Matthew finally found his dream job as apprentice car mechanic two years ago.
Matthew worked around 15 minutes away from home, his boss was great and he worked with a great bunch of guys. As an apprentice his wages were pretty crummy but he really loved the work and this more than made up for the low wages he was earning.
Despite this, Matthew couldn’t help but notice there was always a little bit of tension in the workplace. His boss would come in some days cranky for no apparent reason but Matthew did his best to ignore this and just get on with the job.
For two years Matthew had been saving and saving to buy a car, a 2007 Holden Commodore VZ Executive.
Saving was difficult for Matt because of his low wages and there was always some new bill that had to be paid or his rent fell behind and had to be caught up or it was somebody’s birthday. Matthew felt he had waited long enough so impulsively he went and got a loan.
Matthew is the first to admit that he wasn’t really good at reading contracts so when he applied for the loan he pretty much a signed on the dotted line without reading or understanding exactly what he was up for. As it turns out Matthew committed to pay a lot more than what he anticipated, and if things were tight before they were tighter now financially.
Matthew approached his boss for a pay rise but his boss had some bad news, things at the shop weren’t going quite as well as he was led to believe and Matt’s boss found himself in a position where he had to lay off staff.
Matthew earth came crashing down as he came to the realisation that he was now unemployed with a big, expensive loan to pay.
Matthew called his finance company but unfortunately for Matthew the finance company was only interested in how much Matt could afford and when he can afford to pay it. Matthew had a bit of a temper, so when he was spoken to in this way Matt lost his cool.
Matt then stopped opening the letters from the finance company and whenever they called he rejected the phone call. Sometimes Matthew would receive around five calls a day, at all times of the day from unknown numbers. Matthew was unemployed for around four months before he found something new. The job wasn’t as good as this last one but at least he found work in the industry that he loved.
Despite this, his car loan had gotten out of control. Matthew buried his head in the sand and figured that the situation would sort itself out. Eventually, the phone calls stopped and Matthew hoped that the finance company had forgotten about him.
Unfortunately for Matthew this was not the case and as it turned out, the finance company had sold the debt to a debt collector. The debt collector called him and said to him that if he didn’t pay the arrears by Friday they would send somebody around to pick up the car.
What could Matthew do?
He contacted Debt Fix. Debt Fix contacted the debt collector and explained Matthew’s situation. At first the debt collector didn’t want to listen and said that he had heard it all before. Debt Fix was able to convince the debt collector that it was more commercial than Matthew to continue to pay the loan rather than they repossess the car. After much discussion, the debt collector realised that this was indeed the case. Debt Fix then organised and affordable repayment plan with the debt collector and Matthew was able to keep his car.
Tips
- Read the contract and understand what the debt will cost
- If the debt gets out of control or if your circumstances change, speak to your credit provider
- Don’t ignore the situation and hope that it will go away — it wont
- Call an expert for help and advice before it’s too late
