My Debt Story

B

baz6679

Registered User
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21
Have been a long-time reader of posts and finally decided it's about time I share my experiences. So here goes:
I worked in the construction industry up until 2008 and was left high and dry like so many people in this country by being owed a large amount of money for work I had completed. I was getting married in August of 2008 and ended up rupturing my Cruciate Ligament playing Soccer 3 weeks before wedding!!! This coupled with not being able to get the money I was owed meant I quickly found myself sinking deeper and deeper in debt.
The problem culminated in January 2009 when it ended up I have between 30-40 grand of debt with one of the major banks across credit card, overdraft, personal loan and the balance of a hire purchase Van which I returned. I was beside myself with worry and stress and after much searching and looking for help found a debt management company who have handled all for me. I now pay 300 a month back and have been doing since November 2009.
However it is a struggle. We as a family have also decide to emigrate to Australia and will have our permanent residency visa inside the next month. I am selling my house and am hoping to have a few thousand maybe 4 grand left so we can go and start all over again. Here is the thing though.
I am seriously considering running and leaving this debt. I know howls of horror and the moral issues and how the Irish taxpayer will be footing this but seriously until your in the situation you shouldn't judge people like me who see it as the only option. I spoke with my advisor in the debt agency who is an absolute star. I am going to sit down with the bank and tell them to settle for 40-50 cent in the euro and give me the next 15 years to pay this back which I know I can do by working my backside off as I have good contacts where I am going with good work prospects.
If they don't like this then its bye bye bank and do whatever the hell you like because I ain't coming back in that case!
I must add the tactics employed by these big banks and the stunts they try and pull are so backhanded that it has left people like me with no other option.
I want to finish by saying there is no point in posting back to me and taking the moral line because the following is fact:
-yes i borrowed the money
-yes I have to live with the guilt of saddling the taxpayer if i do run
-yes I know I should be made pay back what I borrowed

Thanks for reading and any comments/advice much appreciated
 
In fairness you actually come across to me as someone who wants to take responsibility for it.
Also what you owe is small fry in comparison to the like of Fitzpatrick et al and with all that has gone on especially with revelations over the last weeks I don't blame you.
One thing I realised the other day when talking to someone who owes a lot of money - they are still getting the take aways having the hols etc when I have scaled back due to pay cuts and it sickened me.

I wish you the best of luck with your move to the southern hemisphere.
 
Thank You. I will be taking responsibility by presenting them with a manageable reasonable plan to have this paid off. With selling my home I wont have a mortgage here so therefore I hope to pay a back some each year. I can honestly say some of the People they have working for them are unreal. I can tell you for a fact now that one of the Big Boy Banks in this country sends letters from a firm of Solicitors who actually don't exist. By all intents and purposes the letter you get from said firm is very real and scares people for sure but it's another scare tactic to make people pay up and pay up quickly. Obviously they have their solicitors they use for serious cases etc but for smaller debts they employ this tactic!
 
I can tell you for a fact now that one of the Big Boy Banks in this country sends letters from a firm of Solicitors who actually don't exist. By all intents and purposes the letter you get from said firm is very real and scares people for sure but it's another scare tactic to make people pay up and pay up quickly.


That is scandalous you should email Shane Ross about the likes of that.
 
Usually the reason that banks settle for a fraction of the debt is to get the money now. Given your intention to pay it off over 15 years it is debt forgiveness rather than a settlement that you are proposing. It will be very interesting to hear how your discussions with the bank go.

If there is equity in your property the bank may become concerned with your intentio to walk away from the debt and register a judgment against the property making it less advantageous for you to sell.

Emigrating is the logical decision for many in the construction industry whether it is to maintain skills that will position you well to return in a number of years or to simply build a new life elsewhere.

You should check with the law society about the solicitors. There are a number of solicitors that do not have office for the public and are part of accountancy practices or other companies
 
Hi, I thik you're dead right and I wish you well. I'm thinking the same. If you search for my post re bankruptcy, you'll see my story. I'm getting so very good advice at the moment as I thought my only way out was to go Bankrupt but there maybe aother option. I still dont have a full understanding of the process but its getting court protection and then going into negotiating with your creditors and forcing them to agree at somewhere between 10c and 20c in the euro. Why offer 50c in the euro. Start low and work up if you can. Definitely worth checking out this angle but make sure you use someone that knows what they are talking about nad actually has experience in this specific area. Too many chancers out there so be careful.
 
Yes I know you are right. My intention is to sell the house take the minor small bit of equity and start again. There is so many people out there in the same boat and who are going to do the same. Banks have lied cheated and gorged on ordinary decent people like me and you. For god sake I remember the day my wife and I walked in to get a mortgage. I had a fair bit of savings and they nearly made me feel guilty for only taking out the amount of mortgage I was taking out!!!
Can I ask you or maybe PM you McHugh about the process and what you are going to do?
 
Be great if you could keep the discussion going on the forum rather than going the PM route .... keeping it on the forum may help others in the same situation.

Re. your position baz6679 I think you've made great efforts to sort your situation and I wouldn't fault you at all for what you are doing ..... and best of luck with the move.

Soak up some sun for those of us who'll still be weathering it out here!
 
These solicitors wouldn't be AIB's own in house ones by any chance?
 
I know someone who thought the exact same as you.

He paid back the debt.

He has moved on with his life.

If you don't pay back the debt it will come back to haunt you. (I know, I used to work in credit control, you would be amazed what we do to get our money back. :))
 
goingforgold said:
You say after house sale you will have c. 4K left over. Is this before you clear the 30-40K of debt?
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Did you read the OP's post:rolleyes:

baz6679 - 30 or 40 grand is not a huge amount of money to owe in the grand scheme of things. Don't feel you are being forced out of the country because of this debt unless yourself and your family really want to go for a better quality of life etc.

Don't let the banks know you are selling the house until you have the bit of equity you are due safely in your back pocket then go in and negotiate with them and maybe some settlement can be reached to suit all parties.

Good luck in your new life, enjoy the sunshine and relaxed way of life and don't ever feel you are missing anything from this wild west managed and debt ridden country.:(
 
Don't let the banks know you are selling the house until you have the bit of equity you are due safely in your back pocket then go in and negotiate with them and maybe some settlement can be reached to suit all parties.
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Sage advice there. If they get wind of you selling up they will rush to court to stick a few judgement mortgages on your house. Then you will have no room to be able to negotiate a settlement with them?
 
Thanks for sharing your story Baz.

baz6679 said:
I walked in to get a mortgage. I had a fair bit of savings and they nearly made me feel guilty for only taking out the amount of mortgage I was taking out!!!
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I had a similar situation too. Not far from where I'm living there was a beautiful estate in the process of being built and a couple of staff at the bank had purchased properties there, all in all in and around the 1 million mark. They were looking at me as if I had lost my marbles buying a very old house while I could have been living in a more prestigious estate; crazy, crazy stuff.
 
cashier said:
Did you read the OP's post:rolleyes:
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I did and just did again. It seems pretty vague. He says when house is sold he will have about 4K to his name. Then he says he may just leave country and forget debt...is this before or after house sale and even if after house sale does that mean he will still only have 4K to his name if he runs away from debt.

You seem to know a lot. Maybe you can enlighten me?
 
My reading of it is that he'll have about €4k after he sells house and will still have the €40k debt to deal with.
 
niceoneted said:
I can tell you for a fact now that one of the Big Boy Banks in this country sends letters from a firm of Solicitors who actually don't exist. By all intents and purposes the letter you get from said firm is very real and scares people for sure but it's another scare tactic to make people pay up and pay up quickly.


That is scandalous you should email Shane Ross about the likes of that.
Click to expand...

Scandalous indeed! They should use a full registered firm of solicitors - preferably one of the Top 10 - and insist on the borrower paying the full fees of the debt collection process. The banks are cheapskates trying to use inhouse firms. The borrowers don't mind paying these additional fees on top of their existing debts. The legal profession is really suffering. The banks should use external firms if only to help this struggling legal profession.

Come to think of it, the banks should abandon their credit control department altogether and hand all arrears over to solicitors. They would save a lot of money and it would help the legal profession.
 
Hi everyone. Firstly thank you for all the replies. Think I need to clarify here. I mean I am going to sell my home ok. I hope to have at least 4 maybe 5 grand left over. I am then sending this to my Australian bank account. I still have the debt to deal with. As for MR "I used to work in Credit Control" I am well aware of the lengths you people went to. Do you want to know something else. I left a 2007 van back to this Bank because I couldn't pay for it. Same van i bought in June 2007 with a loan from this bank. They approved the loan in 20 mins. So I leave van back at the end of 2008 and its a year and a half old. Guess what they do? Have their Finance Rep in my area pick it up. He then sells it for 5,000 euro and then announce to me I now owe them the balance which is about 19000 euro. If I had known that I could have tried to sell it private. I agree I was very naieve and extremely stupid but for god sake they are scum and I mean that people.
Why should this come back to haunt me? I have armed myself with knowledge and decided they dont care about me, I am just a number so therefore my attitude is I think I should screw them the way they have screwed me.
However as i pointed out in my first post. I am prepared to sit down and come to an agreement
 
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