Stipulations for Debt Forgiveness, it would seem, are that one must be of the hierarchy and one must have borrowed in the six figure bracket from the banks. While Debt Harassment is that which is applied to the lower caste who have borrowed nowhere near to six figures. As my cousin Mary was to find out when she decided to guarante a loan for her children to start a business. Now my cuz is a retiree eh, and on a very meager pension at that eh, so it was no large loan.
Three years later, my beloved cuz is advising "leave the bank people with their five hundred million dollars which no one wants to borrow in current times. Perish the thought that you should help them out by taking a loan and then for reasons beyond your control you are unable to pay it back, and hope for debt forgiveness." One wonders how society's hierarchy get away with it while the lesser mortals, like my relative, has been driven nearly to the point of insanity, hypertension, reflux and all ailments related to applied pressure on the nervous system through the bank's relentless harassment. But debt unforgiveness can be the great equaliser as cuz suddenly realised that not every individual who cannot repay the bank is a scamp or scoundrel, It could happen to the most upstanding individuals in society but it is just that those at the lower end of the totem pole do not enjoy the gracious and kid glove handling of the banks' officers.
Instead it is relentless harassment, such as, continuous phone calls to go over exactly what has been discussed in every form and fashion, and you have not in the meantime won the lottery; debt collectors on the doorstep at 6 a.m. public holiday et al telling you that they are just enquiring as instructed by our big shot bankers although you may have already received in your hands from law clerks, realms of papers on which writs only understood by those in the legal profession are printed; veiled threats "we will have to resort to other measures" in spite of the fact that volumes of legal documents have already been stamped and filed in the courts; and masked publicity such as whereabouts unknown appearing in the daily news and the bank knows exactly where and through whom to find the individual.
You suddenly find yourself siddling into the bank as the loan officer seems to be waiting to pounce with enquiries as to the status of the loan, in loudest tones, no matter how many customers are standing around, until you decide to move your account to more comfortable surroundings. Yes, that is the extent to which our banks with their upscale marketing skills which lure the unsuspecting into coming in for their great low-interest loans, will descend if you owe them and find yourself unable to cough up the money in quick time. Neither is there one iota of helpful advice on how to salvage the fast failing business.
While one is not denying having borrowed the bank people's money, like in cousin Mary's children's instance, to start a viable business for which a proper feasibility study was carried out, but unfortunately, the business never got off the ground because an unknown rival started at exactly the same time, the bank itself lapsed and never asked for, nor registered, securities and did not take a lien on the stock. All that the bank was holding were personal guarantees.
Being upstanding, decent and honest citizens, those who had borrowed and guaranteed, offered the stock to the bank at the end of relentless harassment by the bank's staff, and the bank's filing of many writs. Cousin Mary, as guarantor, was erroneously sued for 200% more than her signed guarantee. When pointed out to the bank, with never a hint of an apology for the many months it stayed in effect even after it was drawn to the bank's attention, the bank's lawyers just forwarded a new writ for the correct amount, no formal withdrawal of the first incorrect writ, nor apology for the turmoil my 60 plus old cuz had undergone.
You sell the stock was the bank's answer to the problem. Part of the sales plus the second guarantor's payment amounted to about two- thirds repayment of the actual, original loan.
Banks which have been shown in the newspapers as having five hundred million dollars which they cannot lend, banks which could not accept a clean twenty million deposit from a customer, are hounding down little people whose businesses failed through no fault of their own, from whom the bank itself failed to get proper security, who have at every step of the way kept the bank honestly informed, and above all when compared with those who might have received debt forgiveness, have repaid the majority percentage of the loan.
On the other hand, one must appreciate that it is the bank's perogative to sue, at which time any of its phalanx of highly paid lawyers will get a Judgment in the High Court which will be entered against those who have neither house, money, nor goods to be seized, and not even a plea to be entered as they have neither the money for lawyers nor reason for a plea. But come Judgement Day at least there will be no further harassment from the bank's staffers which prevents my cousin from the simple day-to-day enjoyment of life.