SOME STRUGGLING CONSUMERS could potentially be facing significant losses after a popular home budgeting service ceased trading today.

Home Payments Ltd, which operated a budgeting and bill-paying service, said it was ceasing trading with immediate effect in order to secure the deposits of customers.

“Home Payments Ltd made investments in the property sector,” a statement posted on the company’s website this afternoon read.

“The decline in values in this sector has had a significant negative impact on the value othse investments. The company has been in discussions with its lenders to restructure its repayments.”

The company added that it was in discussions with its lenders to try and minimise its losses and to safeguard the funds already put in by customers.

Home Payments, which was based in Rathmines, offered a service which allowed consumers to make a weekly or monthly payment to the company, with the company paying household bills as they fell due.

It also offered a savings scheme for customers.

The National Consumer Agency has warned Home Payments customers to immediately cancel any direct debits they had set up with the company, warning that payments to the company could result in lost cash because the company is not yet in liquidation.

“This is an appalling situation for the consumers involved, where they paid money to a company so that they could manage their household budget,” NCA chief executive Ann Fitzgerald.

“This is a clear case of an industry that urgently requires regulation so that clients’ funds are legally required to be ring-fenced and therefore protected in cases where a company ceases trading.”