Customers In Financial Difficulty

INFORMATION FOR CUSTOMERS WHERE YOU ARE EXPERIENCING FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES, OR LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

This information is provided for the benefit of all customers (Consumer, SME, and Corporate)

Coronavirus COVID-19

We encourage customers impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak to get in touch with us. Our email address is info@firstcitizen.ie. 

Please Contact Us At The Earliest Opportunity

If you anticipate that you may have difficulty or are in difficulty with meeting the required repayments on your First Citizen Finance (“First Citizen”) Agreement, we ask that you contact us immediately. It is very important that you contact First Citizen at the earliest opportunity, so that we can identify the issues and work together to resolve them in a timely manner. In contacting us it will allow you to outline the problem, and allow First Citizen to advise what options may be available to you. 

First Citizen has a team of experienced staff, who are responsible for dealing with any customer that may or has encountered financial difficulties and they can be contacted directly by calling 01 – 8846700 (Selecting option 3 from the menu).

Consider Seeking Independent Advice

First Citizen recommends that you also consider seeking independent advice if you feel that you are not in a position to resolve your financial difficulties. Support may be available to you from the following agencies:

• Your professional advisors
• Money Advice & Budgeting Service ( see www.mabs.ie or phone 0761 072000)
• Insolvency Service of Ireland ( see www.isi.gov.ie or phone 0761 064200)

Consequences of Agreements Going Into Arrears

Should your account go into arrears, or is in arrears (arrears being defined as payments not being made to First Citizen in accordance with the terms of repayment between the customer and First Citizen) you may face some, or all, of the following consequences:

• Any arrears profile on the account will be reported to the Central Credit Register, and other credit reference agencies with which First Citizen report credit profiles. This report will include detail on the scale of arrears, and the status of accounts in arrears.
• First Citizen will also be less inclined to provide any further credit facilities to customers where previous Agreements have exhibited arrears, or are presently in arrears.
• Where a customer has more than one Agreement with First Citizen, other Agreements may also be impacted by the existence of arrears on any other Agreement.
• First Citizen will contact you by letter, telephone call, SMS, personal visit to you, or other form of contact as deemed appropriate by First Citizen. Such contact will be undertaken by First Citizen in order to seek to resolve any arrears that exist on the Agreement. This contact may also include contact with any Joint Hirers / Guarantors who have entered into the Agreement, at the discretion of First Citizen.
• This contact may be avoided / minimised where the customer contacts First Citizen and engages with First Citizen with a view to resolving the matter collaboratively.
• Default Fees and Charges may apply to the account and are set out below:

Failure to maintain your repayments may affect your ability to access to credit facilities in the future. 

These fees and charges may be minimised / avoided where you contact First Citizen and you seek to resolve the matter collaboratively.

First Citizen may seek to recover possession of any assets which have been financed by First Citizen, where the underlying Agreement is in arrears i.e. agreed contractual payments that have not been paid to First Citizen on their due date. This may entail repossession of these assets by First Citizen or its agents, or the imposition of restrictions on the usage of the assets.

First Citizen may, at its discretion, instigate legal proceedings, including (but not limited to) issuing instructions to First Citizen’s legal support providers, commencement of litigation proceedings aimed at enforcing First Citizen’s rights under the Agreements, seeking court orders, seeking repossession orders, pursuing bankruptcy proceedings, seeking judgments and judgment mortgages, or any other legal proceedings that First Citizen elect to apply. As before, such legal proceedings may be avoided / minimised where you contact First Citizen and engage with First Citizen with a view to resolving the matter collaboratively.

What We Can Do To Assist  

Please contact us at the earliest opportunity. At that stage, First Citizen will discuss the financial difficulties with you. Our staff are trained and experienced in discussing customer’s financial difficulties with them. There may be occasions where we can provide support in overcoming the problems – please call us to commence the process.  

Appeals Procedure  

In the event that you feel that First Citizen has not acted appropriately, or that you are not satisfied with the outcome of your contact with First Citizen, you may escalate the matter by contacting the Head of Compliance, at the contact address provided below.  

Contact Us  

Any queries / issues that you may have can be raised with us directly by contacting: 

Collections Manager, First Citizen Finance DAC, Bloom House, Gloucester Square, Dublin 1. Phone: 01 8846700.

First Citizen Finance DAC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.