Also, if I was to stop paying back my debts now, and were the banks to sell my debt to debt collectors before the Bill comes into force, where would that leave me re. the Bill?
Even if your debts are passed onto a debt collector, you will still have no problems re the bill. Debt collection companies are sometimes more approachable than your creditor. Always be realistic with what you can afford to pay back.
What kind of agreements can you make with the banks? I've asked them before and they wouldn't accept a lower monthly repayment even, they just said they would give me one month's break from paying. I was hoping to go it along without Mabs and I was hoping to pay it all back but they have made it as hard as possible.
Sorry to ask again but were the banks to sell my debt on before the Bill is actually passed, where would that leave me? I'm worried I wouldn't be covered by the Bill or would the debt collectors be considered as a creditor in the same way the banks would be, etc.?
They should have set up a system long ago whereby a person was allowed to consolidate their debts into one loan and given reasonable time to pay it back at a reasonable repayment amount. As part of that agreement they could have cut that person off from making new applications for credit. It would have been a terrific solution. They would have maximized their return and distributed the monies to the banks concerned.
If you go down the debt management route, there are quite a few debt management experts on this forum, Steve Thatcher and Frostie etc, you should drop either of them a line.
With debt management they can consolidate your debt repayments into one monthly repayment.
The OP has debt of 10K. Steve Thatcher is a UK based bankruptcy expert, and I think Frostie is an Irish based debt management company. Both of these need income and someone with 10K debt wouldn't seem to me to be someone who can afford that.
In any case when one has a free service with Mabs why would one pay more.