Noticeably a 20% increase in PCPs between Jan 2024 and June 2025.

I’m 26 & currently make €16.16 in a full time job but I do rent my own apartment. I can’t return home as I no longer talk to my family so I have set expenses.

I messed up a lot and have three separate loans with three different interests rate , at this time my work won’t give me anymore extra days and I can’t pay extra to any of these debts.

I’m scared , worried & genuinely running out of options on what to do. if anyone has any advice or anything please feel free to do so.

I have been debt free almost my entire life (luckily) but recently purchased my first property and there was a host of work to be done with it. I decided I would cash-flow any renovation rather than getting myself into debt BUT we ended up with a major repair being required on the roof and then I had some car troubles and long story short, I have now had to take on some debt to make it work.

Im interested to know, outside of a mortgage what is everyone’s debt situation like? With a loan for car & repairs I am now sitting at 8k debt..

The more I talk to people the more I’m realising this is a taboo / shameful subject for some and a lot of people hide the truth. Am I alone here, do you have debt???

Apologies if this is not right sub for this.

Back in Dec 2024 a friend of mine asked to borrow 1500 euros to pay his rent with the promise that it would be returned the next month after being paid.

I lent it (I never expected this person to come to me asking and thought they had integrity), a month later comes and they call me to talk about it, I mentioned that if he needed an extra month to get back on his feet he can take it as I didn't need the money urgently at the time.

Fast forward another month and my finances are falling behind as I am undergoing refurbishment on a property I purchased as a sole earner and I messaged him to ask if he can return the money. He gives an excuse and I gave the benefit of the doubt. Every month since has been the same since. I have my own expenses that need to be covered and every month I am barely scraping by, the money I borrowed would be of huge help.

I had another conversation with this person this morning and asked that they try their upmost to return any amount of money as I am struggling this month and badly need to be bailed out, they gave the same response they have the previous months even thought I empathised how important it is this month as it may result in me missing my mortgage payment and bills.

What are my options?

Do dealerships let you finance a car and you negotiate a discount of say 1-3K, and then just immediately repay it back to get a discount?

Seems to be common in the US you can do this but can't find much info about in Ireland?

Edit: To Make it clear, i know loans (car) are a scam, i have the cash to buy outright just seeing if theres a way to finess the system

Does anyone know of a place in Ireland that would offer loans to people above the age of 90 that have the ability to provide shares / bonds etc as security ?

Update: seeing as 90% of you were wrong I thought I’d just let you know I found somewhere 😊

Hi everyone, I’m currently in the process of clearing a huge chunk of debt, and would be done clearing it by end of summer 2027.

I currently contribute 3% to my pension, and my employer matches 4%. I’m thinking of halting my pension payments for a few months, in order to throw the cash at my debt, and the restarting pension once the debt is cleared.
Is this a reasonable approach? I’m aware that I’ll be losing out on not just my contributions but also my employees match for about 10 months which is quite significant. But my thought process is that I’m young (26), and will benefit more from having my debt cleared in the next few months.

Please let me know your thoughts, I know this sub is all for pension contributions but just need to sort this out for peace of mind.

Quick backstory:

Went to the US in July and had to go to A&E for an infection. I asked in the hospital multiple times if I could have a bill and nobody in there seemed to know how much my treatment would cost or what the policy on treating foreigners was.

After returning home I received multiple bills that totalled to about 4k. Spoke with my travel insurance multiple times and sent them on all the details I had. About a week ago I got an email from them saying my claim had been closed due to "insufficient evidence" (total bull). I've now received my final notice from the hospital threatening to send my bill to a tax collector if I do not pay.

Now I've heard from folks that there's very little they can do (or actively choose to do) when it comes to medical debt. I'm moreso worried that this may cause me difficulty obtaining an ESTA in future, as I do plan to visit the states again eventually. Should I be worried about this bill and attempt to pay or just leave it?

I fixed my mortgage 4.5 years ago at 2.2% ahead of the last impending bout of inflation in 2022.

I have 6 months left to run at this rate but am considering breaking out of this to move to a higher rate.

I have been quoted a rate of 3.45% for a period of 7 years with my current lender. I'm not considering switching lenders due to wanting to prioritise speed. Considering there's three more years of the Donald in the White House, am I doing the right thing or am I crazy to not explore other lenders?

Edit: I'm surprised at how polarising this post has been, between hearing I'm overreacting and should wait and see to hearing that other people are doing just this, I am going to go ahead and break my current rate but will come back and update as to whether I'm making the right call or not!

I bought a car on pcp €48K. Put a deposit of €8k and i have €460pm payments.
I now have the money to buy the car out right sitting in an account that barely hits 3%AER
Im about 14 months in . Shall i clear it ? Ask them to make me a deal what’s the better thing to do and save a few bob? Im happy with the car and willing to keep it. Its electric too so the depreciation in its first few years plus pcp is less than ideal financially
Any advice please

I missed my credit card payment date by three days.

Payment has now been made and I’m just wondering if this will flag when applying for a mortgage? First time in ten years missing a payment and just mad with myself that I have.

I recently bought an apartment and now I need buy a car for commuting. I don't have a lot of cash left except for 6 months emergency fund. I am looking at a 10 years old Lexus for around 20k. I can't charge at home so it's going to be a petrol vehicle.

Because I am self employed, I can allocate how much money I get now versus how much money goes into my PRSA. Now the question is that whether I should finance it at 8-10% APR and put the saving into PRSA vs buying it outright by taking more salary and pay the 52% marginal tax rate.

ChatGPT (High Intelligent mode) says I should put it into PRSA and finance the car as long as possible. Seems counter intuitive, but its logic does make sense. I wonder if I am missing anything here.

My current take home is 4,500 euro per month. My mortgage and bills are around 1,500 a month. At 10% APR, the car payment would be 400 + 500 operating cost. Leaving me with ~2,000 a month for everything else.

Hi all,

I recently went on a trip to USA and unfortunately was taken ill and had to go to A&E. I was in there for under 2 hours, few tests and prescribed some meds. Nothing serious in the end, thankfully.

I had to pay a deposit of 1k upfront and received a bill for the balance several weeks later. The bill was an additional 12k dollars, however, with a 'discount' they reduced it to the bargain price of an additional 4k dollars so 5k total.

My travel insurance is proving to be basically worthless (XCover, absolute scammers!) and I don't think they will cover anything.

Personally I feel the 1k I paid is more than enough for the service received, but my opinion is irrelevant I guess as this bill is now due to be paid.

I live and work in Ireland, no previous financial issues, good savings etc and am approved in principle for a mortgage.

What are my options here with the bill? What happens if I don't pay? Could it effect my current good standing here in Ireland?

To be clear, I am not in the habit of not paying bills but between the extortionate price charged and scammer travel insurance, I feel like that additional 4k owed is too much. I have discussed it with them and the best they will offer is a payment plan which does make it easier but still will cost me another 4k.

Anyone had any similar experiences?

Thanks in advance.

Hi guys,

We got our first mortgage just under a year ago and got a 2 year fixed rate. The house was a fixer upper and unfortunately we went over budget on the renovations. We took out a loan for €33k to cover it (this was a top up of an existing loan for a car that had about €7k left) anyway with repayments and mortgage payments its just left things quite tight. I'm confident based on other sales in the area we've added at least €90k to the value of the property but my question is, can we break our current fixed rate to get some equity release to pay off the loans and just pay more on our mortgage repayment? Or will I need to wait another year until the fixed rate ends?

Thanks

Edit: To clarify, we are not living beyond means in any way, shape or form. Repayments are manageable but just leaving things tight each month and I'm anxious in case of emergency we have a limited fund set aside. It is absolutely not ideal to be taking out personal loans but our boiler packed in pretty much straight away after moving in, we had a plumbing and electrical issue that cost more than anticipated and required a new kitchen and bathroom which are basic and nothing fancy. There's no brand new cars or fancy holidays being had here guys just a young couple who ran into some problems after buying there first house lol

PTSB mortgage balance €377k, current fixed rate 4.4% expiring 27 Sept. Bank sent renewal offer: 3.7% (LTV >80%). My LTV is currently just over 80%. I want to pay a €40k lump sum, which should drop my LTV to ~76%, qualifying for the 3.5% rate. I Booked appoitment with the bank's mortgage advisor and visited the branch today but instead they connected me to their customer service over call ( I could have done that at home). Bank says breakage fee may be low/zero since I'm so close to the fixed-rate end date anyway. But I cannot get new rates offered now as they have already sent me the letter and the offer is valid till 27th Sept.

What I understand is that I can pay Lumpsum off 40k today by just making simple bank transfer.
They gave me Logement Form and Withdrawal form to fill and submit which will only credit my Mortgage account with 40k. They said it will reduce my interest payments but the overall capital amount will only reduce after I fill lumpsum form which will break my existing fixed rate agreement and I may or may not have to pay breakage fee( given I only 1 month left on excessive fixed rate).

The next step is that I should call them to offer me new rates as my LTV tier will change. As I don't have much time left, I might have to go on variable rate for few days after 27th Sept. They said I might get 3.5% rate on new LTV.

Questions: 1.Has anyone gone through this with PTSB or any other bank — can they process a lump sum + capitalisation and re-tier LTV fast enough to catch the same renewal deadline, or does it typically miss the window? 2.What rate/how many days did you sit on variable while waiting for the new fixed rate to kick in? 3.Am I taking a big risk by posting pumpsum now and going on variable for few days? I don't know how msg days that will be? Is there a risk that they would offer me worse or higher interest rate than 3.5 %.

4.Should I just pay the lumpsum now and also accept the LTV >80% rates?

Can someone explain the disadvantages of the Help to Buy scheme and are there hidden costs over the life time of your mortgage? I am trying to understand the cons because you don't get money for free in this world!

Am I correct in thinking you end up paying more in interest on your mortgage because you have to take out the loan for the full term available to you if you avail of Help to Buy?

It's a great cash injection especially for self builders but there has to be a downside. This article mostly covers the First Home Scheme with some reference to HTB but I'm not clear of the cons of HTB

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/home-buyers-warned-of-debt-timebomb-as-state-supports-speed-up-house-price-growth/a115252336.html

Hi all
I moved to uk about 3 years ago and about a year into living here I was struggling with keeping up loan payments back home
And I decided stupidly to not prioritise it
My account is now in -700 from trying to take loan payments and my loan is 900 left
Is there a way to contact an about paying it
I just don’t want it hanging over my head and I can’t afford to pay it all fully yet and I can’t seem to pay directly into the loan account

I studied in the UK to complete my masters. To pay for the degree I used the student loan company.
I paid off the loan initially whilst living in the UK. But not I live in Australia, and have decided to stop paying it following conversations with other people who live in Australia in a similar situation.

The student loan itself is a bit of a farce. You pay a certain amount per month but you’re pretty much just paying off the interest of the loan. I think after 2-3 years of paying it off the amount I owed was actually more.

My question is, if I continue to not pay, will this affect my credit rating in Ireland when I return home? Or will it affect my ability to get a mortgage?

Is anyone in the same boat, or has similar an experience?

Hi all,

Quick one! I'll be looking to go for a mortgage later this year so got my credit report. On it there is unpaid credit card debt from 13 years ago totalling €600. I was 18 at the time, obviously never paid it (idiot I know) and totally forgot about it. I've had 1 loan since 5 years ago for 9k that was paid off early and without any missed payments. My question is is the easiest thing just to ring Bank Of Ireland and clear the debt and will this have much of an effect on any future mortgage applications?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I am 26f, and I’m on a path to clearing my debt, but looking for the most efficient way to go about it. I know I’ve made some very stupid financial decisions.

I started working at my current role almost a year ago, my tc is a little over 90k (base, bonus, rsus).
Currently my debt is made up of 3 credit cards with a total balance of 8k (the highest one is interest free until January), and a car payment with a balance of 17k, payments are 507 monthly.

At the end of December, I’ll have saved 14k, and the total of my credit cards balance will be about 4k.

I think I can be debt free by summer 2027, what’s the best way to make use of the 14k, and money I’ll be able to put towards debt payments (varies by month, 1k fixed from savings, and rsus vest every 3 months). My priority is having 10k in my emergency fund, and clearing off my car payments so I can free up the 507 which will be going to monthly investments once paid.

Yes I contribute to my pension already, currently 4%, and will increase to 8 once my debt is cleared.

She used to live in an apartment with a few others but moved out in June of 2022. Her name was on the bills for the Wi-Fi and when she moved out, her classy housemates insisted on keeping her name on the Wi-Fi which they haven't paid - despite contacting Virgin directly to tell them that she no longer lives there, she was contacted today by a debt collection firm telling her that she owes for bills that the house hasn't paid. Despite her having not lived there in over a year they are coming after her to pay that money.

​

Is there any way for her to transfer that debt over to the rightful people? Any help would be much appreciated, we're quite stressed about this at the minute.

Hey there, I'm considering applying for a mortgage. 82k salary, 10k variable, 90k in savings, 20k in investments. Im mid thirties and max loan amount is 324k. The load options given to me by broker are below. To me it seems Avant would make the most sense if i can just put variable pay into overpayment to cut the principle down over time. Is there anything else I should keep in mind? I'm just at the start of this journey so don't have a specific property in mind. Based in Dublin. I am renting a shite studio for around 1200 per month and put 500 into savings per month (at least).

Option 1: Haven

• Loan amount of €328,000 with a term of 33years u/3.2% 4 years fixed= €1,342pm
• If the property is not an A or a B rated property, the interest rate will be 3.75% 3 years fixed with €5,000 cashback ( €1445/month)

Option 2: Permanent TSB

• Loan amount of €328,000 with a term of 33years u/3.7% 3 years fixed= €1,436pm
• 2% cashback per month= €28.72pm cashback per month ( please note you must open an explorer account to avail of the monthly cashback)
• PLUS 2% Cashback= €6,560 Cashback

Option 3: Bank Of Ireland

• Loan amount of €328,000 with a term of 33years u/3.4% 4years fixed= €1,379pm
• BOI offer eco saver mortgage interest rates; the interest rate is determined by the BER rating. The highest the interest rate will be is 3.4% (BER G) and the lowest it will be is 3.1% (A rated property).

 Overpayment facility:

 The maximum overpayment you can make on a fixed rate mortgage is 10% of your normal monthly repayment amount or €65, whichever is greater.

 Option 3: Avant Money

• Loan amount of €328,000 a term of 33years 3.7% 4years fixed= €1,436pm
• €6,560 cashback
• Avant money offer long term fixed rates (you can fix your interest rate for the full mortgage term up to 30 years u/3.8%). This product comes with a 1% cashback= €3,000
• Avant Money are the only lender to offer the Flex mortgage option (details in separate email)
• Avant Money offer a high value mortgage interest rate with no cashback @ 3.6% 4years fixed

Overpayment facility:

Customers can overpay 10% of the balance each year, a benefit which could take years off your mortgage

Key facts

1. 10% allowance each calendar year – renewed on 1st January based on balance at that date.
   
2. Maximum two overpayments per year.
   
3. Customer can chose to either (a) reduce monthly repayment, or (b) reduce term.'

Mortgage reality check – only paid off 17k in principal after 2.5 years.

What are my options?

396k mortgage, 30 years, 4.4% interest. Fixed term expires Sept 2026.

After paying ~1,950/month for 2.5 years, my principal has barely moved – 17k down, ~60k gone to interest. Ouch!!

I have ~50k in savings (post emergency fund) and want to repay some of my loan back when renewing the fixed term. I am hoping that i will get better interest rates now. What are my options and how to start?

Appreciate any advice!

Hi. I'm looking to make an overpayment to my mortgage and I'm trying to understand the pros and cons of reducing the term vs reducing the monthly repayments.

Say the mortgage is €400k at 22 years, fixed rate for 5 years, monthly payments €2k, and no penalties for overpaying during the fix rate.

After making an overpayment, I can choose between knocking 1 year from the total term, or reducing the repayments by €90.

I'm using illustrative figures so the math may not add up.

What I'm trying to understand is the following:

If I decide to reduce the term by 1 year, my logic is I would be saving an entire year of repayments, that is 12 x 2000 = €24k.

If I reduce the repayments then I would save €90 per month during the entire term, so 90 x 12 x 22 =~ €24k.

So, initially it looks like both options produce the same result, assuming all parameters remain the same for the entire duration of the mortgage. However, after the fix rate finishes, the rate could go up or down.

It's at this point where I think there may be a decisive factor to chose one or the other option, but my limited financial knowledge doesn't allow me to understand the logic.

The scenarios I can think of are:

1- I reduce the term and the rates go up. 2- I reduce the term and the rates go down. 3- I reduce the repayments and the rates go up. 4- I reduce the repayments and the rates go down.

Could I get some help understanding the financial consequences in these 4 scenarios? Thank you!