credit card pay offs

bowenman

Hi,am new here so please excuse any mistakes. i owe around 13000 to two card companys.i am able to borrow some money from a family member to make a big pay off.Can anyone tell me if i make an offer to the card people annd they accept a one off payment for less than owed how this will affect my credit rating now and futher down the line.Am concerned that will have trouble remortgaging and with credit few years down the line.Any advice will be greatly appreciated.thanks

CLAPTON

Unless you have already defaulted on your payments (i.e. not paid at least the minimum amount for several months running) then there is virtually no chance they will accept less than the amount owed.. for obvious reasons.

Once you default the account then they may consider it... however the default will trash your credit record for 6 years.

bowenman

i have been late paying on one twice but not on other dont want to trash my rating as think it is relatively good .thanks for the advice

NickX

The Lenders tend to expect to see a clear pattern of the Debtor struggling to make payments before they consider a "Full and Final Settlement".

Basically if they get the impression that you may just stop paying or even go bankrupt, then they will tend to accept an amount lower than is actually owed because the tend to see this at least recovering a proportion of the debt.

Unfortunately the process of defaulting and paying less than the minimum required will not do your Credit Rating any favours.

bowenman

thanks for the advice think i will pay off as much as poss then try to put remainder on low interest card,just seem to have been paying off over 500 a month on just paying off interest charges and card people raise interest rate every so often just to make it harder