Thanks for all your replies, I will keep plugging away with the effort and see where we get to

Having spent the day searching for more info have to say I have still drawn a blank. Still cant find anything reliable about how long a default lasts till being cleared from your credit. Looked into switching to interest only payments but at the moment what we are paying is mostly interest anyway so a savings of 20% wouldnt help enough to try for. Funny, its not that comforting to know we are in the same boat as so many other people lol

Hi, I came across your forum in my days of searching for hard facts on mortgage defaulting in the Republic of Ireland and really hope you can help us. We just moved to the States due to my husbands job transfer. We have a house in Ireland, a loan and a maxed out credit card. With all that plus rent over here and living expenses we are drowning. We have been talking to the bank, have requested a payment break (no word back yet) and have asked if we could sell at a loss and make payments on the balance remaining but were told that any remaining balance would have to be paid as a lump sum We do have a renter in place but even with that help toward the mortgage payments we just cant keep up. The exchange rate alone is killing us, never mind the regular payments. I am trying to find out the hard facts about what the consequences would be of our just handing the keys to the bank and saying "Here you go, its all yours!" Its an extreme step but my husbands health is starting to be affected by the stress of it all so something has to be sorted. Can any of you either tell me or point me in the direction to go to get the information I need? Thanks so much, Stars and Moon