Re: threatening bank letters
I suggest that your husband sends a registered letter to the person whose name appears on the letter asking him to close his personal account.
In the letter he should explain what his present predicament is, & express his concern & upset over the way the bank has handled the situation up to this & ask for a letter by return of post to confirm that the bank has refused his previous offer of regular €50 payments until such a time that he is in a position to increase these payments, & ask them to outline in the letter a reason why the bank refused his genuine attempts to repay the debt. He should also ask them how he is expected to repay anything if his account is closed, & enquire if they would be kind enough to advise him of sort code and account number that he can use to do so.
Quite often when you are on the phone to a bank employee who is merely staring at a screen that says you owe X amount of money & x amount of money needs to be repaid in order to clear any arrears, unless you are agreeing to pay this exact amount they will just tell you that this is not acceptable. They might not even detail your reduced offer on your account details, so when the account appears on a credit control dept’s reports, it just looks to them that you are ignoring the debt, & triggers automated letters which could well be what your husband has received.
It’s very easy to get fobbed off over the phone, but a letter gives you time to say exactly what you want to say without any interruptions, & is a million times less intimidating at what is at best a stressful & worrying time for you. This is why it is always advisable to do anything like this in writing & keep copies, firstly as the letter will have to be recorded/filed on your account details & secondly should things go down a legal route you have a record of making an attempt to repay the debt.
A registered letter usually doesn’t get ‘lost’ between departments & is more likely to land on the desk of a more responsible senior member of staff than one sent by ordinary post & prompts somebody somewhere to act upon it. Yes it’s a pain to sit down & write/type a letter & it costs €5 or €6 to send a registered letter, but nine times out of ten you may find that the bank will change it’s tune to a more humane & reasonable attitude.
The main thing is try not to get too stressed out about it for now, your husband has done the right thing by contacting the bank & it may well be that he just wasn’t speaking to someone who had the authority to come to an arrangement. But I would strongly suggest that he sit down & write a letter & send it by registered post so as he at least has it on record that his repayment offer has been refused by the bank.
As mentioned above, it would also be a good idea to visit the MABS website
www.mabs.ie & make an appointment to see them. There is a backlog for appointments, but they will be able to advise you on any other bills or debts that you have, & could negotiate on your behalf.
