Urgent advice appreciated

Megzly99

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
I've been contacted today by younger brother who is stressing out about a letter he has been sent from Enforcement of Judgements Office in Belfast regarding non-payments to an unsecured loan.
My brother is an electrician who works on short term contracts as and when he can get it. He, as well as most of the country, has been massively affected by the current recession and downturn in jobs. Unbeknown to me, he had stopped making payments towards the loan as he was struggling financially and was on/off benefits. He mistakenly never told our family and he "buried his head in the sand".
He has approached me looking for advice but i don't know much about this kind of scenario so I'm hoping someone on here will pass on their knowledge.
I have suggested that he contacts the bank and sets up a standing order to repay the debt. Do banks consider accepting less than the actual loan monthly repayment amount under these circumstances? He is going to propose £150 monthly at this stage.
Or should he go to the ejo meeting and offer this arrangement? But then of course he will be liable to pay the fees.
My brother is under tremendous pressure from this but wants to get the matter sorted.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

wannabedebtfreeby30

Hi Megzly99

I don't know anything about the EJO office but I do know your brother is not on his own! It would be an idea for him to sign up here, he would soon realise he is in good company. A few years ago my debts got to be too high for me to make all the required repayments (and still pay the bills) so I contacted CCCS. They are a charity (you will read a lot about them on here) and they can do the negotiating for you with creditors, after helping you set a budget and repayment plan which all goes through them (i.e. I make one payment a month to CCCS and they distribute to my creditors so I never deal with them directly). Your brother would need to make a comprehensive list of all his income and expenditure but they basically do the rest.

There are people far more qualified on here to advise. I only joined today! But I hope you find the answers you are looking for.

xx

McKneff

wannabedebtfreeby30 wrote: »

Hi Megzly99

I don't know anything about the EJO office but I do know your brother is not on his own! It would be an idea for him to sign up here, he would soon realise he is in good company. A few years ago my debts got to be too high for me to make all the required repayments (and still pay the bills) so I contacted CCCS. They are a charity (you will read a lot about them on here) and they can do the negotiating for you with creditors, after helping you set a budget and repayment plan which all goes through them (i.e. I make one payment a month to CCCS and they distribute to my creditors so I never deal with them directly). Your brother would need to make a comprehensive list of all his income and expenditure but they basically do the rest.

There are people far more qualified on here to advise. I only joined today! But I hope you find the answers you are looking for.

xx

Excellent advice and welcome to the boards both of you.

Get your brother on here too so it all comes from the horses mouth so to speak.

Megzly99

Thanks for your replies. I'm afraid I've been called in as his rep as he's so nervous about all this.

Tixy

You need to get some specific advice that relates to Northern Ireland - as this is a bit different from England & Wales and Scotland.

I would imagine if its at the judgement stage it won't be a case of just negotiating with the bank.

I'd recommend contacting a debt advice charity thats deals with NI

Northern Irish residents



Two free, confidential and independent schemes in Northern Ireland are: advice4debtNI, a government funded service offering phone and email advice and AdviceNI, local centers that offer face to face advice and the ability to chat online to an advisor via its 'beattherecession' scheme.

• Link: advice4debtNI
• Link: AdviceNI
• Tel: 0800 917 4607
• Tel: 028 9064 5919
• Opening times: M-F 9am-5pm
• Online: beattherecession

He will need to sit down and do a realistic budget / income & expenditure paying for his essentials and priority debts first and then work out what money he will have available to pay towards this and any other unsecured debts he has.
Ifif he can start to pull this together it should help the charity he approaches to advise him best.