Aivars *
In autumn 2006, I started up my family life and we needed a roof over our heads. At the time I had a well-paid job as a car mechanic and I took a loan of LVL 17 000 with maturity of 25 years to buy a flat in Bauska. This January I lost my job and I did not know how to repay my loan. Therefore I went to the branch of Swedbank in Bauska and I talked to my loan officer.
Already after a week I got a solution for my case – my monthly payment was deferred for 5 months (until May) and I changed my loan currency from Latvian lats into euros because in that way my monthly payment significantly decreased. On my part I had to involve my wife as a guarantor thus demonstrating that I was interested in further co-operation with the bank.
Now I am actively looking for a new job, I go to job interviews and I hope that I will manage to solve the situation until May.

Daila *
I live in Kuldiga and I worked as a seller in the car business, but then there was a redundancy at the company and I lost my job. I was out of job for two months and therefore I experienced problems with repayment of my loans and I started to be overdue. I had a consumer loan, a credit line and a mortgage loan. I realised that I cannot handle my payments and I went to talk to my customer manager in Swedbank, branch Kuldiga. I must say that the bank was, in fact, very responsive – they granted me additional mortgage loan amount for discharge of my short-term loan obligations (my consumer loan and credit line), then they changed my euro loan interest from fixed to a floating one and I received a loan grace period of 3 months. In December I found a new job and now everything is sorted. I do not know whether I would have solved my problems in any other way, Swedbank helped me a lot.

Jolanta *
In Autumn 2008, we felt that economic crisis has a serious impact on our family as well. Our family owned a business - a small corner shop and I also provided translation and office management services. We had taken a mortgage loan of EUR 150 000 with maturity of 45 years to build our family house in Tukums. But then turnover at our shop plummeted and I realised that I would be no longer able to fork out money for a monthly payment for construction of house. Therefore I actively started to look for another job. I was very lucky to find a well-paid job already in December, however, during that months I could pay to the bank only a part of my monthly mortgage loan payment.
I went to Swedbank, branch Tukums and together with my customer manager we found a better solution: the bank was responsive and gave me an additional amount to repay the accrued debt. We also changed the interest rate from fixed into floating one, and thus decreased my monthly payment of EUR 700 by about EUR 100. In the following month I was already able to make my loan repayment in due time. To be honest with you, I do not know how we would have handled this case otherwise if I did not go to the bank and talk about a solution with the bank. I must say that it is very important to inform the bank if you have any financial difficulties because thus you demonstrate your wish to handle your loan obligations.
Therefore I would like to thank a lot Swedbank and I would also like to encourage other people who have encountered difficult times to go to the bank and to jointly seek solutions. Believe me, there is always a solution! Once again many thanks to Swedbank for its understanding and responsiveness!

* In order to protect the customers' right to privacy, all the names of the customers are fictitious.