Debt collection agency

Night_Shade

Hi, I'm a 20 year old and dropped out of University in September due to personal reasons that went on for months before.

However I had a debt of €700 that was unpaid. They were for repeat exams that I didn't even sit because of the personal issues. I was so out of touch at the time I didn't even contact the University about anything, just turned up in September and withdrew and that's it.

But I have been getting regular letters about the debt ever since that I've been ignoring and now I've been threatened with a debt collection agency.

I don't have any assets to my name and have no means to repay the debt at the moment as I'm not working, unless I get money from my parents, which I don't want to do.

What are my options? Is it likely I'll be brought to court, and if I was brought to court, what will be said to me if I can't repay the debt?

What are my options and what is likely to happen. Thanks.

Anyone

Contact who you owe, explain your circumstances, and prove that you are not working, and agree an arrangement for something small,but regular, until you are back working and in a position to repay(eg €5 per week).

This isnt really a consumer issue btw.

zenno

Pay them back 2 euro a week that's good enough for them. They can't touch you in court if you are genuinely paying them something and are unemployed. If you were brought to court the judge would see that you made the effort to pay them something so you will be fine.

Night_Shade

Anyone wrote: »

Contact who you owe, explain your circumstances, and prove that you are not working, and agree an arrangement for something small,but regular, until you are back working and in a position to repay(eg €5 per week).

This isnt really a consumer issue btw.

Ok, but I really don't want to pay this debt, or all of it anyway.

Would they actually set a debt collector on a former student for €700 and bring me to court, or is it just an empty threat?

Do you think it could be possible that they could accept half the debt in a one off payment or something?

I want to be careful how I play this.

Tom Cruise

Change ur phone number and tell them you have moved to the UK.
Ignore the threats and have no contact with them.

foggy_lad

Night_Shade wrote: »

Ok, but I really don't want to pay this debt, or all of it anyway.

Would they actually set a debt collector on a former student for €700 and bring me to court, or is it just an empty threat?

Do you think it could be possible that they could accept half the debt in a one off payment or something?

I want to be careful how I play this.

Pay what you owe!

Yes they could easily drag you through the courts even though they might know you were broke just to make an example of you.

davo10

zenno wrote: »

Pay them back 2 euro a week that's good enough for them. .

We the tax payers pay to subsidise the costs for third level students, they marched a few months ago over impending fee increases. In this case the OP was a registered student, dropped out, didn't bother to inform the University and now wants to know his options to avoid paying. Obviously he is unable to pay now but I would love to see a levy put against any future earnings/benefits until the Uni is paid in full. To give up an education these days is a crime, but it is not a consumer issue.

Night_Shade

foggy_lad wrote: »

Pay what you owe!

But it's a ridiculous debt.

It's for repeat exams that I didn't even do. €240 of it was me just to hand up a project, which wasn't done.

If I wanted to be extremely moral about it, I should intend on paying it all but without trying to sound ignorant, I really don't want to be tied down with it even though I accept that I'm responsible for it.

Night_Shade

foggy_lad wrote: »

Pay what you owe!

Yes they could easily drag you through the courts even though they might know you were broke just to make an example of you.

But if they did drag me through the courts, knowing I have no money, how would that be making an example out of me? If I go to court and have no money to pay, what can be done?

Realistically what are the chances of them bringing me to court over €700?

foggy_lad

Night_Shade wrote: »

But if they did drag me through the courts, knowing I have no money, how would that be making an example out of me? If I go to court and have no money to pay, what can be done?

Realistically what are the chances of them bringing me to court over €700?

You can have a judgement against you which would affect your ability to get credit in the future

keithclancy

Night_Shade wrote: »

But it's a ridiculous debt.

Don't sign up for ridiculous debts then.

Ignoring it is the worst thing you can do, ring them and explain your situation.

Nobody here can tell you if they would or would not pursue you through the courts, however people here can tell you that you owe the money.


As stated above it may be possible to come to some low payment plan arrangement.

Night_Shade

foggy_lad wrote: »

You can have a judgement against you which would affect your ability to get credit in the future

I only thought that was possible when banks are involved in the debt?

In your honest opinion, how likely is it that they could bring me to court? Is there any method of checking how often this university has done it in the past? They must have plenty of people that owe outstanding fees and cannot pay them.

keithclancy

Night_Shade wrote: »

I only thought that was possible when banks are involved in the debt?

In your honest opinion, how likely is it that they could bring me to court? Is there any method of checking how often this university has done it in the past? They must have plenty of people that owe outstanding fees and cannot pay them.

Maybe talk to MABS ?

http://www.mabs.ie/contact-mabs/

Night_Shade

keithclancy wrote: »

Maybe talk to MABS ?

http://www.mabs.ie/contact-mabs/

Cheers, I will give them a call.

Anyone

Night_Shade wrote: »

Cheers, I will give them a call.

MABS are a budgeting service, designed to help people who are unable to pay their bills/debts. They wont tell you how to avoid paying debts, they will probably tell you the exact same thing as I did, except you dont want to pay to your debts.

As for the court thing, and debt collection expenses, if they go to court and win, you will pay the expenses.

keithclancy

Anyone wrote: »

MABS are a budgeting service, designed to help people who are unable to pay their bills/debts. They wont tell you how to avoid paying debts, they will probably tell you the exact same thing as I did, except you dont want to pay to your debts.

As for the court thing, and debt collection expenses, if they go to court and win, you will pay the expenses.

From:
http://www.mabs.ie/assess-your-situation/

I have just received a legal letter from a creditor’s solicitor and I don’t know what do to.

Talk to a MABS Helpline Adviser before doing anything.

Anyone

keithclancy wrote: »

From:
http://www.mabs.ie/assess-your-situation/

My Point was the OP doesnt want to pay, not that he cant. Sending him to MABS is a waste of their time, time that they can use to assist people with genuine financial issues.

Africa

I wouldnt pay this either if I were you. You didnt get what you paid for in the end, and therefore shouldnt have to. You didnt sit the exams, didnt do the repeat project, and didnt cause any loss of resources on the college part.

So I would think you have a decent case NOT to pay this. However, your negligence in not informing them will probably be the crux of any case if it were to happen.

Cabaal

Night_Shade wrote: »

But it's a ridiculous debt.

How exactly?

It's for repeat exams that I didn't even do.

Thats your fault, not the university.

€240 of it was me just to hand up a project, which wasn't done.

Again your fault,

If I wanted to be extremely moral about it, I should intend on paying it all but without trying to sound ignorant, I really don't want to be tied down with it even though I accept that I'm responsible for it.

Your 20 and you don't want to actually act like an adult, I suggest you never take out any loans or any future agreements of any sorts if your not prepared to act like an adult.

:rolleyes:

As for the suggest of talking to MABS, please don't waste their time.

MABS exist to help people with real money problems, not people that can't man up to when they have make mistakes and don't want to accept any responsibility like yourself.

Cabaal

Africa wrote: »

I wouldnt pay this either if I were you. You didnt get what you paid for in the end, and therefore shouldnt have to. You didnt sit the exams, didnt do the repeat project, and didnt cause any loss of resources on the college part.

Complete nonsense,
The services existed they just didn't choose to use them.

If you signed up to a home phone and Broadband package or for that matter any course and just choose not to use the services or take part in the course you still own the costs, the debts are still 100% valid.

The university acted in good faith here, the op by thier own admission didn't even tell them and ignored any letters from them,

Night_Shade

I haven't rang MABS yet, will do in the next hour.

The main thing I would like to know now if there is any way of finding out what track record the university has of using the agencies and people being brought to court for circa €700.

If I found out they don't use an agency or people don't get brought to court for that amount, I wouldn't pay or entertain the thought of paying.

Africa wrote: »

I wouldnt pay this either if I were you. You didnt get what you paid for in the end, and therefore shouldnt have to. You didnt sit the exams, didnt do the repeat project, and didnt cause any loss of resources on the college part.

So I would think you have a decent case NOT to pay this. However, your negligence in not informing them will probably be the crux of any case if it were to happen.

That is exactly why I don't want to pay. I didn't get what I payed for and caused no loss of resources to the college. I think the least that should be done is to have a large portion of the debt written off.

I appreciate that I was an idiot for not informing them at the time, but I was undergoing serious mental health issues. I suffered two losses of loved ones in a 12 month period which affected me badly (they have a record of this, as I was exempt from some course work because of it) and have suffered from depression and a body image disorder at the time and am only coming to terms with it now. (I haven't seen anyone over this yet and have no proof, but have told a family member and there are plans for me to get help in the next couple of months) I don't think any of that will matter to them though.

cookie1977

Have to say it's disappointing to see people not willing to deal with their debt. Why not contact the university/college and work out a plan or work out something? They may be amenable some idea.

Night_Shade

Cabaal, I'm not asking for a lecture on morals or what the right thing to do is.

I'm basically asking

a) Is there anyway I can check a University's track record with getting agencies on to people and bring them to court for sums of around €700?

b) Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation before, what did you do and what happened?

c) How likely is it that any company would i) set a debt collection agency on you for €700 and ii) how likely would it be that the agency brings you to court, even though you have no means of paying back the money?

d) How likely is it that a compromise can be reached between me and the University, to write off a large portion, or all of the debt, in people's experience?

Night_Shade

cookie1977 wrote: »

Have to say it's disappointing to see people not willing to deal with their debt. Why not contact the university/college and work out a plan or work out something? They may be amenable some idea.

It's just the size of the debt is annoying. The repeat fee is extortionate there in the first place as most Universities charge around €60 for a repeat subject, this college charges around €240. Trinity college are free. The price appears to be more of a deterrent and I just wouldn't feel right struggling to pay it if I don't really have to.

I know I took the debt on in the first place, so I don't need to be reminded.

Zab

Have you ever made any attempt to talk to the university about this debt? That's an absolute must here, at this point you're obviously going to be billed as the university has no automatic system for discounting unsat exams. There's no point in complaining about them charging you for it if you haven't pointed that out to them yet. For all we know they could be very willing to write off the whole or part of the debt.

Night_Shade

Zab wrote: »

Have you ever made any attempt to talk to the university about this debt? That's an absolute must here, at this point you're obviously going to be billed as the university has no automatic system for discounting unsat exams. There's no point in complaining about them charging you for it if you haven't pointed that out to them yet. For all we know they could be very willing to write of the whole or part of the debt.

No, I'm only taking it seriously now because it's the first time I've been threatened with a debt collecting agency. I got maybe 4 letters in the past 12 months asking for the money but it's only recently they've threatened the third party involvement, which I didn't think they would do, which is why I didn't sort it out earlier.

I plan on emailing the fees office tonight and maybe ringing them tomorrow, I just wanted to get as much information as possible before I do so.

Oryx

You are going to have to talk to your university about this. They are the only ones who know if they will bother to pursue you, what they do in other cases isn't an absolute. People here don't and can't know what is likely to happen.

It is ALWAYS unwise to avoid a debt by simply ignoring it. Yeah, it could just go away, or it could be a worry and a thorn in your side for years and end up costing you more in the long run. So phone the uni, for gods sake, and see what they have to say. The easiest and simplest way of seeing if you have any chance of legitimately getting the amount reduced is talking to them. Getting annoyed and saying you 'shouldn't' have to pay it is pointless.

MOH

Have you actually made any contact whatsoever with the university yet?

Sounds like you've been through a hell of a time, but from their point of view, you signed up for something, never went through with it, never told them, and ignored all of their attempts to contact you since.

I wouldn't assume that they know about your personal circumstances - if it's their finance department that's after you they wouldn't necessarily have any contact with whoever you got the coursework exemption from at the time.

This probably won't just go away if you keep ignoring it, and will just end up being another cause of stress for you.

You should definitely get in touch with them, and it might well be worth talking to MABS first for advice, but more with the attitude of trying to come to a compromise on how to resolve the situation, than flat out insisting you won't pay.

Also, most unis have some department for supporting students with personal issues, might be worth talking to them if you haven't done so already.

Night_Shade

Oryx wrote: »

You are going to have to talk to your university about this. They are the only ones who know if they will bother to pursue you, what they do in other cases isn't an absolute. People here don't and can't know what is likely to happen.

It is ALWAYS unwise to avoid a debt by simply ignoring it. Yeah, it could just go away, or it could be a worry and a thorn in your side for years and end up costing you more in the long run. So phone the uni, for gods sake, and see what they have to say. The easiest and simplest way of seeing if you have any chance of legitimately getting the amount reduced is talking to them. Getting annoyed and saying you 'shouldn't' have to pay it is pointless.

Thanks, but I am just assuming the University would tell me I have to pay it, say anything, and threaten me with anything so I just pay up. Isn't that what most creditors do?

cookie1977

If you contact them explaining everything (maybe if you can supply a doctors cert) I'll bet they'll be very understanding about it. The thing people are maybe annoyed to see is the query of how to avoid the debt, but your personal circumstances aside, if you approach it with openess to the university I think you'll be fine. Best of luck.

Night_Shade

MOH wrote: »

Have you actually made any contact whatsoever with the university yet?

Sounds like you've been through a hell of a time, but from their point of view, you signed up for something, never went through with it, never told them, and ignored all of their attempts to contact you since.

I wouldn't assume that they know about your personal circumstances - if it's their finance department that's after you they wouldn't necessarily have any contact with whoever you got the coursework exemption from at the time.

This probably won't just go away if you keep ignoring it, and will just end up being another cause of stress for you.

You should definitely get in touch with them, and it might well be worth talking to MABS first for advice, but more with the attitude of trying to come to a compromise on how to resolve the situation, than flat out insisting you won't pay.

Also, most unis have some department for supporting students with personal issues, might be worth talking to them if you haven't done so already.

Thanks, I had a meeting with one of the student welfare officers last year, that's how I got the exemption from some course work.

The thing is I'm not sure if any of that is relevant now that I'm not part of the college anymore.

I think I'll send a long email to them explaining everything, and see what happens.