Bank payment holiday is over – what can you do now if you still aren’t receiving a full salary?

The bank says your payment holiday is over and that there are no more extensions. But… Your income is NOT back to normal. Which means you cannot pay everything!!! What do you do now that the bank payment holiday is over?

The banks are not back to normal, yet

Firstly, the banks are not back to “normal”.  They have a lot of people working from home, bad and slow connections to the huge banking computer systems and the resultant authentication problems.  Add to that tens of thousands of extra queries and you have a recipe for mistakes and oversights.

Make sure your bank has heard you, before you make any decisions.  Make sure they have received your communication.  They might have replied, but you didn’t get it.  They might have asked for previous payslips vs current payslips, send those to them when you justify a further extension.

The banks in general are taking a tougher position right now.  If they are not ignoring you and also not accommodating you, then you need to do something.

You need someone who knows how to work with the bank’s head office to help you.

At RD Debt Counselling, we have a number of clients in this position who have applied for debt review.  The banks are talking to us, albeit rather slowly, but we are getting payment plans worked out, and many people are managing on a reduced income if they are paying out less on their debt.

Advantages of Debt Review in this situation

• You don’t have to catch up the arrears, these are worked into the repayment plan
• You get a fixed interest rate – we generally get greatly reduced interest rates
• Your monthly debt re-payment is reduced
• As your income returns to normal, you can increase your payment and finish your debt review in a shorter time.
• You are legally protected by a court order – if you pay your agreed, reduced amount every month, they cannot touch you.
• Because of the reduced payment, you get some financial breathing space until your income returns to normal.
• Once you have finished paying, your credit record returns to normal and you can replace cars and open new accounts (if you want to😊)

Disadvantages of debt review in this situation

• You need to pay off all your debt (except your home loan) before you can exit debt review
• If you agree to an amount that you can’t afford, and miss payments, then you are back where you started, and the banks can then take legal action.
• The court order payment is not a negotiable or variable amount, it is exceedingly difficult to change the court order monthly payment once granted.
• You cannot open any new accounts while in debt review

After carefully looking at the advantages and disadvantages of debt review, if you think debt counselling is the right option for you, then have a frank discussion with a registered, experienced debt counsellor.  Highlight all your fears, worries and ideas.

If you believe that the process and the person (Debt Counsellor) will work for you, then apply. Debt Counselling is a particularly good process for the right people. Contact us for a FREE debt review today.