Making an offer

tommytynan123 · 27 March 2017 at 11:17PM

Helping out a family member. She has a Vanquis card with balance of £1400. When the card was taken out 4 years back she paid the ''repayment option plan'' fee and when her life fell apart she activated it and for 2 years Vanquis froze the account. 2 years is the max. She has worked hard to become self-employed and is doing OK but not yet flush with cash. Vanquis have now recommenced interest charges and are also still taking the fee for ''repayment option''. She has very little spare cash and can afford about £30 a month initially. They are getting heavy!!
My advice to her is to:
1. Ask them to stop adding interest for 6 months initially
2. Stop paying the ''repayment option''
3. Offer the £30 a month for 6 months then to be reviewed.

What is their likely response?
Thanks

jonesMUFCforever · 27 March 2017 at 11:53PM

Has she repaid anything in last 2 years?

Does she want any new credit at all in next 6 years?

tommytynan123 · 28 March 2017 at 2:04AM

No - for 2 years Vanquis followed the plan and a/c was frozen with no payments. She is resigned to having a poor credit rating for years based on this and other past ''problems'' but she does want to pay it off in an honest way but at present is limited with cash. I've considered saying to her to tell Vanquis that she can pay a lump now (£150 - which I'll give her) and also £30 a month initially for 6 months. I feel the interest freeze is important, if possible, to make some decent headway into the total. (Over 6 months that would be £330 with my £150). Think that's a feasible offer? Thanks

meer53 · 28 March 2017 at 8:24AM

Only Vanquis can answer her question. I would say they won't accept it, she's had 2 years to sort out her finances, all she can do is call them to ask.

GotToChange · 28 March 2017 at 9:57AM

I have done similar (unfortunately.....). The account has been frozen with a balance of £1070 and the repayment option utilised. They will not reactivate it unless the reason for such a request is different from the original one two years ago. I made one payment "by accident" which was deducted from the balance. So, it is now thawing out.

I did think to ask if they would accept settlement and they told me they could reduce by 15% to pay in full, so £909.
I am at the moment trying to pull this together - have £750, which I planned to use to reduce the balance significantly and then continue paying on the reduced balance - but it is so tempting to want to clear it. Not sure how this would affect credit rating - as they do kindly not note the freezing on a credit report, just the balance. Also, I did recently note that having this card* actually adds to the plusses on a credit report (well, ClearScoredotcom), as there is quite a high limit, even though I have not (could not have) used it for the last two years and wouldn't want to and the card has expired anyway.

*I last week applied for a 0% balance transfer card and surprisingly got it - but the limit is stupidly low (understandably) and if I pay off Vanquis (big payment, remainder as balance transfer), that's what I would be left with (again, more for the credit report than using it....).

Sorry for ramble - give them a call, there might be room for negotiation.....

jonesMUFCforever · 28 March 2017 at 6:15PM

I would be asking one of the free debt charities to help draw up a budget to identify an amount she could comfortably pay back on a monthly basis.

Tommy - lending her money to make an offer would not help her long term unless you write it off - let's be honest does she have any incentive to pay you back at all?

AlexBarret · 28 March 2017 at 7:59PM

I think, the second varient is the best.)

Making an offer

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free