The distress of debtors report in El Pais - "Morally we are sunk, it costs us to relate, we have no mood for anything," says Alba
I share another story published by the English daily
reflecting the country the anguish of a family debt-ridden banks. History seems to similar to many we know in Mexico.
"I feel that I have in front of the sign 'I am delinquent"
Most people living with distress debt situation and harassment of business recovery. Harassment to seek information and share experiences in online forums. Some denounce the abuses it detects.
a stroke, the Sanz family income is halved: From an average of 2,600 euros per month to 1,400. From one day to another. No mercy. Insufficient to meet mortgage of 1,200 euros and shares of two loans from 10,000 to 40,000 euros. Like thousands of families, Sanz (who will not give his real name) found themselves in an impasse.
"I never imagined reaching day 5 to 20 euros in the wallet," says Alba (not her real name), the distraught mother of the Sanz family with two young children. "I so far I had spent caring for my children, but seeing how income fell from my husband I began to look for work like crazy, but it just makes me feel more useless, because I get nothing. I remember from when we were offered the loan in which we could get the car and furniture and everything would be wonderful. We thought it was excessive, but the bank did not stop to convince. In addition, we took two Gold Visa Card "if we had any trouble." "Now the smiling faces of the bank have become very serious," he continues Alba. "Morally we are sunk, it costs us to relate, we have no mood for anything. A Mom's cole my sons works in a bank and since I'm in a list of defaulters I can not talk to her like, I keep thinking it knows the mess that we are engaged in, and I feel the same with my neighbors ... I feel as if he carried in his forehead the sign: 'I'm delinquent. "
And the phone rang When the problems started, phones Alba and her husband began to ring: "We call without stopping to pay. We told them the situation where we are, but are deaf.
I speak with no education. That if you do not want to pay, if you committed ... Nobody realizes that say we are in crisis? Can not you see my defaults are the result of the situation of a country?
Every day four or five times call to say the same, which You create a tension and a massive impotence. They call at 7 am and 12 pm, as if you were a rag or a criminal. They called my parents, my husband told him that would be presented in company. A neighbor told him he had something urgent to say to me and gave a phone to me, a way of saying 'We're here, we know where you live. "
One day, Alba and her husband received from the court a notice informing them of the embargo your car and your floor.
The list of her husband and has a lien of $ 500 from an entity that once lent them , was he a possible second arrest? ". You feel very sick and alone, "says Alba, who distressed and disoriented, he sought information on the Internet and presented their problem in a debtors' forum.
Internet has become a haven where debtors seek answers to the problems they lose sleep. Alba is usual
one of the most popular forums delinquent, which belongs to the collective web of Crisis, which promotes the economic slowdown and counts among its members and founders of the activist Enric Duran
. This Catalan than 35 years in 2009 starred in a "anti-scam" won 492,000 euros from 68 credits (39 banks). Its aim was "to denounce the banking system and demonstrate its vulnerability." With the money, never returned (
spent several weeks in jail) , this Robin Hood of banking (and nicknamed him) paid
printing 350,000 copies of a publication explaining their experience: "It shows how the banking promotes indebtedness from families above any control and any measure of risk prevention and common sense", in the words of Duran, who is currently anti-delivered to the cooperative to which he belongs. He says he sometimes still call him to pay, but also to provide credit.
"On Monday I stop paying, but I have fear" Among the questions that come to this forum, one finds sleepless nights as the following: "On Monday I stop paying the mortgage, but I have fear .... can he the bank put me in jail if I pay even knowing I'm on the dole? "." Can it be considered a crime to be contested to list of defaulters for a national police? I have 21 years and I'm really overwhelmed. "I have debts in Spain. Can I garnish my payroll in Argentina? I'm desperate. "
These questions usually get advice from other users who either already gone through the bad shot, or are better informed and need an outlet. If the embargo is inevitable, they also provide advice to" minimize the damage. "
Laselai is the nickname of one of the most active women in this forum, which she discovered when she began having debts: "My parents look after sick and had to quit my job and move out of town, I had to stop paying, "he explains. Every afternoon, Laselai check time at the computer:" People write desperate, like the first time that I did, he had just received a summons from the court. I try to reassure them, but telling it like it is. And the first thing I say is that no duty is a criminal for some money. "Alba
explain in writing what she has found solace in this forum:" For me it's an outlet, a place where we laugh at those who do not stop call us by phone, and a place to find information from around the world of foreclosures and try to understand what the judge tells me in those roles tacos, because I can not afford a lawyer. Also has helped me establish payment priorities: first, to live with dignity (ie, light, water and food) and that, because as you can. "
Once informed of the complications of their new situation, many debtors , which disagrees with the amount asked for, with the methods used by companies of recovery or how they were located, are encouraged to claim.
The OCU have detected an increase in the number of queries on the lists of defaulters (1,700 last year) and
in the English Agency for Data Protection has doubled complaints related to debt collection.
commissions delays
Another portal fairly active forum is
antiwear, created a year and half ago by an economist, two officers and a teacher. This forum, which receives about 15,000 unique visitors monthly, has specialized in reporting on commissions and financial institutions usually charge when the customer defaults in payment of a fee. In addition, detailed what steps to follow to recover if they have not been applied correctly. "Many people charged by the strike action on 10, but the mortgage they spend on day 1 or 5," says
Ocnur user (who prefers not to give his real name), one of the creators of the forum. "In those days overdue, banks charge a monthly fee of about 30 euros. Sometimes called Commission receipt claim up, other Commission or commission fee for claiming unpaid debt. Are legal, but often are being incorrectly applied by banks, which, under the rules of the Bank of Spain, before charges must inform the holder of a reliable way. "
The Bank of Spain lays down requirements for collect these fees, whose purpose, according to its own criteria, "is the recovery of costs to be borne by the entity as a result of the efforts necessary for recovery of those stocks or shares." To apply it, "must be expressly stated in the contract for operation "and the state" must show that the accrual of the commission is linked to the actual existence of the claim made representations to the client debtor. "In addition, the organization warns that the automatic application of the commission" would not be a good practice bank. "If these criteria are not met, users have 15 years to claim a refund (in some cases, compensation)." A lot of people that are having an awful time to reach end of the month I had no idea bit of this and achieve recovery is a lot to them, "he continues Ocnur." Sometimes it even helps them catch up on outstanding payments. "
cases of Benjamin and Bob Thus it has been Benjamin and Bob, two users of this forum (do not want to give his full name). Benjamin was in trouble after endorsing several claims of his parents, who in 2006 opened a business. "When they stopped to pay their creditors turned against me. And as far as my salary da da, so pay the mortgage one month, next month pay point of the car and was throwing well until I could not help. Was or repay loans or eating. I stopped paying and the calls became more insistent, "continued Benjamin. "When we started looking at work, I reacted, I read and I found the forum antiwear, where I learned that there was a possibility that the bank will need to return the commissions they had been charging me for the time I was forced to defer payment of the mortgage to repay the loan from my parents. I put the claims for and managed to give me back 2,000 euros that finally allowed me to put up with the mortgage. And I have four more complaints admissible.
In Bob's case the problems were triggered when he was fired from the factory where he had been working. "From that point we started to pay the mortgage with my wife's salary But as she comes later, instead of day 1 we paid on 4 or 5. The bank we are charged fees for this delay time, and we got into a spiral: we managed to never catch up with payments, do not get up head. One day they sent someone to work from my wife and exploded. I looked for guidance on the internet and found the question of fees. I managed to give me back 1,500 euros.
The forum takes each month the amount of money its members manage to return to them.
in March have recovered more than 20,000 euros . From the Bank of Spain does not have the disaggregated data, but report that in the past two years have seen a "significant increase" in this type of claim.
