Credit Cards & Car loans

jordo76

hi all

let me start at the begining i was enployed and have been out of work for a while with an injury I'm now having problems repaying my credit card bill and car repayments, i have a credit card with a well know bank and the car is also with another well know bank and its getting to the stage were there going to be at the door looking for some sort of payment, now my question is, is there a way of getting them to lay off for a while of is it God given fact that there going to strip me of everything, any advice please

also whats the worst that can happen to me over this leagly that is ???

thanks for looking

Jo King

You should go to MABS (Money Advice & Budgeting Service).

dats_right

Legally, if you do not pay, the banks will use whatever legal enforcement remedies are available. Typically, for an unsecured debt such as a credit card debt the first legal step (post all the warning letters) is to bring debt collection court proceedings in either the District or Circuit Court depending on the amount owed. At which point they will in all likelihood obtain a court judgement against you for the amount owed plus legal costs, if you do not make some arrangement to discharge the debt at this stage, it is likely that they will:
a) Register the judgement in the registry of judgements meaning details will be put in Stubbs Gazette, etc which may have serious negative implications on your ability to obtain credit with other financial institutions;
b) If you own an property the banks will probably also register a judgement mortgage against your property, this operates something like a normal mortgage in that you will not be able to sell the property without first repaying the debt plus legal costs. This is a very complicated area, but it may also be possible for the bank to bring proceedings to seek an order for possession and sale of any property that you own, although seeking an order for possession/sale would not be the usual modus operandi for the banks re credit card debts;
c) They will bring seperate installment order proceedings against you in the District Court seeking to have the Judge make an order that you pay a specified amount back at specified intervals e.g €100 per week.
d) Up until last week, when the High Court found certain aspects of this particular procedure unconstitutional, the next step if there was default in meeting the court ordered repayments was committal proceedings i.e. being hauled of to Mountjoy for 30 days for breaching the Court Order and still having to pay the debt plus the ever increasing legal costs. But it certainly now seems that a trip to jail is no longer a possibility.

The bottom line is that it is very difficult to just walk away from your debt, but at the same time it is impossible to get blood from a stone, so once you are making reasonable efforts to repay the debt you should be alright. But I definitely second the very practical advice of JoKing and also recommend that you make an appointment with MABS asap.

Re the car repayments the procedure are exactly the same, save that if the car was purchased by Hire Purchase rather than a bank loan the car would remain the property of the bank and they would, in certain circumstances, be entitled to repossess it without notice to you as well as utilising the above to recover any shortfall in monies owed.

Our man in Havana

But it certainly now seems that a trip to jail is no longer a possibility.

Do you have a link for that?

PCPhoto

it was on the news today that they were closing the loophole that people who dont pay back debts wont go to prison ..... its being change to anyone that is able to pay (but doesnt pay) will face the possibility of jail.

(at the moment if you dont pay back debts then you cant goto jail for them)

Our man in Havana

I would assume that the state or at least the banks will be appealing this to the Supreme Court as a matter of urgency. If the status quo is allowed to remain serial debtors will now ignore instalment orders knowing that they will not go to prison.

Carawaystick

Bond-007 wrote: »

I would assume that the state or at least the banks will be appealing this to the Supreme Court as a matter of urgency. If the status quo is allowed to remain serial debtors will now ignore instalment orders knowing that they will not go to prison.

Is this not the creditors fault ( apart from the 1st one) for not checking the debtors history?

Our man in Havana

Many debtors would have a clean history and get into problems later.

I wonder if banks will now bother to use the bankruptcy laws against creditors?

445279.ie

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0626/debtors.html

Hope by rushing through legislation they actually get it right

Our man in Havana

It is unlikely to be law before christmas.