Bank Debt Collection

Hi,

I had a business loan from Ulster Bank. My Business closed and as I tried to continue to pay the monthly installments however as I was unemployed I stopped and tried to pay 100 eur a month so that the bank would see I was committed to my obligation.

I couldn't afford this and stopped paying last year.

In Dec 2016 the bank called me to discuss repaying the loan. They were to send me documentation but never did.

At the end of Feb 2017 they phoned again to discuss what I could pay. I gave them a figure of Eur 200 a month as I am now working again. She said she would get back to me.

To this day, I have heard nothing at all, nearly 3 months later.

The debt is Eur 17,000. My husband was the guarantor, however our marriage broke up after I closed my business and the bank are aware of this.

Does anyone know why the bank are not pursuing me? I have had a credit check done and there is no record of me even owing the loan never mind a bad debt?

Bandara

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Hi,

I had a business loan from Ulster Bank. My Business closed and as I tried to continue to pay the monthly installments however as I was unemployed I stopped and tried to pay 100 eur a month so that the bank would see I was committed to my obligation.

I couldn't afford this and stopped paying last year.

In Dec 2016 the bank called me to discuss repaying the loan. They were to send me documentation but never did.

At the end of Feb 2017 they phoned again to discuss what I could pay. I gave them a figure of Eur 200 a month as I am now working again. She said she would get back to me.

To this day, I have heard nothing at all, nearly 3 months later.

The debt is Eur 17,000. My husband was the guarantor, however our marriage broke up after I closed my business and the bank are aware of this.

Does anyone know why the bank are not pursuing me? I have had a credit check done and there is no record of me even owing the loan never mind a bad debt?

They are pursuing you, it just is moving very slowly.

UB are crazy slow at everything, all this stuff if done via their UK offices and it takes months and months.

I personally would advise you to email them asking for a meeting, keep at them, have proof you have been trying to get this resolved.

Repay the loan at whatever you can afford, don't let them bully you, once you are trying to 'do the right thing' you will be ok.

If they did bring it to court and you can demonstrate to a judge you are doing your best and have been working to honour your loan as best you can then no judge will find against you.

It's non-engagement that will trip you up.

Get onto to them and get the process started, but do everything by email, if you do ring them initially and make and appointment to meet with someone get their email address and send them a mail confirm your meeting time and date and what's it's about. Ie "Hello John, I'm just confirming our meeting on Tuesday 1st at 10am in your offices in Dame Street, I am anxious to agree a mutually satisfactory resolution to the outstanding loan and I look forward to going through everything with you and getting a plan out in place. Many thanks QueenBee"

I sold on a business 2 years ago, from my side everyone was paid etc and I closed down the company correctly. However UB did the credit card processing for me and I had two of their machines, I gave them 60 days notice in writing of the closure and paid the outstanding amount in full and couriered the machines back to them etc etc

About a year later I get a phone call out of the blue about the outstanding amount on the account ?? They had kept charging me the month fees (€70) and I now "owed" them over €1400, bascially UB just let the DDs get refused every month (the company bank account had of course been closed a year ago). They then passed it to a UK debt collection company who added a roughly €500 fee on top of the bill and about 6 months ago a registered letter arrived from the Dublin City Sheriff that they were coming to seize goods etc to the value unless it wasn't paid in seven days. I rang the sheriff immediately gave him the full story with proof but he cannot change the process. However once I pointed out to the Sheriff that's it was a limited company and had been voluntarily closed about 18 months previously he just closed the file and moved on as obviously there was no company in existence that he could enforce the 'debt' against.

In short UB are not going to chase you, you will have to go to them

Good luck and I hope things are turning around for you.


Edit, as an aside I'm presuming you signed a personal guarantee ?

MFS2

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Hi,

I had a business loan from Ulster Bank. My Business closed and as I tried to continue to pay the monthly installments however as I was unemployed I stopped and tried to pay 100 eur a month so that the bank would see I was committed to my obligation.

I couldn't afford this and stopped paying last year.

In Dec 2016 the bank called me to discuss repaying the loan. They were to send me documentation but never did.

At the end of Feb 2017 they phoned again to discuss what I could pay. I gave them a figure of Eur 200 a month as I am now working again. She said she would get back to me.

To this day, I have heard nothing at all, nearly 3 months later.

The debt is Eur 17,000. My husband was the guarantor, however our marriage broke up after I closed my business and the bank are aware of this.

Does anyone know why the bank are not pursuing me? I have had a credit check done and there is no record of me even owing the loan never mind a bad debt?

You should gather all relevant paperwork and as the earlier poster rightly said, keep notes and correspondence with the bank.

Is your loan from a company debt or personal as this may be a factor. Also UB have sold / are selling bad debts so you may hear about that soon.

Keep the faith. Just because they haven't been in contact doesn't mean they won't. I'm not a solicitor so there may be legal issues around their delay to contact you.

mikeybrennan

Ask for a copy of the loan agreement- Mabs will usually advise this

See if they actually have it and what it says

thank you for your reply. It's really good to get a view from someone experienced as I really didn't know what was happening.

I think there may be legal implications because my ex husband went guarantor and his family are very important to the bank.

I find it very strange that in my credit check there is no record of me owing the loan at all.

Bandara

[Deleted User] wrote: »

thank you for your reply. It's really good to get a view from someone experienced as I really didn't know what was happening.

I think there may be legal implications because my ex husband went guarantor and his family are very important to the bank.

I find it very strange that in my credit check there is no record of me owing the loan at all.

Was it a limited company ? Is the company still open (ie has it been liquidated) ?

id definitely go to a relevant solicitor with experience in this area. There may be a way to get out of this

StanleyOllie

Don't go to a Solicitor yet. You are just going to pay out more money.
Was it a Limited Co?? If so and you are not a Guarantor your husband is liable under the Guarantee. There is no recourse to a person personally if Ltd Co and its wound down...only if Guarantee signed.
If the loan was in your name and it was a business loan. Send in a proposal to the bank. Gather all your info and supporting documents. Current liabilities and income. And what you can afford to pay. If the loan is under SME code... small medium enterprise code they have to respond to your proposal within 15 working days. They should also have written to your husband informing him he is liable for the debt. Ask have they done this.
Need more info on the type of loan and is it business or personal before any more advice.

CeilingFly

The bank looks for repayment from the business first. If they can't get payment from the business they go to the guarantors.

If they can't get payment from the guarantors, they issue proceedings against the business or guarantors - whichever they think is best avenue for repayment.

If loan was in the business name, and the business is closed, and no repayment is coming, they will call in the guarantee before any legal action.

If your ex is well off and his family have a good business with the bank, possibly you could just say you are unable to pay and let it pass on to your ex.

At the end of the day he guaranteed it and even if he doesn't like it, is partly responsible for the debt.

No, I was a sole trader and the business accounts are completely closed up since year end 2015.

CeilingFly

[Deleted User] wrote: »

No, I was a sole trader and the business accounts are completely closed up since year end 2015.

It was still a business loan, so they'll follow normal business loan procedure and will go for the guarantor before attempting legal proceedings - and even then they would take them against both the borrower and guarantor.

From what I see is you have a lot less to lose than the ex.

Maybe go to the askaboutmoney.com site (Irish site) and put the question there - a lot of professionals post there and you may get more information / help from them.

MFS2

Have you considered an Freedom of information request?

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

It was still a business loan, so they'll follow normal business loan procedure and will go for the guarantor before attempting legal proceedings - and even then they would take them against both the borrower and guarantor.

From what I see is you have a lot less to lose than the ex.

Maybe go to the askaboutmoney.com site (Irish site) and put the question there - a lot of professionals post there and you may get more information / help from them.

There is one other issue. I have a mental illness and I had a bad turn when I was in business that the bank know about. The Business Manager at the time personally apologised to me that he couldn't do anymore to help me and the staff at the bank were very considerate.

Moomat

Deleted User wrote: »

There is one other issue. I have a mental illness and I had a bad turn when I was in business that the bank know about. The Business Manager at the time personally apologised to me that he couldn't do anymore to help me and the staff at the bank were very considerate.

Don't spend too much time worrying about it. You tried, didn't work out, hopefully will the next time.

Speak to a Personal Insolvency Practitioner, it is now free> http://backontrack.ie/news/free-access-to-pip-services-now-available/

They would be best placed to get it dealt with and off you mind.

MFS2

MFS2 wrote: »

Have you considered an Freedom of information request?

How do I do that?

CeilingFly

Deleted User wrote: »

How do I do that?

I don't think a FOI request is needed as you are not challenging anything.

You've made an offer, they are to come back to you. Ball totally in their court

17k is not a big debt to them and they have plenty of bigger debts to pursue.

If they accept your offer of 200/month it will start from when they accept it.

If they do plan any tyoe of legal action (unlikely as they have the guarantor to go to first), you will get a couple of "last chances" first. All in all I would suspect they will do a deal with the guarantor to clear the debt.

Graham

MFS2 wrote: »

Have you considered an Freedom of information request?

Since when are Ulster bank a state body subject to FOI requests?

phildin

I don't have much advice on the loan/repayment situation itself but I do want to strongly advise you not to ignore them. It's very easy to fall into a trap whereby you tell yourself "they haven't bothered to get in contact so feck them". This absolutely won't serve you. Paradoxically, you may need to chase them somewhat on the issue. While this might stick in your throat, it's your best ally in the event that things ever go to court.

Also, keep notes of every email and phone call. It doesn't have to have major details, ideally, just send yourself an email after each call with a very brief note about any point that was made during the call. The email itself will serve as a timestamp.

It's amazing how quickly recent events can start to get out of order when you go to recall them and having the details at your fingertips will make the bank afford you at least some sort of credibility.

Pelvis

Graham wrote: »

Since when are Ulster bank a state body subject to FOI requests?

Presumably he means data access requests as per the Data Protection Act.

Though I don't know why it's being suggested.

MFS2

It's fairly straight forward. If you Google foi you will get a standard wording. You have to include as much detail as possible. I have done it before with the account details. The cost is €6.35 to the bank. At least you will get copies of loan agreements security etc

MFS2

They've done it for me before.

Go data protection route so. It's just a fact finding suggestion. trying to help.

wordofwarning

Speak to MABS. A debt relief notice might be the best solution. But they will advise on it

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/personal_finance/debt/personal_insolvency/debt_relief_notices.html

You will pay UB something for 3 years and then be discharged of the debts. But I don't know if it will apply to you as you had business debts.

MABS will be the best person to call

mrawkward

It is highly unlikely that UB still own your debt, they have sold off most of their non-performing loans to vulture funds for cents on the Euro. You first need to find out, who owns it now, the bank are obliged to give you this information. Go to the Financial Ombudsman if they fail to engage.