Money off settling CC balances

mav0800

Hi
i am currently in the process of claiming my CC charges back and i am also wanting to settle the debt that i owe. i have made a huge and costly mistake of paying £100 a month on my balance of over £4300. They are making over £70 a month on interest and they have been unwilling to settle the debt at a discounted rate. i offer £3000 then offered £3500 to settle the debt outright. Still no movement on their part! Does anyone have any tips on how o get them to drop the balance??? I really need your help!

nomoneytoday

You could pay off your debt like normal people do.

Paul_Herring

Assuming that you get your charges back (and use them to offset the credit card debt) - why can't you just repay what you owe on the card?

I'm assuming that what's left will be all your spending + agreed interest - why should the CC company reduce what they'll accept?

normanmark

Why not settle the full amount?

riad_2

It is absolutely unheard of that the bank would "settle" the debt by taking less than the balance! You don't "settle" a credit card debt per se as it's not a one off loan, it's an ongoing credit facility where u can borrow, pay back, re borrow... etc.

Hence if you say u offered £3500 for the £4300 debt... they would just say, okay, pay up and your liability will be reduced to £800... this will be shown on your next statement, thank you! I'm serious!

The only time I've ever heard of a debt being settled for less than the balance is with regard to debt collection agencies... where they will have purchased the debt from the credit card company after ages of non-payment/defaults etc (i.e. to the point where the bank got fed up!). This won't happen to you in your current situation as you are indeed still paying every month.

To the bank, if u don't miss payments u are a star customer, and they will not sell off your debt or even DREAM of reducing your debt for u to pay it off for less! Sorry... I guess u'll just have to pay it back over time.

If you're looking to reduce the interest, then pay that £3000-£3500 that you said you would, and that will DRAMATICALLY reduce your interest!

NickX

riad wrote: »

It is absolutely unheard of that the bank would "settle" the debt by taking less than the balance! You don't "settle" a credit card debt per se as it's not a one off loan, it's an ongoing credit facility where u can borrow, pay back, re borrow... etc.

No, the Banks and Credit Card companies will accept "Full and Final Settlement" in cases of financial hardship. It is not the case that the debt HAS to have been sold to a Debt Collection Agency (although in most cases they are).

The OP need to demonstrate a clear cashflow problem and give the creditor the impression that they are going to struggle to get repayment. This means missing payments, defaulting the account and providing evidence of the cashflow problem. They may then consider a "Full and Final Settlement". Oh, and yes, it won't do any favours to your credit file were you planning on using credit in the future.