Full and final settlement help thread

fatbelly

Daisydance wrote: »

I have 10+ year old debts and I am really keen to make full and final offers to settle these debts.

I was previously with StepChange, but decided to manage them myself at the beginning of the year.

It appears all of the debts have been sold on.

1. Moorcroft/Arrow/Wescot - £9,500
2. TBI - £750
3. PRA /Arrow - £3.450
4. Moorcroft/Arrow - £3,400

I have sent a CCA request (6 weeks ago) and have only received documentation from TBI. Wescot have written to say they are looking into it.

If the debts are not enforceable, do they let me know?

How do I go about reaching the best possible offer?

Thank you for your support.

It appears, as things stand, that only your£750 debt is enforceable! The others may only be temporarily unenforceable, but I'd stop paying and settle TBI first.

That shouldn't make much of a dent in your fighting fund.

Some people do make very low F&F offers to unenforceable debts but I don't really see the point.

Daisydance

Thank you Fatbelly.

Do they have a set time in which to respond to a CCA?

sourcrates

Daisydance wrote: »

Thank you Fatbelly.

Do they have a set time in which to respond to a CCA?

Guidelines quote 12 plus 2 days, but in reality, as the collector has to go back to the original creditor for the paperwork, it can take weeks, months, even years in some cases, and thats if they can comply.


Your account remains unenforcable until a satisfactory responce is received, so that is a plus point.

Stuart2013

I have been in debt since 2013 and have had a DMP through Stepchange.

I managed to borrow some money from family in order to attempt to pay the debt off. The debt is nearly 6 years old and given my circumstances with no change in income likely, I split the amount between my 3 creditors. With only a fraction more two of my creditors accepted the offer. Great!

Then there is Link Financial. Now I realise that my offer only equates to approx 30% but this is the only money I have access to and the amount I am borrowing is not small especially compared to the small amount I am currently paying.

Link counter offered with 70%! I don't have it. Nothing I have said nor my circumstances could possible lead them to believe I have access to the £2000 extra they are asking for! They will not reduce the amount. 70% is first and final offer

As I have paid off other creditors Stepchange have cancelled my account and I am having to set up a repayment scheme directly with Link. They will be sending out a form for me to fill out stating my income/outgoings (didn't know they would ask for this) and a new payment scheme will be set up.

VERY frustrating that I was so close to been debt free only for LINK Financial to out-right disregard my offer and ask for twice the amount that I can afford.

Not certain what to do from here?

Probably just venting and hoping for others to share their experience specifically with Link Financial.

Willing2Learn

Hi Stuart2013 and welcome to the forum

If it were me, I would deposit the lumpsum you have left remaining into a Nationwide FlexDirect account so that you can earn 5% APR for the first year (on balances up to £1,500). Or any other account that would earn interest. I would then make sure my I&E shows only a minimal amount left for monthly debt repayments, so that you can successfully offer a low repayment schedule to Link. Maybe that way they would be more likely to accept an F&F offer you were to make in the future.


In the meantime, I would submit a CCA request, just to confirm that Link have the correct and compliant paperwork

fatbelly

Brilliant advice from W2L. If Link can supply a copy of the original agreement (that's a big if) then make your offer again in 6 months and point out that the present payment arrangement will take X years to complete, where X is a big number.

If they can't supply the cca then it's goodbye, link.

Stuart2013

Hi thank you for the advice

Definitely going to transfer funds out of my main bank account, hadn't even thought of that!

I have requested the CCA over the phone but wondering if I should make the request official via letter.

Paying what I was able to on the DMP the debt would be officially paid in 20 years time so 26 years in total! One of the reasons I thought my offer was reasonable.

Willing2Learn

Stuart2013 wrote: »

I have requested the CCA over the phone but wondering if I should make the request official via letter.

The CCA request needs to be sent by Royal Mail with the obligatory £1 fee (postal order).

Stuart2013

Willing2Learn wrote: »

The CCA request needs to be sent by Royal Mail with the obligatory £1 fee (postal order).

Odd as when I mentioned it Link just said okay will get that sent out can takes weeks. No mention of anything else. I have since read up on it and as you said postal order and letter seems the norm. Why do I feel like they just fobbed me off....mmmmm

fatbelly

Stuart2013 wrote: »

Odd as when I mentioned it Link just said okay will get that sent out can takes weeks. No mention of anything else. I have since read up on it and as you said postal order and letter seems the norm. Why do I feel like they just fobbed me off....mmmmm

Because they know that what you've done may (or may not) result in getting a copy of the agreement to you, but does not affect their right to court action.

Strictly speaking a formal request (with its £1 fee) does not stop them commencing a court claim but because it can then be stayed, most organisations wouldn't start court action where a proper cca request has been done.