Thanks Time, that's good to know. I'm researching the three main options in the UK- the DRO, the IVA and bankruptcy.
I have no idea what applies if you have a mortgage but I thank god did not make that mistake myself.
There are a lot of people out there like me and living on nothing just to make repayments on different accounts. I can imagine that it must be far less of an issue if you have one debt, but it's a problem if you have two or more different credit cards/loans and if you can't get a consolidation loan.
The banks leave one with no choice.
I'll be sure to post up and update with how things go with this at any rate as there is a huge dearth of information out there at the moment and if I can help anyone else in the same boat as myself I'll be delighted.
I tried to get a consolidation loan but neither bank would give me one, despite my credit rating so far showing how I've paid back money continually, despite being late or behind. Any intelligent person would know I am a good payer, but good payers can turn into can't payers if there isn't some reasonable help available. Both banks turned me down without even doing a credit check on me anyway saying that they are just not taking on other banks' debt at all and that it would be no use applying. I was also told that we had a spectacular christmas and that the economy would be better this year and when I mentioned things like talk about the fiscal cliff, I was told that Irish people are not listening to that stuff.