Full and final settlement help thread

Lifeisforliving19

erskineman wrote: »

Wescot are part of the Cabot Group, Cabot bought Wescot a couple of years ago, so I guess whatever you say to one of them the other could find out!

Didn't know that. We had 5 debts with W/C*t and 3 of them have been taken over by C*b*t recently.

DFW_ASAP

LostControl wrote: »

Hi All,

Been sitting searching for a place where I can get some advice as to what my next steps should be, and I came across this thread and thought that some of you may be able to help me out.

I have been burying my head in the sand for the past 2 years when it comes to debt, plus due to grief, I took up gambling which put me in an even worse situation. I am now passed the gambling and have sought help for both the grief and gambling to ensure that these things do not happen again.

I took contact with StepChange in all of this, but due to the number of creditors and how I get paid, their options of DMD does not seem like a viable option.

I owe a total of £82500 to 17 different places, and my initial thought was that when I do get a lump sum (I get a bonus from work quarterly and this bonus can eat a big chunk) to perform partial settlements with the various creditors.

Out of the above there is roughly £15000 that I am not able to partial settle, due to the type of debt it is. But the remaining £67000 I should be able to provide them with an offer by end of this year latest.

Would anyone here be able to advise me as to what steps I have to take (I already have defaulted on all of them) and also what would the companies be willing to settle at? I have spoken with a few and had numbers from 25-35% without any negotiations, hence I am thinking that if I have the money in hand then the offer could and should be better.

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,
LostControl

Hi,

You mention that you have spoken to some of them and they would be wiling to settle at 25-35%. I was just wondering, is this offer from the original creditors or have these been sold on to debt collection companies and the debt defaulted.

I am in a similar situation and willing to settle at 25% but have not bothered making the offers until I have defaulted and paid low amounts via my DMP for a few months.

DFW_ASAP

Can I offer F&F settlements when the debt is still with the original creditor and not defaulted. I could potentially settle some of them at around 25% but is this realistic? Would love to hear some views on this.

Thanks
DFW

fatbelly

DFW_ASAP wrote: »

Can I offer F&F settlements when the debt is still with the original creditor and not defaulted. I could potentially settle some of them at around 25% but is this realistic? Would love to hear some views on this.

Thanks
DFW

It's pretty much a no.

If it hasn't defaulted then you are still making the contractual monthly payments, you are still under the original terms and conditions and you would have to pay the full balance.

Jwatson

Hello all
Just wondering if anyone can give a bit of advice regarding our current situation. We’ve been in a DMP for 9 months and our combined debt across 8 lenders now stands at about 49k. 6 of the debts are now with various collection agencies, 2 remain with the original credit card companies. We have managed to get our mortgage lender to agree to port our current mortgage to a new property, and we are going to downsize to pay off our debts.

We have now sold our house, but are currently struggling to find a house to move into. We live in a city where houses are in high demand, and although we have put offers in on a couple of properties, we keep getting pipped to the post by first-time buyers and property developers. Moving further out or to a different town isn’t possible due to work and travel complications.

We have found what we think is potentially our dream house, and in an effort to successfully purchase we are seriously considering upping our offer on it. The issue is that doing so will leave us without enough profit on the house sale to pay all of our creditors in full (as in 100% full and final payments), however I have seen lots of posts on here about negotiating reduced payments.

The house we are trying to buy needs a bit of work doing to it; it’s totally liveable, but needs a few little bits like the electrics being checked out, and we’d like to put a new bathroom in if possible, as we’ve got two young children and the current bathroom only has a shower. Also the double glazing may need replacing.

So the advice we’d like if possible is how would any of you handle the negotiations with the creditors? On paper it would look like we had just enough to pay everyone but in reality not due to house we would potentially be buying would need work. Do we go ahead with the increased offer, or should we try and find a cheaper house?

I’m really sorry for the long post but it’s a lot to explain! Any advice would be super appreciated.

fatbelly

OK, first you must not be too generous with your dmp. If creditors can see that they will be paid in full over a short period they will not give good deals. It really needs to be longer than 5 years.

If you are on a self-managed plan this is pretty easy to manipulate. So that's the first thing to consider. There is support on these board and lots of resources.

There is a risk of court action, but it's small, and their options for enforcement are limited if you are not presently a home owner.

You will get the best deals from debt buyers who have acquired your account for a fraction. You say some are with collection agencies but are they actually with debt buyers? The big names are Cabot and Lowell.

Before you make an offer, check they have the relevant paperwork by doing a CCA request.

Then, if they do, start the offers, in writing, and start low.

That's enough to be going on with I think!

Jwatson

fatbelly wrote: »

OK, first you must not be too generous with your dmp. If creditors can see that they will be paid in full over a short period they will not give good deals. It really needs to be longer than 5 years.

If you are on a self-managed plan this is pretty easy to manipulate. So that's the first thing to consider. There is support on these board and lots of resources.

There is a risk of court action, but it's small, and their options for enforcement are limited if you are not presently a home owner.

You will get the best deals from debt buyers who have acquired your account for a fraction. You say some are with collection agencies but are they actually with debt buyers? The big names are Cabot and Lowell.

Before you make an offer, check they have the relevant paperwork by doing a CCA request.

Then, if they do, start the offers, in writing, and start low.

That's enough to be going on with I think!

The other option is to pay some and go self managed for the others?
I’ve read that lots of people say a family member has offered to pay part of the debt also

CraftySaver1

As this was asked earlier, I personally would negotiate in writing for proof. Just to be on the safe side.

fatbelly

Jwatson wrote: »

The other option is to pay some and go self managed for the others?
I’ve read that lots of people say a family member has offered to pay part of the debt also

Yes and yes.

It's more flexible to self-manage rather than have a third party debt management plan as they're not really geared up for the many changes to the plan that will happen when you're doing settlement deals.

Saying a family member will be paying has two advantages: it immediately answers the question about where the money is coming from. Otherwise they may think that you're just trying to avoid paying the full balance! It is also more legally binding should you get into an argument somewhere down the line. Though that shouldn't happen if you do everything in writing and keep records

Debtdipped

Hi all, I just looked at my credit report from Noddle, and I have a debt on there that I had completely forgotten about. It was defaulted in 2015, and therefore, it will drop off my credit file in 2021. As I have not made any payments to this creditor, and I am unable to pay the full balance, do you think they would they accept a F&F offer?

Also, I understand that if they accept F&F offer, my credit report would state "partial settlement," would this settlement increase my credit score?

Thanks.