Dealing with Loan, Credit Card and Overdraft Debt

The best thing to do if you miss a repayment is to make contact with your provider as soon as possible. If you need to make a payment to cover the one you’ve missed, your provider will tell you how to do this. If you think you may be unable to meet future repayments, let your provider know this.

Your provider will work with you to understand your financial circumstances and to agree how best to manage any repayment arrangements you may have.

You don’t need to prepare a budget, but you might find it helpful to have one in advance of talking to your provider. Once you’ve contacted your provider, you will be asked for information about your finances. This information includes any income and expenses you may have, to allow your provider to understand your financial circumstances and to be able to devise an alternative repayment arrangement.

To prepare a household budget, you need to calculate your income to include wages, benefits or other income; your costs to include a) mortgage or loan repayments you may have and b) the essential weekly or monthly costs you usually have (such as groceries, childcare costs, mobile phone costs, TV and broadband costs, costs associated with running a car, health insurance etc.).

All of this information will go into your budget to help you understand how much money you have to meet your costs and how much you may have left over each week or month to spend on non-essential items. It is important that you ensure you have enough money to pay for essential items.

You should work out what you consider to be essential for you and your household and ensure that is included in your budget. Tools to help you work out your budget are available on the internet. Websites like www.mabs.ie and www.ccpc.ie have useful templates for budgeting. These budgeting tools capture a lot of the possible expenditure items you need to include. The websites also have useful information on how to budget.

There are also a range of mobile phone applications available for download to your phone via Google Play Store or the App Store on your Apple device that can help you track, analyse and manage your finances.

Your provider will work with you to agree an approach to resolving any arrears that are likely to occur or that may already have arisen. This approach may include an arrangement to revise the amount of the repayments to a level that is more affordable to you.

Alternatively, your provider may be able to add some or all of your debt into one loan that is affordable for you to repay on a weekly or monthly basis.

Not making full repayments or missing a repayment on your debt will mean that your credit record will be impacted – providers are required by law to report all outstanding loans to the Central Credit Register (CCR). A poor record on CCR may impact your ability to get approval for credit in the future.

The information that a provider submits to the CCR builds up your credit history over time and is used to create your credit report. The information shown on the credit report that you receive will show up to 5 years of information. In the case of a loan still being repaid, the most recent 2 years of repayments will be shown on the report that the provider receives. For a loan or credit card that is closed or paid off, a provider will see the final 2 years of information. The information on a closed loan will no longer be on the report 5 years after the last repayment was made.

Please note that the information you request or access from the CCR is a credit report – it is not a “credit score”.

More information is available on the CCR website here.

If your circumstances change, including for the better, it is important that you contact your provider and talk through your changed circumstances. For example, improved circumstances may allow you to shorten the number of repayments you will have to make or by increasing the amount you pay each week or month which could reduce the overall cost of your credit.

The full range of options will be discussed with you by your provider.

Debt Relief Notice: you may apply for this through MABS or another approved body. If you have unsecured debts below €35,000, a low income and few assets – this gives you freedom from your debts normally after three years.

Debt Settlement Arrangement: you may apply for this through a Personal Insolvency Practitioner (PIP) – your outstanding unsecured debts are written off over a period of time, normally up to 5 years.

Personal Insolvency Arrangement: you may apply for this through a Personal Insolvency Practitioner (PIP). This allows you to settle and/ or restructure your secured and unsecured debts over a period of time, normally up to 6 years. (A mortgage is a typical example of a secured debt.)

Bankruptcy: you may apply to the High Court to be declared bankrupt.

Visit www.backontrack.ie for further information.

AIB – Visit www.aib.ie/i-am/worried-about-payments. If you are worried about mortgage payments, you should call 0818 251 008. If you’re worried about loan payments, you should call 01 7725714. If you are worried about credit card payments, you should call 01 668 5500.

Bank of Ireland – Visit personalbanking.bankofireland.com/financial-wellbeing/cost-of-living-hub. If you have already fallen into mortgage arrears you can call the dedicated Home Mortgage Line on 01 4883046. For queries on credit card, loans or overdraft repayments contact the dedicated team on 0818 200 334.

BCM – Customers can visit ww2.bcmglobal.com for further information or call +353 (0)1 654 8800.

Cabot – Visit www.cabotfinancial.ie/contact. For information on Promontoria Scariff Mortgage Accounts you can call 01-4649070 or email Scariff@cabotfinancial.ie. For other mortgage accounts call 01-4649172 or email ASU@cabotfinancial.ie.

EBS – For further information you can visit www.ebs.ie/worried-about-payments or you can call 0818 330 044.

Haven – For further information you can visit www.havenmortgages.ie/worried-about-payments or call 0818 280 280

KBC – Customers can visit www.kbc.ie/en-US/help/mortgage-support/managing-your-debt or call 0818 93 02 35 or email customerservices@kbc.ie.

Mars Capital Oak – Visit www.marscapital.ie/oak/financial-difficulties or contact the dedicated Arrears Support Unit (ASU) on freephone 1800 852 940 or, if calling from abroad, +353 1 267 8033.

Mars Capital Snow – Visit www.marscapital.ie/snow/financial-difficulties or contact the dedicated Arrears Support Unit (ASU) on LoCall 1800 816 207 or, if calling from abroad, +353 1 525 5624.

Mars Capital Warrington – Visit www.marscapital.ie/warrington-bay/financial-difficulties or contact the dedicated Arrears Support Unit (ASU) on LoCall 1800 816 121 or, if calling from abroad, +353 1 526 8580.

Pepper – For further information you can visit www.pepper-advantage.ie or call their Helpline on 0818 828 828.

PTSB – For further information you can visit www.permanenttsb.ie/help-and-support/help-with-banking/repayment-difficulties. If you are in arrears, call 1800 855 010 or +353 21 6013800.

Start – For further information you can visit www.start.ie or contact 1800 818 000 or 01 2096300.

Spry – Customers can visit www.spryfinance.ie/contact for further information or call (01) 5822 570 or email info@spryfinance.ie.

You can find more helpful information about the Consumer Protection Code 2012 here and advice on switching your mortgage from the CCPC here.

MABS
If you need advice and assistance to deal with any type of debt, whether it is mortgage, loan, credit card or overdraft, you can contact the State’s Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS). The MABS service is a free, independent, confidential and nonjudgemental service which is provided by skilled and experienced advisors for people who are in debt or at risk of getting into debt.

The MABS Helpline, 0818 07 2000, is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm. The MABS face-to-face service is available in over 60 locations nationwide – see www.mabs.ie to find your nearest MABS office.

The Insolvency Service of Irish (ISI)

Where a borrower believes that they are insolvent i.e. unable to meet their loan repayments while maintaining a minimum standard of living they may be eligible for a personal insolvency arrangement. The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) is responsible for the personal insolvency framework. Check out the website set up to help borrowers find out more about insolvency solutions at backontrack.ie

The Personal Insolvency Act introduced three new structures to deal with unsustainable debt, both secured and unsecured, as follows:

A Debt Relief Notice (DRN) to allow for the write-off of debt up to €35,000, subject to a 3-year supervision period.

A Debt Settlement Arrangement (DSA) for the agreed settlement of unsecured debt, with no limit involved, normally over 5 years.

A Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA) for the agreed settlement of secured debt up to €3 million (though this cap can be increased) and unsecured debt, with no limit involved, normally over 6 years.

Further details of the insolvency framework and the individual arrangements are available at the ISI website. View the ISI website here.

Citizens Information Service

The Citizens Information Board is the statutory body which supports the provision of information, advice and advocacy on a broad range of public and social services. You can get information and advice face-to-face at your local Citizens Information Centre by phone through the Citizens Information Phone Service on 0818 07 4000, or by clicking here to access the Citizens Information website.

Competition and Consumer Protection Commission

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission’s personal finance information website provides information and advice on a range of financial issues including managing your money, tackling debt and repossession and making a complaint.

You can find more helpful information about the Consumer Protection Code 2012 here and advice on switching your mortgage from the CCPC here.

Bankruptcy

Where a borrower believes that they are in serious financial difficulty and a voluntary payment plan or insolvency arrangement is not sustainable, they may consider bankruptcy. The rules regarding Bankruptcy were amended in 2016 to reduce the duration of an arrangement to 12 months, previously 3 years. The duration of a bankruptcy payment order was reduced from 5 years to 3 years, except in cases of non co-operation or the concealment of assets when it can be extended for a longer period.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) is responsible for the bankruptcy system and further details can be found here at the ISI website.