The Orihuela Court of First Instance No 2 has cancelled a debt of more than 95,000 euros accumulated by a pensioner, largely due to the exorbitant interest on the credit cards he used to meet his living expenses.
This is one of the most publicised cases to be heard in the Province under the so-called Second Chance Law, which since 2015 has enabled private citizens to declare themselves bankrupt, in much the same way as companies, and receive what is known as a benefit of exoneration of the unsatisfied liability, that is to say, their debts are cancelled and they can start again with a clean financial bill of health.
Previously, in many cases, such individuals would be paying off their debts until the day they died.
In this case, the person affected is a resident of Orihuela, who in 2007 decided to contract a credit card, according to Antoni Galve, the legal director of Repara tu Deuda Abogados, the law firm that has handled the case.
As was usual at that time, the interest on the card was very high, 24%, which caused the amount of the loan to increase rapidly.
As if that were not enough, due to a series of circumstances, in 2012 the man began to receive a disability pension that barely reaches half the minimum recommended income, which reduced his ability to pay and worsened his financial situation.
To try to solve it, he ended up contracting the card to be able to make the payments of his previous outstanding credit, which raised the debt even more until the individual found himself unable to meet the debt that he was carrying and which, by then, already exceeded 95,000 euro. In addition, the man did not have any relevant assets with which to pay or reduce this amount.
It was in May of this year when he contacted Repara tu Deuda and began the procedures to take advantage of the so-called Second Chance Law, a legal opening break that more and more individuals are taking advantage of.
After verifying that all the requirements were met, the court has finally exonerated the man from the debt, which had reached the amount of 95,265 euros.
The use of the possibility offered by this law has triggered the number of bankruptcies. Thus, in the first nine months of the year, 717 applications have already been registered, of which more than 300 correspond to private citizens.
Antoni Galve says that in the coming months the figures will continue to rise, as a greater number of people become aware of the existence of this possibility of getting rid of their debts, a process that has also been simplified with this new bankruptcy law.
