Bank loan

Friends,

I have a quick question regarding the bank personal loan. I have borrowed 15000 euros and paying the installments regularly without any arrears. I am also insured so that in any case of un-foreseen circumstances the insurance company will cover my loan. 'am originally not from ireland but residing in the state from past 5 years. My question is in case I have to go back say for example by the end of next year....what I should do. How can I convience the bank that I will not be in the position to service the loan. How to tackle this situation because, it is quite obvious that it will be difficult for anyone to pay lumpsum. Please advise.

Warm Regards,
Pint

Well Pint. You have to pay the money back. There's no way around it. When you say 'I am also insured so that in any case of un-foreseen circumstances the insurance company will cover my loan' you are talking about payment protection insurance. This is designed to meet your repayments in CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES e.g. if you lose your job, gte sick etc. Moving abroad is probably not covered!

You will need to talk to your bank about maybe increasing your payments before you leave. Basically, you will either have to pay the lump sum, or your other option is to do a runner, which means they'll be chasing you for the money & you'll have difficulty borrowing in Ireland again.

Could you get a loan at home to pay off this loan? Then you could continue
making payments at home and your obligations in Ireland would be squared away.

I presume that depending on where you come from originally €15000 might constitute a much bigger amount of money than it does in Ireland. Perhaps it will be impossibly to service a 15000 loan on your salary at home.

At the end of the day if you can't pay you can't pay. If you have to go home and you definitely can't meet the repayments then write to the bank (when you know you have to leave) and tell them this. Offer some token payment that you feel you can make. Perhaps contact MABS www.mabs.ie.

I wouldn't contact the bank until you know you have to leave, because they may get jittery and try calling in the loan. If you end up not leaving you'll be exposing yourself to unneccesary hardship.

There's a certain amount of responsibility on the banks part to lend responsibly, but if they refused to lend money to foreign visitors they'd be accused of racism. For the sake of others who will visit in the future and for the sake of your own peace of mind you should do everything you can to reach some sort of agreement with them.

I don't think they will pursue you out of the country. But it might be a good idea not to give them any foreign address just in case.

-Rd