Credit card problems

[Capealava]

I have a Thai friend who maxed out her credit card and now cannot make the complete monthly payment. I am wondering if anyone has knowledge or experience negotiating with Thai banks concerning lowering the payments and or interest rates so lower payments can be made so she will not go into default and ruin her credit. Is it possible in Thailand ??

[blackcab]

Moved to the Banking Forum.

[kralledr]

Better call thw bank, no one here can give ypu a 100% correct answer...

[donnacha]

1 hour ago, Capealava said:

I am wondering if anyone has knowledge or experience negotiating with Thai banks concerning lowering the payments and or interest rates so lower payments can be made so she will not go into default and ruin her credit. Is it possible in Thailand ??

I am pretty sure it is not possible in any country. Their business is based on the minority of people who mismanage their spending, those high interest rates are what fuels the credit card system. It would undermine the whole model to offer regular, lower-interest bank loans so that people can escape their high-interest agreements just when they were about to turn profitable.

The easiest form of "renegotiation" is to have your friend take out a regular loan at a different bank, but that is not easy without collateral and the rate will still be pretty high.

The following is not intended for you @Capealava - I presume you know the score here in Thailand - but for any newbies who may come across this thread when they are asked for "advice" on debts by Thai friends. What such friends are asking for is a loan from you - otherwise, they would never mention their problem and lose face. No Thai actually wants "advice" from a farang. Talk to any member here married to a Thai.

It should also be noted that, when a Thai friend asks you for a loan, that means a gift, regardless of what they promise before you cough up the cash. They are not necessarily being dishonest or trying to deceive you, but their perception of reality magically changes once the immediate problem has been resolved.

It does not matter if the person has "a good job", "rich family", and, of course, an excellent reason for this unfortunate, one-off situation etc. It does not matter how plausible and temporary the problem may seem. Only a small number of Thais understand how to manage their money (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Chinese). If someone comes to you with debt problems you already know which group they belong to. There is never going to be any credit record to protect, you are one in a long line of bail-outs and they will inevitability max out their credit card again within six months. That is simply the way it goes.

If you are in a relationship, you have to be tough as nails in refusing to bail out failed business ideas, especially the ones they get mixed up in without telling you. You have to let them hit the buffers on their own. If you cannot be that tough, the only way to avoid endless stress here is to let your loved ones presume you have far less money than you actually do, and let them "borrow" all the money they think you have. My wife has no idea that I am a billionaire.

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by donnacha

[poohy]

Tell her/ him ask bank if they will refinance onto loan Personal oe even better secured they will then get much cheaper interest rates

Oh card will have to be forfeited

[gk10002000]

51 minutes ago, donnacha said:

I am pretty sure it is not possible in any country. Their business is based on the minority of people who mismanage their spending, those high interest rates are what fuels the credit card system. It would undermine the whole model to offer regular, lower-interest bank loans so that people can escape their high-interest agreements just when they were about to turn profitable.

The easiest form of "renegotiation" is to have your friend take out a regular loan at a different bank, but that is not easy without collateral and the rate will still be pretty high.

The following is not intended for you @Capealava - I presume you know the score here in Thailand - but for any newbies who may come across this thread when they are asked for "advice" on debts by Thai friends. What such friends are asking for is a loan from you - otherwise, they would never mention their problem and lose face. No Thai actually wants "advice" from a farang. Talk to any member here married to a Thai.

It should also be noted that, when a Thai friend asks you for a loan, that means a gift, regardless of what they promise before you cough up the cash. They are not necessarily being dishonest or trying to deceive you, but their perception of reality magically changes once the immediate problem has been resolved.

It does not matter if the person has "a good job", "rich family", and, of course, an excellent reason for this unfortunate, one-off situation etc. It does not matter how plausible and temporary the problem may seem. Only a small number of Thais understand how to manage their money (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Chinese). If someone comes to you with debt problems you already know which group they belong to. There is never going to be any credit record to protect, you are one in a long line of bail-outs and they will inevitability max out their credit card again within six months. That is simply the way it goes.

If you are in a relationship, you have to be tough as nails in refusing to bail out failed business ideas, especially the ones they get mixed up in without telling you. You have to let them hit the buffers on their own. If you cannot be that tough, the only way to avoid endless stress here is to let your loved ones presume you have far less money than you actually do, and let them "borrow" all the money they think you have. My wife has no idea that I am a billionaire.

 

It is possible and quite common in the USA.   Much depends on what the history of the user is with the financial institution

[Henricus]

ruin her credit good idea !!!!!!!!

Anybody who maxed out her credit cards and cannot make the complete monthly payment,they can not have credit cards because they don`t have income to use the cards

[scorecard]

14 hours ago, poohy said:

Tell her/ him ask bank if they will refinance onto loan Personal oe even better secured they will then get much cheaper interest rates

Oh card will have to be forfeited

 

Credit card total non repayment / slow repayment is high / rampant in all countries. 

 

Banks in most countries will first aim to pressure the debtor to make complete monthly payments or settle the whole debt, but their secondary position is to take whatever payments they can get and follow it closely. 

 

This would usually also mean:

- No further use of the card either forever or until the debt is back within some acceptable boundaries. Could also mean ban on issue of further cards same bank or other banks because of adverse credit scores. And in some countries if the bank takes the debtor to court the court can / will issue a court order that the debtor is not allowed to hold a credit card forever or for a specified number of years or with a very small specified limit. And in some countries the judicial process mandates that there be an investigation of whether the bank has been derelict in issuing the card. This would usually mean that the debtor must pay but perhaps, by court order with extra time, and with a court order 'no further cards allowed', etc., and sometimes with the bank being charged and in some countries banks receive very severe punishment, including the bank transferring any payments received to a court nominated charity. 

 

- Interest continues to accrue on the O/S debt, occasionally (very rare) the bank will agree to stop interest accrual. This could also happen in some countries by a court order but again very rare, and in some countries interest accrual stops by law upon the death of the debtor.

 

- If there is a guarantor then of course the bank will go all out to force the guarantor to pay.

 

- In most counties all of the details are recorded on a database which in many countries is open to the public and getting the record scrubbed or changed is extremely difficult. In some countries if the debtor can establish a better credit score then this can reduce the severity of the earlier record. 

Edited September 18, 2019 by scorecard

[kingstonkid]

Yu can negotiate but you will not be able to do it with the bank that you go to.  No one there has the power.

 

Usually you can have the credit card cancelled and unusable.  Then they may be wiling to accept a payment plan but heaven helpyou if you miss it.

 

The banks would rather get their money than have another NPL.

 

That being said she needs to get professional help and do it properly.

 

 

[tomazbodner]

I know a few who got conned and were unable to pay the bills. American Express (not credit card, but charge card or whatever you call the one that requires full payment at the end of month) could be turned into monthly repayment scheme over a quite a long time, but obviously the card at that time was cancelled. They have also reported a default to credit bureau, which ended up with 5 year ban on applying any credit card or getting a loan.

 

VISA (unsure which bank) suspended card when minimum wasn't paid and was 2+ months over due date. They did call and tried to settle the bill over 2 months before terminating the card and declaring her default. Again, there was repayment scheme set up, where that bank automatically deducted the amount from her bank account. I think it was about 30% of her salary that was taken each month, and again, she was reported to credit bureau, which meant she lost other credit cards and was unable to apply for another one.

 

Both these were people I've come across in the past decade and heard this story. Both were Thai.

 

Not sure if this is of any use, and that could have changed since.

[Suradit69]

18 hours ago, donnacha said:

No Thai actually wants "advice" from a farang. Talk to any member here married to a Tha

But many farang love to hand out unsolicited advice because they know a few Thais and therefore understand all Thais. 

 

I've lent money to farang and Thais. Most paid it back. Farang are no more nor less reliable than Thais, you should know who you're lending to, not just his/her race or nationality. That would be no less true back in Farangland.

 

Also advised a Thai to go to the bank and explain why he fell behind on mortgage payment. He did and they worked something out amicably.

 

And had a Thai advance me baht 300,000 for an addition on a house before I moved. No paperwork. No interest. Just mutual trust.

 

Probably best for newbies (using that term implyies that the advice giver possesses great wisdom, a dubious assumption) who never asked for your advice, to avoid farang who are too eager to tell them what to do. Obviously the advice giver has made some mistakes and assumes everyone is equally naive as he was.

Edited September 18, 2019 by Suradit69

[Captain 776]

I think u should just pay it off for “your friend”.  Lolol

[thailand49]

She has a problem or as they say a disease.  I wonder who came up with the idea of trying to lower the payment? I'll take a wild guess?

The first thing is having a conversation as to how and why she end up maxing it out?  If she says " she has no problem don't know how or why "  When having the conversation she starts to get antsy and irritated time to run for the hills!  This won't be the first and won't be the last!

Edited September 18, 2019 by thailand49

[RJRS1301]

19 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

It is possible and quite common in the USA.   Much depends on what the history of the user is with the financial institution

Quite common in Australia and under some circumstances, the debt can be wiped, but it does affect credit rating.

 

[donnacha]

2 hours ago, Suradit69 said:

Probably best for newbies (using that term implyies that the advice giver possesses great wisdom, a dubious assumption) who never asked for your advice, to avoid farang who are too eager to tell them what to do.

I may not possess great wisdom but I can, at least, spell simple words ????

 

 

[MiNombreEsFicticious]

I was in a similar situation as the OP's friend, but I'm farang. I tried renegotiating the payment to around 5% of the monthly balance instead of 10% but the bank staff, probably because I could not speak Thai, were not interested in anything less than 10%.

 

Soon enough they secured a court judgment against me, after which we met and the bank proposed I pay 5% of the balance per month until the balance reached zero. I agreed, and about 2 months ago, I made the final payment... or so I thought.

 

After going to the branch and paying the last few thousand, during the next payment cycle, my statement showed a new charge: 56 satang for interest. I did an ATM transfer of 2 baht just to have a little cushion in my favor. 

 

 

 

 

[mrwebb8825]

On 9/17/2019 at 10:43 PM, donnacha said:

My wife has no idea that I am a billionaire.

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. ????