Negotiating with Credit card co's

Morning all,

here is an update on what we have managed to date:

MBNA - 16.5k - dropped to 9k in full and final settlement.
Capital One - 6.5k - dropped to 3k in full and final settlement.

You have to get through to the right people (in both cases it was the Short Settlement dept.) and they are so friendly and nice!! A revelation compared with the front-line bully boys/girls that MBNA use.

RBS - 10k - they sold the debt to Moorcroft Debt Recovery. We had a repayment plan of £32.31 a month which we had been paying consistently. RBS would not speak to us, so still haggling with MDR, twice weekly phone call

Now then, before you all get excited.
All the cards were in my sole name. Both MBNA and Capital One accepted the figures (on negotiation) based on a mark to my credit file that it was partially settled and so as far as any credit searches are concerned I'm probably not a good risk, but because of the problems my file was already marked so no great loss there.

That's fine because after 4 years of juggling/stress/depression/deceit (head in sand syndrome) I can now breathe a lot easier and not worry about getting the phone before the wife, racing home to get the post before her and so on.
She's been brilliant, once she realised where the debt had come from (she hadn't realised that we were living waaaaay beyond our means) we sat down and worked a plan out using various tools (National Debt Helpline, fantastic people, here at MSE and other bits and bobs), we set out to clear the debts and control our outgoings.

Personally I'm not fussed about credit ratings - I'm not saying I'll never have another card/loan/whatever, but for now it's back to cash only, with the bank accounts used properly. If we haven't got the cash, then we can't have it.

So, in order to negotiate you need to have small round spherical objects, be sure of your position (ie. have the cash ready to go there and then to back up your brazen approach), and ultimately be prepared to hang up when they won't budge.
Don't bother trying to negotiate with the front-line folks, they don't have the authority although they may well tell you otherwise, their only concern is to get you back within your limit so you are no longer a risk to the card company - they are not interested in helping you manage the debt, that doesn't earn them anything.

Still, happy days and we can now get the windows done with the money that we've saved!

hapless.

Yes, plus some money from family.
We increased our mortgage, reduced the interest rate over 1.2% which reduced our mortgage payments by nearly £200.
I also just got another payrise (with a promotion) which means our usable income has increased nicely.
The plan (yeah I know...!) is to put away the extra money each month and over pay on the mortgage to cover the increase.
We'll see what happens and I'll keep you updated.