Credit Card WOES.......

poiuy

Dear all
Please advise

I am a student in Ireland and Ive finished my masters in business. I paid huge fees nearly €17000 being a non EU student (India).I took 7000€ out of my credit card hoping to land a decent job some day and pay it back. Now that i cant get a job here as my visa restricts me from working full time and the economic crisis here, there seems to be no way that i could pay these 3 credit cards back. i am broke and now planning to go back home. What could i do about my credit card bills? i could not pay them by any chance now? WOULD THEY FOLLOW ME HOME AND SAVAGE MY LIFE THERE AS WELL? Ive never been late in paying my monthly installments as i had a part time job as a kitchen porter but i dont have that job any longer now. Its been very hard for me to come to this conclusion of running away without paying back what i owe. This country has given me many good experiences in life - quality education, decent living standards, rich experiences and I know its the wrong way I am paying back. I ve never been on the wrong side of things before, but if i stay any longer here, i would keep accumulating more bad debts.
Please advice.
I have payment protection on 2 credit cards. would that help them?

Toots

First thing I would do is get in touch with the banks and advise them of your situation. Burying your head in the sand is not going to work here. The payment protection might be of some use here, as you are out of work, so it may cover some of the repayments. Running away from this is not the solution. I'm honestly not sure if the banks will pursue you in your own country, but if you ever wished to come back here to live or work, you probably won't get a visa if you've defaulted on loans etc here.

Toots

Anyone posting replies in this thread should ensure that they are familiar with the forum Charter, in particular this bit:

*Dishonest dealings

Don't ask how to get around repaying debts/defaulting/giving false information for loans etc - basically if it's not above board, and legal, it's not allowed.

anyone here posting advice on how to get around repaying this debt or encouraging the OP to default on this debt will be banned for 1 week.

stepbar

TBH I'm more shocked by the fact you have 3 credit cards. I could go on a little rant here about lending to people on student visas (seen enough in my short stint in personal lending and all the tricks that were used) but what would be the point. The government created the rules and everyone else suffers the consequences.

As much as I hate to say this, the cost of pursuing you over the debt would make the exercise pointless. So you can fly back to India safe in the knowledge no cop will be knocking on your door. I would say a clear case of fraud has been committed here. The cards may have been given in good faith. But hey you know more fool to the banks in question for not making enough checks / giving the card in the first place. I'd be interested to find out what companies issued the cards - I'd hazard a guess MBNA was one.

Davy

poiuy wrote: »

I have payment protection on 2 credit cards. would that help them?

Payment-protection policies are designed to cover your repayments if you suffer from an accident, illness, death or redundancy. If you job was just a part time job you wont be covered.

When you say you were never late with payments, do you mean just the minimum amount? Just paying the minimum amount is never advisable, well either is 3 credit cards if not used correctly but its a bit late for that now.

The main thing you could learn from this is to prevent a similar thing happening in the future. Taking a loan of that size on a credit card is madness. Roughly paying 17% instead of 7% apr.

Switching all the debts to one loan from a bank or credit union would be the best way to go. It would pay off the three credit card companies and would stop mounding up crazy interest. The thing is, trying to get that loan. You need to get an income of some description, enough that you could survive and pay back the loan over whatever time you can get agreement from the banks. Then you wont have this dept following you around for the rest of your life.

poiuy

Hi ALL

I understand what i did wasnt right at all. But am i to be blamed solely for this? The system doesnt lets me do any decent job. In spite of being a postgraduate with sound experience in banks and other multinational firms back home, no one gives me a job as they would need to sponsor me a work permit (Which is a big pain for the firms due to vast proceedings from the department of justice). If these complications were explained while i was getting admitted into these universities here - would i have done that? i ve spent 3 years in this country being a regular full time student in UCD and working around at nights as a security and kitchen porter, hoping to land a decent job and to pay back each inch of what i owe. Instead what i often get from the authorities was ridicule. 17000€ was a big money. i ve paid back 10000€. My every effort will be to pay the remaining back as well. I believe in good karma, but i need to appreciate the system as well. they ve kept me well oppressed making sure that i dont raise my hood up at any time. i could be in this country for another few years on a student visa from some rubbish college paying bull **** fees and hardly any classes. but is that what i paid my fees and took all the pain for my pasters for? i want to make sure that i get good benefits out of my masters. if i stay in this place i would be here for another 3 years trying to repay the loan and another 3 years of juvenility. i definitely shouldn t do that. SHOULD I????
the system has been good in exploiting many like me. but how long could we suffer for? paying huge fees in colleges with restricted work hours (20) and no scope for better jobs in future... How long could anyone suffer this crap?

poiuy

Trust me when i say I am in cross roads. I ve never intended to do this. All i used the c card was to finance my studies for the second year of my masters. I did it cause i hoped that I would get a decent job after college. now i am done with college still the government wants me to be in any college doing some full time course paying huge fees or else leave the country. they wont let me work full time or even search for a full time job. what is it that i could so in such a scenario? my visa runs out soon. the options to me are either to pay hefty fees (non EU) fees in some college ( again i might have to look for newer venues on credit cards or loans) or be an illegal in this country (trust me their are many around us here who could not renew their visas cause of financial troubles ) or to leave the country. which one should i choose out of the 3? suggest the best?
Warm Regards

Toots

AFAIK, most students who come to study here have the fees before they start college, or are in the fortunate position to have wealthy parents/families who will help them out financially while they are here. You seem to be looking for justification for running out on your debt, which we cannot give you on this forum.

Have you been in touch with your embassy? It might be a good idea to call them or go in to them and talk to them about your situation. I'm sure you're not the first person to be in this position, they'll probably have some tips or advice on what you can do.

ferga_com

Presumably you're not going to stay in this country indefinitely if you cannot get a job. With your qualifications, presumably you can get a job in another country where you can get a work permit. It's very easy with internet banking to pay your credit card debts from abroad.

Bottle_of_Smoke

ferga_com wrote: »

Presumably you're not going to stay in this country indefinitely if you cannot get a job. With your qualifications, presumably you can get a job in another country where you can get a work permit. It's very easy with internet banking to pay your credit card debts from abroad.

Think this is sound advice. Before you leave have enough to cover your minimum payments for a few months in your bank account. Then use online banking with your Irish bank to transfer it over.

Use that time to get a job back home and transfer the money internationally. That way if you want to work here again it won't be hanging over you.

Raskolnikov

I'm not giving advice here, only answering questions.

poiuy wrote: »

i am broke and now planning to go back home. What could i do about my credit card bills? i could not pay them by any chance now? WOULD THEY FOLLOW ME HOME AND SAVAGE MY LIFE THERE AS WELL?

It's highly, highly unlikely that an Irish bank will be able to chase you for an unpaid credit card bill abroad. The fact that you're going back to India virtually makes it virtually impossible. If an Irish citizen (Michael Lynn) can get away with leaving the country after defrauding banks of millions; I don't see what chance a few banks have of getting back €7,000 of unsecured credit.

If you do a runner from Ireland; I wouldn't expect to be able to come back and even open a bank account for several years though.

Toots

Raskolnikov wrote: »

If you do a runner from Ireland; I wouldn't expect to be able to come back and even open a bank account for several years though.

Possibly ever. If you default on a loan, your record stays on the ICB for 5 years after the debt is fully cleared. ie, if you don't clear the debt, it can be up on the ICB for quite a while. It wouldn't shock me at all if they are checking this before granting people work permits and visas, especially with the way things are now.

php-fox

Might be a bit late to reply, but look here:
http://www.entemp.ie/labour/workpermits/policygraduates.htm
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/GraduateScheme.pdf/Files/GraduateScheme.pdf
As a NON-EEA citizen, you are entitled to remain in Ireland for the next 6 month and look for a job.
Good luck.