Debts over £20,000 – What are my options?

Just because you have debts of £20,000 or more doesn’t necessarily mean that you have financial problems. For a start you may have a good income and sufficient disposable income to make the contractual payments on your loan agreements.

RTE television lately featured several Irish partners who were drowning with debt basically because of having taken out vast mortgage loans at the height of the building bubble from 2005 to 2008. There are certainly over 45,000 home mortgages now in arrears of three months or greater in Ireland. Around an additional 35,000 homeowners have renegotiated the repayment terms of their home loans through rescheduling of home loan payments, changing to interest only mortgage loans, prolonging the timeframe of their home finance loan or agreeing a payment holiday with their mortgage loan providers.

The big freeze is having a catastrophic effect on people and on their physical and financial health. A number of people have already died in the UK and Ireland after falling to the ground close to their homes. They were generally elderly people who were living alone. Further casualties are expected even as the thaw sets in. Hospitals are inundated with patients seeking treatment for broken bones following slips and falls.

Unless you are a hermit, the chances of avoiding Christmas debt completely are slim. Research shows that at least one in two adults in the UK will incur debt over the Christmas season and be faced with addressing these debts in January.

Believe it or not, in certain circumstances you can enter an Individual Voluntary Arrangement IVA), even if your disposable income is zero. In the current recession many people have lost their jobs and those lucky enough to secure a new job sometimes find that their new salary is substantially reduced from before.

A man who pays his bills on time is soon forgotten is a witticism attributed to Oscar Wilde who also claimed that it was only by not paying one’s bills that one could hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes. Unfortunately that is still true today and particularly for anyone who finds themselves insolvent.

Almost fifteen months have now passed since the Law Reform Commission (LRC) of Ireland published a consultation paper on personal debt in Ireland, in which it made many recommendations for urgent changes to insolvency law in Ireland to bring it into line with other EU countries.

When buying a vehicle it is important to understand the difference between finance provided via a HP agreement and an unsecured loan. There is an important difference.

How can I tell if I am solvent?

In these recessionary times, many of us encounter financial difficulties. We struggle along from month to month and wonder if we understand the extent of our difficulties. Should we be more worried than we are? Should we be less worried? Now, that would be nice. There are two tests which can help to determine if you are solvent or not.

Some of us lucky enough to have retained employment in these straitened times still feel under sustained financial pressure. If the truth be told, a lot of people whether employed or living on social welfare benefits or indeed on pensions are living hand to mouth. If next week’s or next month’s pay check did not materialise, we would be in trouble and unable to buy food or other necessities. An exaggeration, you think? Well, maybe in your case but I know a lot of people whose lifestyle and living circumstances are balanced on such a financial knife edge. What is the price of losing your balance?

The objective of bankruptcy law is to realize and distribute the bankrupt’s assets fairly amongst creditors. Protection of the debtor is very much a secondary objective.

Want some ideas on how to avoid the post Christmas blues when we have to deal with our Christmas spending or rather over spending?

Top tip is to plan for the festive season. This means listing what we want to do (and what we do not want or need to do). We make a simple list of ‘must do’ activities and decide on the maximum we are able and prepared to spend on each item. This is simply formulating a budget.

Credit card debt peaks at Christmas time for obvious reasons and January can be a painful time as we try to deal with our festive debt. Short of cutting up our credit cards, there is no sure way to fully control our spending. Nevertheless, a few practical steps taken now will minimize the pain.

The majority of residents of member states of the European Union (EU) are not aware of some unexpected features that European Union membership provides in connection with personal insolvency. These particular perks are grounded in the principle of the unbridled migration of labour which EU people enjoy throughout the European Union and are undoubtedly relevant for those who find themselves loaded down by individual liabilities and can be threatened with intensive bankruptcy proceedings in some member states of the European Union.

Whether you are in a relationship, are married or cohabiting, once you encounter financial difficulty, it may well be worth considering the options open to you as a couple in dealing with problems of personal debt.

If you live in the Republic of Ireland and if your income is not solely comprised of PAYE income, then you probably should be making tax returns and tax payments by the deadline date which is 31^st October 2010 (or 16^th November 2010, if you make your returns on line).

Disposable income is the amount of money left over after all essential household expenditure (not including payments towards unsecured debts) has been deducted from household income.

The government has recently published a new consumer White Paper with the rather lengthy title “A Better Deal for Consumers: Delivering Real Help Now and Change for the Future”.