Loan Arrears/CCR

If you don’t or can’t repay your loan per the original loan agreement this will affect your credit rating. From the 30th June 2017 we are legally required to submit information on our loans to the Central Credit Register (CCR) each month. The is owned and operated by the Central Bank of Ireland (see section on the Central Credit Register for more information). Arrears on your loan will affect your future ability to access credit with the credit union and all other financial institutions.

The credit union recommends that you make contact with us at the earliest possible stage to advise us of any changes in your circumstances or any temporary difficulties you might be experiencing. The credit union is flexible and is willing to work with you to help you through a difficult period. It is very important that you make contact with us to discuss your options and to keep us informed.

Our preference is to work closely with members in difficulty to resolve arrears. Where the credit union cannot make contact with a member whose loan is in arrears or where the member will not work with us to resolve the issue the credit union will use our resources to recover the funds lent.

We are always happy to hear that our members are getting back on their feet. Please feel free to call us to arrange an appointment to discuss your options. We can provide advice on the best way forward for you and repayment options. This may include restructuring the loan to reduce the weekly or monthly repayments to a level that you can afford.

The simplest way of clearing down the arrears on your loan is to pay a little bit more every week. If your agreed weekly repayment is €30 then pay €35 if you can. The arrears will reduce every week.

Yes absolutely. There is no reason why you can’t return to borrowing in the future if you can demonstrate that you have the ability to repay your loan. The first step you must take is to repair your credit rating with the credit union. You can do this by repaying your current loan, in full. In addition try to save a little to your shares each week or month. This will strengthen your position considerably when you apply for a loan again.

We generally will not give a top-up loan where you have not been paying your current loan as agreed. You will need to demonstrate to us that you can make an agreement and stick to it by bringing your current loan fully up-to-date and clearing all arrears and outstanding interest. The key is to make regular and consistent repayments inline with your credit agreement. We will assume that you can't afford a top-up if you can't make your current payments.

People do not understand what it means to write-off a loan. The credit union will write-off bad debt loans that we have been unable to collect. All this means is that we take this loan off our books and stop accounting for it. This does not mean that you no longer owe this money. This loan will remain on your credit record forever, until such time as you clear it in full or make a settlement agreement with the credit union. Even after the loan has been settled, it will remain on your credit record for five years after it has been fully repaid/settled. It would be in your best interest to set up a payment plan now to clear this.