he has his bank account & loans) and/or the credit union to look into his options re consolidation loans etc etc. From what I can see BOI dont open on Saturdays and having got a very bitchy woman on the phone from the CU was told I was ringing the wrong branch and it was highly unlikely they'd be able to help as no management would be in to talk to him on Saturday.

Can anyone help? Or point in the right direction? we were both very upset on the phone last night and the hopelessness is really bringing him down. He just needs to speak to someone who knows what are his options as he needs a plan

Thanks in advance

matt70iu

bubblybox wrote: »

Hi there,

Posting on behalf of boyfriends situation - he was out of work for some time and couldnt meet repayments on his car and his credit card. He moved to London for work and whilst he can't make full repayments he is paying off as much as he can.

As has been mentioned on this thread he is being harassed by MBNA and letters coming through the door. Problem is he is only in Dublin on Fri evening to Sunday evening. I am trying to get him into BOI (where he has his bank account & loans) and/or the credit union to look into his options re consolidation loans etc etc. From what I can see BOI dont open on Saturdays and having got a very bitchy woman on the phone from the CU was told I was ringing the wrong branch and it was highly unlikely they'd be able to help as no management would be in to talk to him on Saturday.

Can anyone help? Or point in the right direction? we were both very upset on the phone last night and the hopelessness is really bringing him down. He just needs to speak to someone who knows what are his options as he needs a plan

Thanks in advance

I was in a similar situation after loosing my job in early 2009. I would suggest getting in touch with a debt management crowd and asking them to negotiate with your creditors on your behalf.

A year and a half later I am paying the debts off with no letters and should be debt free in 4 to 5 years time. They take the head-ache out of negotiating with all your creditors and you only have 1 payment each month.


Best of luck!

bubblybox

Hi there,

Thanks so much! After posting I had a search around here and thats exactly what we are doing. He spoke to yourmoney.ie overlunch. €20 a month for the service you mentioned. He'll pay the money by bank giro every month he is home - no more phone calls and letters! Details should be out in the post by monday and we'll go from there!

He is feeling really confident about it and glad to hear it has worked for you!

Best of luck in the future to you too.

chris85

bubblybox wrote: »

Hi there,

Thanks so much! After posting I had a search around here and thats exactly what we are doing. He spoke to yourmoney.ie overlunch. €20 a month for the service you mentioned. He'll pay the money by bank giro every month he is home - no more phone calls and letters! Details should be out in the post by monday and we'll go from there!

He is feeling really confident about it and glad to hear it has worked for you!

Best of luck in the future to you too.

Be careful with that crowd. I have made my feelings about them know here before. They are also called Dunne & Maxwell.

bubblybox

Hi,

Thanks again for above, would either of you know other companies who offer the same service but dont have a bad rep?

Mabs it unaccessible to him as they only open Mon - Fri!

Immaculata

If your partner can't make it into the bank and credit union during office hours, why doesn't he contact them by post?

There is no reason that he can't write to his bank manager and credit union manager and arrange things that way. I know it's old fashioned but it does work perfectly well. He could write and state what his debts are and that he'd like to propose clearing them by making payments of x amount per month. Usually smaller than usual payments over a longer period of time are affordable for people like your partner, and acceptable to the creditor (better than not getting paid at all).

Just remind him to be sure and a) put the date and his account numbers/reference numbers on each piece of paper, b) keep a photocopy of everything he posts, and c) post by registered mail (called recorded delivery in England) if he's including anything such as original documents that would be difficult to replace. Alternatively there's email. If using email, again, it's important to print out and keep copies of everything.

If he doesn't want to go the post/email route, I still don't personally think he could be paying more money to a service or taking out another loan, when the way to deal with debts is fairly straightforward (I'm not saying it's easy, mind). He could contact a service like MABS in England and they should be able to set up the budget and repayment arrangements he needs, over though his debts are in Ireland. Ask him to call his local citizen's advice bureau in England for a recommendation.

Best of luck to you both.

matt70iu

bubblybox wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks again for above, would either of you know other companies who offer the same service but dont have a bad rep?

Mabs it unaccessible to him as they only open Mon - Fri!

Hey,

Well the crowd i've been with for the last 18 months are called national debt relief. Have found them to be very helpful and nothing dodgy.

As previous posters have suggested, you could write to the creditors yourself.

I decided to let them do the hard work as I had already lost my job and hadn't the heart to be writing all those letters:)

bubblybox

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies!

Whilst I would love my boyfriend to be as organised as to email/post to all his creditors I doubt he would be consistent enough to make it work (his own admittance not mine ) but thanks for the option.

He is in contact with two debt management companies, one based in England and one Ireland to see which suits him best. He is also enquiring today if he can go to the English verison of Mabs on his lunch or weekend.

Hopefully one of them will give him the options he needs and he can pay all his debts easily...and therefore get on with earning extra money to pay them off quicker.

Thanks again - Mods please feel free to close.