Full and final settlement help thread

Halfwaythere

fatbelly said:

So you owe 19k:
intrum 4.6k
Link financial 7.7k
other 6.6k
and you have 5.5k

I think I'd start negotiations with all of them by offering (National Debtline standard letter) 25% and see what comes back.
It would be nice to get the AP ones settled as they are going to hang around on your report for a long time otherwise, but I think I'd try for settlements with all of them.

The negative is that your dmp completes relatively soon. The positive point is that a lot of companies are desperate for cash

Have you done cca requests on any of these?

I have 5k spare for 19k owings, I was under the impression you only had settlements successful if the account had gone into default ? I also didn’t think I could split 5k on 19k debts or could I? 

I’ve had had a discussion on threads before and rang Sainsbury’s collections to get my account defaulted as I thought this better for my credit score in time than dm markers. The woman thought it was hilarious and completely dismissed it and said over time Dm markers are much better and don’t have as much affect as defaults. I told her I was under the impression they affected my credit for 6 years after they were settled and she didn’t agree. I’m so confused ! Thanks 

Halfwaythere

Also I’ve not done CCA requests as they are relatively new debts 

Halfwaythere

Woman on a mission.

Okay so from all the brilliant advice on here and from other debt services, I am cancelling my StepChange DMP and going self managed this month. 

Two largest creditors in default since jan 2018
Link/westcot - £8000
Intrum - £4600
6.6k on credit cards
ive contacted the two largest accounts telling them I’m am now paying myself as my partner is no longer on the DMP. I can only make a token payment of a few pounds a month. I have also done a budget sheet and sent them a full and final settlement offer. I have calculated this between all accounts. 5k between 7 but I only intend on offering two the two defaulted accounts. Link - £2090 offer Intrum £1198 offer. (Rest of 5k distributed between others)

In the meantime I will use my spare cash to distribute and pay off the 6.6k credit card accounts so as they are being marked arrangement to pay and these will be paid by January. This will leave 7 months of a low payment and bartering offers to Link and Intrum. I will also send CCAs to encourage them along.

what are people’s thoughts on this?
also does anyone have any success stories especially with these two companies to keep me motivated? I have bad anxiety and tend to either go full throttle with something or bury my head in the sand when it becomes too much. 

Thoughts appreciated 😀

sourcrates

Halfwaythere said:

The woman thought it was hilarious and completely dismissed it and said over time Dm markers are much better and don’t have as much affect as defaults. I told her I was under the impression they affected my credit for 6 years after they were settled and she didn’t agree. I’m so confused ! Thanks

Unfortunatly "the woman" dosen`t have a clue what she is talking about, which is not uncommon amongst workers in the financial industry, who probebly gain their financial expertese from "sue" off facebook, instead of the FCA handbook.

You are correct in your impression.

fatbelly

Halfwaythere said:

Woman on a mission.

Okay so from all the brilliant advice on here and from other debt services, I am cancelling my StepChange DMP and going self managed this month. 

Two largest creditors in default since jan 2018
Link/westcot - £8000
Intrum - £4600
6.6k on credit cards
ive contacted the two largest accounts telling them I’m am now paying myself as my partner is no longer on the DMP. I can only make a token payment of a few pounds a month. I have also done a budget sheet and sent them a full and final settlement offer. I have calculated this between all accounts. 5k between 7 but I only intend on offering two the two defaulted accounts. Link - £2090 offer Intrum £1198 offer. (Rest of 5k distributed between others)

In the meantime I will use my spare cash to distribute and pay off the 6.6k credit card accounts so as they are being marked arrangement to pay and these will be paid by January. This will leave 7 months of a low payment and bartering offers to Link and Intrum. I will also send CCAs to encourage them along.

what are people’s thoughts on this?
also does anyone have any success stories especially with these two companies to keep me motivated? I have bad anxiety and tend to either go full throttle with something or bury my head in the sand when it becomes too much. 

Thoughts appreciated 😀

Sounds good - 26% s a good starting offer.

DrWatson1

sourcrates said:

Halfwaythere said:

The woman thought it was hilarious and completely dismissed it and said over time Dm markers are much better and don’t have as much affect as defaults. I told her I was under the impression they affected my credit for 6 years after they were settled and she didn’t agree. I’m so confused ! Thanks

Unfortunatly "the woman" dosen`t have a clue what she is talking about, which is not uncommon amongst workers in the financial industry, who probebly gain their financial expertese from "sue" off facebook, instead of the FCA handbook.

You are correct in your impression.

Isn't this context dependent? Defaults are better if you are going to be in debt over the medium to long-term, as the debts fall off your credit file after 6 years. 

However, in the poster's example, it looks like they will pay their debts off within 6 years. In this example, would she therefore have paid her debts off, but still have defaults hanging around on her credit file?

Halfwaythere

DrWatson1 said:

sourcrates said:

Halfwaythere said:

The woman thought it was hilarious and completely dismissed it and said over time Dm markers are much better and don’t have as much affect as defaults. I told her I was under the impression they affected my credit for 6 years after they were settled and she didn’t agree. I’m so confused ! Thanks

Unfortunatly "the woman" dosen`t have a clue what she is talking about, which is not uncommon amongst workers in the financial industry, who probebly gain their financial expertese from "sue" off facebook, instead of the FCA handbook.

You are correct in your impression.

Isn't this context dependent? Defaults are better if you are going to be in debt over the medium to long-term, as the debts fall off your credit file after 6 years. 

However, in the poster's example, it looks like they will pay their debts off within 6 years. In this example, would she therefore have paid her debts off, but still have defaults hanging around on her credit file?

From what I believe I have learnt correctly from here My defaults were registered at the beginning of my Dmp 2018 so will drop off 2024, my arrangments to pay will drop off 6 years after I settle them completely which will be 2022 so will drop off 2028. This means the defaults have affected my for 6 years but the arrangements to pay will have affected me for 10 years argh. So I am paying my arrangements to pay off first self managed by December this year to get them off my file as quick as possible. All very unfair and confusing but I got myself in this mess and I’m 27k down 

DrWatson1

I'm in a similar spot. Owed around £35k on credit cards and £25k on an NRAM unsecured loan when I entered an DMP 10 years ago. The Credit cards all defaulted, and the NRAM was an AP. 

Regarding my credit cards, 2 failed to find the credit agreements after a CCA request and wrote the debts off (around £10k), I've settled 2 for 15% on a 7k debt and 20% on a £1200 debt. The remaining two are refusing to move below 50% (link and Robinson Way, although the latter is not enforceable as the paperwork is incomplete).

In sum, you just have to be savvy. get your CCA requests in and drop your all monthly payments to £1 each and blame Covid. On reflection, if you have 2 defaults anyway, 2 more will probably not make too much difference, so it's probably best to try and force the others down this route. 

Halfwaythere

DrWatson1 said:

I'm in a similar spot. Owed around £35k on credit cards and £25k on an NRAM unsecured loan when I entered an DMP 10 years ago. The Credit cards all defaulted, and the NRAM was an AP. 

Regarding my credit cards, 2 failed to find the credit agreements after a CCA request and wrote the debts off (around £10k), I've settled 2 for 15% on a 7k debt and 20% on a £1200 debt. The remaining two are refusing to move below 50% (link and Robinson Way, although the latter is not enforceable as the paperwork is incomplete).

In sum, you just have to be savvy. get your CCA requests in and drop your all monthly payments to £1 each and blame Covid. On reflection, if you have 2 defaults anyway, 2 more will probably not make too much difference, so it's probably best to try and force the others down this route. 

Wow you’ve done really well! 

My credit cards are 6k and I can pay them off by the end of the year so no point me trying to default them again, already tried and didn’t work.

i just want to get a decent agreement with these two. I’d take 50% for them to be gone. I do need to do CCAs tho. I have dropped one to £4.19 and one to £2.54 to show them I long term am only going to pay this and included a budget sheet. Just really hope it works with them. I’ve heard Link can be notoriously hard work and I worry I have been paying them £282 and £250 a month previously 

DrWatson1

it all depends how much you are prepared (and can afford) to play the long game. I was a student during my DMP, so even if I had great credit, I wouldn't have been approved. Now I'm earning good money I'm in a good position to drive a hard bargain as the defaults have fallen off and my credit score has improved sufficiently that I was "pre-approved" for a credit card earlier this year - I haven't been that since 2007!