Full and final settlement help thread

[Deleted User]

hello has anyone here been offered a high settlement offer of say 70% by a creditor and rejected it and later on made a lower offer and it got accepted? Just curious as i have been offered 70% settlement . They rejected my counter offer of 50%. i'm now unsure whether to wait a while and see if they accept a lower offer in months to come or to just pay it off in my next payday

isitme?

Hi, I've lurked on this thread for a while and have been following peoples journeys. Ive built up the courage to ask for advice re my own situation.

I have 2 debts, one bought by PRA ( old B'card) totalling £8800 ( defaulted June 2017) and one bought by Wescot (old Santander) totalling £2700 ( defaulted Jan 2018). 

I have been on a DMP with Stepchange for the last couple of years and currently pay £50 per month with Stepchange proportioning it between both debts.  I have a debt free date of 2039 😢.

I have been gifted £1000 by a family member with the likelihood of receiving another £1000 in 4 -5 months time. I want to use this to help towards/ settle my debts. I am in the process of sending the CCA request letters to both DCA. If I find they are unenforceable what kind of figure should I initially propose... 10%? 

If they are enforceable ( and therefore the DCA less likely to agree to a low settlement) should I try to use the funds to settle the lower debt and continue with the DMP for the larger debt? Or still put forward low offers to both and explain that I wont be a position to offer any future settlements? I don't own any assets, live in rented housing, I'm a lone parent and live with a mental health condition which impacts upon the amount of hours I can work ( I do currently work a few hours per week atm but this has been on and off over the last 18 months due to my m/h). 

Or would it be better to wait a few months to see if I receive the additional £1000 first. 

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

DogFace

(Apologies if this has already been covered but there’s so many pages and I couldn’t find it using the search)

Is there any reason why it’s always suggested to have any dealings with debt collection agencies through post? I understand the reasoning behind avoiding the phone (you don’t have any evidence etc.) but why not online? Surely this gives you dated/timed evidence and saves time and money?

When I used Cabot’s online chat thingy a couple fo months ago to enquire about F&F’s they said I could suggest a figure and they’d be able to tell me there and then if it would be accepted! This week when I used it to enquire about their new purchase of one of my other debts, they said they could process my CAA request! Link don’t have a chat but they do have email.

TL;DR: Is there any reason that I shouldn’t send my F&F offers electronically?

Willing2Learn

I see two big reasons to do things in writing, via Royal Mail:

By having a paper-trail, you have clear evidence of what has and has not been agreed.
By engaging in correspondence over the phone, it is possible that the debtor can become flustered and panicked, resulting in something in something inappropriate being agreed


I was always taught to create that paper-trail.  I do not believe that electronic correspondence (via chat or email etc) have the same legal weight as a signed letter sent by post.

DogFace

Yeah, I totally understand and agree about phone calls.

It seems ridiculously out of touch to not be able to use email though. I would have thought it has more security, evidence, privacy etc.

Can anyone confirm that this is the case? (Not to suggest that I don’t believe you, but you said “I do not believe...” )

DogFace

Sorry for the double post but I have a separate topic to ask about:

When submitting F&F offers, how likely is it that creditors would request to see bank statements?

I’m just thinking about whether or not it’s ok to have my inheritance transferred to me in full or, for now, should I just ask for the amount I’m going to offer?

Edit: Also, should I put in my letter that’s this is an offer from a family member to pay off theses debts? All the advice I’m reading about these letters say to mention how the money is only temporarily available... Obviously if I say it’s inheritance then they’ll know it’s mine forever. Should I say something about the fact that if they don’t accept my offer I will use the money I had allocated for them to increase offers to others? 

Willing2Learn

@DogFace

When sending out your F&F settlement, then you could include your SOA.  No need to send bank statements.  

If it were me, I would say I have gradually saved up the lumpsum for the F&F settlement offer...

DogFace

Willing2Learn said:

@DogFace
If it were me, I would say I have gradually saved up the lumpsum for the F&F settlement offer...

Why is that? Surely if I had enough excess income to be saving up that money, they would have expected me to be paying off more of my debt monthly?

Also, two more questions:

1. Cabot couldn’t provide CAA for the debt they’ve had for a while. They have now bought another one, whose previous managers also couldn’t provide my CAA request. I have combined them to one log-in on their site but they still show as two distinct debts with their own totals and own reference numbers and I have sent Cabot a CAA request for the new debt. My question is, should I wait until this is sorted out before making an F&F offer on the first one? If I should  , do I then make one offer for the total owed to Cabot or should I still treat them as two separate debts?

2. Considering the lack of CAAs met. Is a 5% offer likely to be accepted or am I wasting time and potentially !!!!!! them off? What percentage is a good starting point for debts of around £5k with no CAAs? (I’ve been paying them off VERY slowly on a DMP for over 5 years and have now stopped my payments in light of the CAAs)

[Deleted User]

I had 2 MBNA debts bought by L***.  They and I always treated them as 2 completely separate entities for all purposes.  One was UE and the other was able to supply all the necessary paperwork, completely baffling as they dated from around the same year.
I paid off the enforceable one (£4500 owed) after a long and winding road of negotiation with a discount of 50% which is not the lowest I'd negotiated with other lenders but which i thought was the best i was likely to get from them and i wanted to see an end to it all!

I didn't try to negotiate the UE one at that time as I was paying them nothing every month anyway but when the dust settled on the other one I made a 10% payable offer. on a debt of £5200. No chance!  they came back with a counter of 60% PAYABLE which was more than their offer for the enforceable one that I'd already paid off.  I'm still paying them nothing so they'll never get their money back at this rate.  Over a year has gone by and I'm waiting for them to come back with a better settlement offer.  I'm not holding my breath though. Talk about bonkers.  There seems to be no ,logic to how the DCAs behave.  Catch them on a good day and who knows?

Good luck.  Keep us posted how you get on.

DogFace

That’s why it’s all so confusing, complicated and intimidating! I just don’t want to do the wrong thing.

My defaults are due to drop off next year so they’d be stupid not to accept something.. but like you say, it doesn’t always seem logical.