Repayment of bank loans

I took out a loan from the bank some time ago. I have had difficulty making the full monthly payment and I have been making small payments when I can. Now I have received telephone calls from a solicitor’s firm seeking immediate repayment of the debt. I find these calls distressing and threatening. Can they do this?

Answer

Your bank (or its representatives) is entitled to ask you to pay your debts but is not entitled to harass or intimidate you. There are specific rules for debt collection (under the Consumer Credit Act 1995 and the European Communities (Consumer Credit Agreements) Regulations 2010 (SI 281/2010)). For example, your lender or their representatives are only allowed to visit or telephone you at certain times. These restrictions are designed to protect your privacy as a consumer.

Your lender cannot phone you or visit you in connection with your loan without your consent after 9 pm in the evening and before 9 am on weekdays (including Saturday) or at any time on a Sunday or public holiday. A lender is not permitted to call you or to visit you at your place of work unless you are also living there, or unless all reasonable efforts to contact you elsewhere have failed. Only the person involved in the loan can be contacted in connection with it. This means that your lender cannot contact your employer or a member of your family in relation to your loan.

Under Section 11 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 it is an offence to demand payment of a debt in a way designed to alarm, distress or humiliate.

If you are experiencing difficulty in paying off a loan, you should contact your lender as soon as you can. If you cannot resolve the matter directly with your lender, you can get help by contacting the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, a free and confidential service for people in Ireland with debt or money management problems.

Details of your local MABS office are also available in your public telephone directory or from Citizens Information Centres.

Further information is available from the Citizens Information Centre below.