As part of ‘The Debt Panel’, The National published an article about a couple living in Dubai, who have used up all their earnings and taken on significant debt to support their family back home in the Philippines.
My husband and I are trying to get rid of our debts. It’s 10 years since we first came to Dubai and we have no savings at all. This is because for the past few years we have been helping our families in the Philippines with their finances. But now we are drowning in debt and we have our own family – two children aged seven and two – that depend on us too. I have three credit cards and two loans and together we owe Dh150,000. My husband works as a waiter for a hotel chain in Dubai and earns Dh2,500 per month, while I work as a sales assistant for a motorsports company and earn Dh5,500. We live in Al Quoz in Dubai. We are still able to pay the minimum payments on our debts, but we are spending too. It’s a cycle – we pay off debt and then we spend and build up more debt. I was helping my parents pay for my brother and sister’s college fee. Thank god they graduated last year. On my husband’s side, six times we have helped his family members come to Dubai to find a job. But only one secured work, the rest went back. In 2015, my husband resigned to settle our kids back home and the debt started to get bigger and bigger as there was only my income. Then he came back in 2016 to help me and we have been struggling ever since. The interest is killing us. We still send Dh2,000 home every month as well as an extra Dh2,000, which covers my daughter’s tuition fee for the year. Can you help us?
Here is what Ambareen Musa, one of the debt panelists and Founder & CEO of Souqalmal.com, had to say.
Earning a combined monthly income of Dh8,000 and owing Dh150,000 in debt, it is unlikely that you and your spouse will be able to qualify for a conventional debt consolidation loan. So the next option is to explore other ways to pay off your debts one-by-one.
First of all, you must cut your remittances back home. Restrict yourself to remitting the bare minimum until you’ve settled all your debts in Dubai…
For full article go to The National.
