Who knows, it may just inform people and help somebody reading this.
The first time I called Mabs I had just spent a long period of time up to that living on the tiniest amount you can imagine all just to maintain my credit rating at all costs as I am still young and didn't want my future to be ruined just because of these debts. Especially when they were relatively small.
I had somehow kept it all going but had lost a lot of weight from lack of food and stress, my eyes had that kind of hollowed out look that terrified people have, and I was very nervous and alert in general due to not being able to take my mind off that last €5 that I needed to make it home, and pay for my accommodation (€40 a week). I had had to find a place that would take me 5 days a week as I couldn't afford both a full week's rent and to travel home at weekends to see my father who suffers from a serious illness and had been deteriorating. Sadly my siblings were no help at that time and didn't see the urgency -they do now that my father requires 24 hour care. Put it this way, I missed one weekend and my father phoned me in the middle of the week to say 'There is no food in the house'. He is not the type to call and he couldn't drive anymore due to the illness. Straight away I got a part-time carer in to make sure that never happened again.
So I was near to missing my 5th or 6th payment to one credit card provider and I knew that if I missed that last 6th one, they would refer me to a debt collection agency and I didn't want that to be on my record. Also, I had already suffered so much I couldn't bear the thought of losing all now after all of that.
I called Mabs for help at this point to see what advice they would give me. I explained the situation and said that I didn't think I could keep up with the repayments any longer, that it was affecting my health, etc. The idiot on the phone told me that the Personal Insolvency Bill would be in soon and I mentioned that I wasn't so sure, as I had heard Eddie Hobbs saying otherwise and it made sense that they would defer it in order to get as much funds into the bank as possible- turned out Eddie was right and I was right to heed his warnings.
She seemed to take offence that I would challenge her and she said that the government had said it would be coming in later in the year and 'that was that' kind of thing. I told her I had nothing, zero, left after paying for my 5 days accommodation and most basic of food but that I might be able to get an extra income of 50 per week which I would pay towards improving my accommodation situation. Well, she was in nirvana, she just told me emphatically to hold on until I got that extra income, and to keep making payments.
Last week I wanted to find out for sure whether getting the DRO in the UK would still stand were I to return to Republic of Ireland (only calling it by this to differentiate) and so I called them again just in case because 'you never know'.
The woman I spoke to said that Mabs don't advise on UK options for Irish people.
Fair enough. I also asked her whether they could help me merge my payments into one single payment and she said no. She brought up the Personal Insolvency Bill and I told her that I very much resented the options that are drafted in, for example the fact that the Debt Relief Notice (the Irish equivalent of the DRO) would actually last for 3 years! As opposed to the UK's 1 year. So their advice on the PI bill is useless to me.
I then asked her whether anyone in Mabs was involved in negotiations on the bill and whether they had someone standing up for people struggling with personal debt and cited the lady from Flac who speaks up a lot demanding proper legislation to be brought in asap. The Mabs woman said that she didn't know anything about that.
She offered to send me out a booklet with template for letter to send out to bank. I asked her if this was the same one as was online and she said Yes.. so I have no idea why she didn't just volunteer this at the beginning rather than offering to post?
Then I asked her if there was any help available in terms of meeting with someone and she said that I could make an appt with a money advisor in my local office and she gave me the number. She said that they wouldn't be able to merge my payments for me though. I asked whether they could write on my behalf and she said I would need to ask the advisor.
So even if they can write on my behalf, I don't really need that anyway. I already know how much at most I can pay a month and already know a court would not contradict that were a bank to even consider taking me to court.
I at one point mentioned how I had already paid back the principal and interest and that I wasn't feeling guilty about my debts as they were technically repaid and she said 'at the time you agreed to terms and conditions of loan, etc.' and pretty much spouted what the bank said to me. I think she expected me to get into a 'woe is me' spiel and as she didn't get that she really had nothing to offer me.
How much is Mabs costing? And what exactly are they doing for people for that cost?
I found the whole effort pathetic especially when compared with the professionalism and help of Citizens Advice Bureau in the UK.