Full and final settlement help thread

glentoran99 · 19 February 2015 at 10:27AM

does no harm to include it, as long as you have it in writing that you will owe them or any related 3rd parties any money then your sorted

Woodypuddy · 25 February 2015 at 12:08AM

Hi all,

Just read through this thread after being referred from another thread. Also a regular viewer of the DMP support thread.

Having read through the posts I know a number of people are with Step change and are looking at f&f settlements and the advice seems to be to offer all the creditors a percentage of the funds available.

I have just passed my years anniversary on a DMP with step change and have another 12 years to go. I have 6 creditors - 2 with Barclaycard, 2 were with MBNA but now sold on (now Link), 1 with Tescos and 1 with New Day. The debts range from £1800 to £12,000. Total debt is 52k. All creditors reduced interest to 0%. None were pre 2007.
I am likely to receive a small bonus soon of around 4k and would ideally like to use if to try an F&F. This would definitely not be anywhere near enough to offer them all a percentage but may be enough to clear one.
My question is if I offer one a settlement and it is accepted, will the others then kick up a fuss (and potentially start charging interest again) even though it would mean that my payment to the others would increase through my DMP.
Another question I have is that should I look at Tesco and New Day 1st as I have 2 debts with BC and 2 with MBNA but unlikely to settle both accounts as the debts on these range from 8-12k. Ideally I would like to sort BC as they are marking my file as AP. Should I wait until I have enough to try and settle both my BC accounts through F&F?
Apologies for all the questions.
Thanks in advance.

The_Only_Girl · 25 February 2015 at 2:24AM

Hi,

I am a newby and this is my very first post.

My husband and I ran into some debts totalling to £41,880.25 and in 2009, after so many sleepless nights, we decided to take control of the debt problem and make some headway towards being debt-free. As of December 2014, the remaining debt was about £11,000. Unfortunately in June 2014 I had a fracture that resulted from an accident and fortunately in November 2014 I received some compensation from the insurance company and instead of splurging out on much needed holidays or house renovations (our house and garden are falling apart and are crying out for some repairs) we decided to ask Payplan if we could make full and final settlements offer to our creditors. Here is the breakdown of the creditors and the outstanding balances and our settlement offers, accepted or counter-offers made.

Halifax (overdraft and fees). Balance £337.35. Offered £206.07 Counter-offer made by Halifax and amount paid £254 (75%)
Halifax loan. Balance £1107.17. Offered £675.91. Counter-offer made by Halifax and amount paid. £831.00
HSBC managed loan balance £4566.77. Offer made and accepted. Paid £2787.88
Opus credit card. Balance £707.26. Offer made, accepted and paid £431.77
Tesco credit card. Balance £440.64. Offer made, accepted and paid £269.

We were chuffed to bits with the result as we didn't expect them to give a positive response at all. Apart from one remaining debt which is the Halifax credit card. Balance £3543.58. They refused to deal with Payplan as they said our account is not yet in collections or recovery. They asked us to put our request in writing, which we did, but unfortunately the response was a big fat NO.

Can anybody give us any advice? Should we just pay off the full remaining balance £3543.55 with whatever is left of the insurance payout money (current total £2000) or continue with the regular monthly DMP payments of £231 monthly until fully paid off or take a gamble and intentionally miss a payment or two until the account is in collection or recovery and then make another full and final offer (50-80%)?

Your advice and recommendation will be highly appreciated. We are one debt away from being debt-free so we want to make the best decision.

thewhiteavenger · 25 February 2015 at 6:17AM

Woodypuddy wrote: »

Hi all,

Just read through this thread after being referred from another thread. Also a regular viewer of the DMP support thread.

Having read through the posts I know a number of people are with Step change and are looking at f&f settlements and the advice seems to be to offer all the creditors a percentage of the funds available.

I have just passed my years anniversary on a DMP with step change and have another 12 years to go. I have 6 creditors - 2 with Barclaycard, 2 were with MBNA but now sold on (now Link), 1 with Tescos and 1 with New Day. The debts range from £1800 to £12,000. Total debt is 52k. All creditors reduced interest to 0%. None were pre 2007.
I am likely to receive a small bonus soon of around 4k and would ideally like to use if to try an F&F. This would definitely not be anywhere near enough to offer them all a percentage but may be enough to clear one.
My question is if I offer one a settlement and it is accepted, will the others then kick up a fuss (and potentially start charging interest again) even though it would mean that my payment to the others would increase through my DMP.
Another question I have is that should I look at Tesco and New Day 1st as I have 2 debts with BC and 2 with MBNA but unlikely to settle both accounts as the debts on these range from 8-12k. Ideally I would like to sort BC as they are marking my file as AP. Should I wait until I have enough to try and settle both my BC accounts through F&F?
Apologies for all the questions.
Thanks in advance.

You seem to have thought this through. AP markers are a pain, so if this is your strategy then you do want to be rid of Barclaycard. And companies holding 2 debts would expect them both to be settled.

Was there a reason why you did not go for an IVA? It would seem better than a 12-year dmp on 52k debt.

Or bankruptcy? You own property?

Woodypuddy · 25 February 2015 at 7:58AM

thewhiteavenger wrote: »

You seem to have thought this through. AP markers are a pain, so if this is your strategy then you do want to be rid of Barclaycard. And companies holding 2 debts would expect them both to be settled.

Was there a reason why you did not go for an IVA? It would seem better than a 12-year dmp on 52k debt.

Or bankruptcy? You own property?

Hi, we do own a property. The DMP is in my name only not my partners. We also have a fair bit of equity in the house and were also looking at selling, paying off a DMP and buying something in a slightly different area for cheaper - still doing lots of research on porting mortgage/new mortgage but it is likely we may struggle to do this. Still an option looking at but also looking at other ways of reducing the DMP.
Looks like I will probably need to try and save a bit more to offer a F&F on 2 x BC. Anyone had any experience on successful F&F with BC?

On_my_way · 25 February 2015 at 9:46AM

The_Only_Girl wrote: »

Hi,

I am a newby and this is my very first post.

My husband and I ran into some debts totalling to £41,880.25 and in 2009, after so many sleepless nights, we decided to take control of the debt problem and make some headway towards being debt-free. As of December 2014, the remaining debt was about £11,000. Unfortunately in June 2014 I had a fracture that resulted from an accident and fortunately in November 2014 I received some compensation from the insurance company and instead of splurging out on much needed holidays or house renovations (our house and garden are falling apart and are crying out for some repairs) we decided to ask Payplan if we could make full and final settlements offer to our creditors. Here is the breakdown of the creditors and the outstanding balances and our settlement offers, accepted or counter-offers made.

Halifax (overdraft and fees). Balance £337.35. Offered £206.07 Counter-offer made by Halifax and amount paid £254 (75%)
Halifax loan. Balance £1107.17. Offered £675.91. Counter-offer made by Halifax and amount paid. £831.00
HSBC managed loan balance £4566.77. Offer made and accepted. Paid £2787.88
Opus credit card. Balance £707.26. Offer made, accepted and paid £431.77
Tesco credit card. Balance £440.64. Offer made, accepted and paid £269.

We were chuffed to bits with the result as we didn't expect them to give a positive response at all. Apart from one remaining debt which is the Halifax credit card. Balance £3543.58. They refused to deal with Payplan as they said our account is not yet in collections or recovery. They asked us to put our request in writing, which we did, but unfortunately the response was a big fat NO.

Can anybody give us any advice? Should we just pay off the full remaining balance £3543.55 with whatever is left of the insurance payout money (current total £2000) or continue with the regular monthly DMP payments of £231 monthly until fully paid off or take a gamble and intentionally miss a payment or two until the account is in collection or recovery and then make another full and final offer (50-80%)?

Your advice and recommendation will be highly appreciated. We are one debt away from being debt-free so we want to make the best decision.

If you have an emergency fund that is separate from the money that you are using to pay off debt then I would say, yes, pay off the debt...become debt free and study these boards to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

It would be great for you to become debt free.

On_my_way · 25 February 2015 at 9:47AM

I would not go for a DMP or IVA if you can pay the rest off. Doing anything else will damage your chances of getting another mortgage so you are best off keeping your current property until these fall off your credit report.

The_Only_Girl · 25 February 2015 at 11:04AM

Thanks for your reply. I will follow your advice and work towards paying that remaining debt off. The sooner we can get Halifax off our back the better, I suppose. Here's wishing we can Be debt free before the end of 2015.

The_Only_Girl · 27 February 2015 at 3:14AM

The_Only_Girl wrote: »

Apart from one remaining debt which is the Halifax credit card. Balance £3543.58. They refused to deal with Payplan as they said our account is not yet in collections or recovery. They asked us to put our request in writing, which we did, but unfortunately the response was a big fat NO.

Hi me again,

I looked again at the letter sent by Halifax in response to our request for settlement, wherein they rejected our offer. I noticed that the letter came from the Halifax Collections Centre. I was a bit confused because as stated above, they refused to deal with Payplan regarding the settlement because our account is not yet in collections or recovery. That is also what the Halifax customer service said to us when we phoned, before we put our request in writing. What does this mean?

1. Were they telling a lie by saying our account was not in collection or recovery when in fact it was? Were they just trying to squeeze every last cent from us?

2. Could we write to them again and ask them what they would be prepared to accept? Yesterday, my husband and I paid £1000 towards the debt and Payplan forwarded £231 to the same account, leaving £2222.05 as the outstanding balance plus whatever interest they are going to add on to that. Is it a done thing? To renegotiate? Or shall we just accept defeat and aim to pay the rest of the amount off as quickly as we can. (BTW following the advice of On My Way, we have asked Payplan to close our account.)

More advice needed please.

teleop · 27 February 2015 at 2:33PM

Hi folks , I sent off offers to Cabot for F&F. Which they refused the most they would take off was 10%. These 3 accounts have been with them now for 3 years. So I asked them to send me CCA that was a week ago. Today I have had a letter saying that it will take them 40 days to do this. Anyone else had similar reply. I thought they only had 12 days to send it in. Thanks in advance .&#55357;&#56862;

Full and final settlement help thread

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