Full and final settlement help thread

keeks1986

Could anybody shed some light on my situation? I'm an unemployed part-time student. I have fallen into arrears a few times with creditors, though have managed to pay up after missing one month or so. I have a history of falling behind on repayments due to a year without work. In the past I have been referred to a collection agency by Very and JD Williams.

JD Williams agreed to a F&F, and closed my account.

I was wondering how likely it would be to get a F&F on the following creditors based on my history. I have borrowed £1500 from my parents after coming clean about living on credit cards where benefits fell short.

Very - £330.69
NatWest Student CC - £335.00
Capital One - £1024.54

I am keeping up with repayments, but the interest on the Capital One credit card is 34.080% each month, my minimum payment is around £50.00

I have tried contacting Capital One, but the foreign operator told me that they could not help (I suspect they didn't understand!)

I really want to get these creditors out of the way, the interest is crippling me and starting to push towards falling into arrears.

fatbelly

If you are still meeting the original contractual payments on a debt, there is almost no chance of a settlement deal.

You say that Very have referred you to collectors in the past. Did they formally default you? Is interest frozen? On £330 balance I wouldn't expect much of a deal.

keeks1986

fatbelly wrote: »

If you are still meeting the original contractual payments on a debt, there is almost no chance of a settlement deal.

You say that Very have referred you to collectors in the past. Did they formally default you? Is interest frozen? On £330 balance I wouldn't expect much of a deal.

I've had letters of Default Sums, too many to remember. I spoke to someone from the finance department last week and pointed out how difficult I was finding the new minimum payment, it had risen from £19 to £45 after I missed a month's bill in December. The operator seemed puzzled that although payments were being sent from my bank on time, they were taking longer to clear into their account; this caused numerous charges on the account. She refunded 2 of the 3 for last month.

There is no frozen interest on any of the accounts.

dibdabable

Loopy_Laura wrote: »

In relation to the letter above...should I mention my funds are coming from a bonus from work or by other means?

Thanks. x

You're under no obligation to tell them how much you have or where it's coming from.

Loubylou2

Hi
I've been reading through some of the posts with interest. We have been on a DMP since July 2010. DH is about to be made redundant and we want to get the debts cleared.
We have secured borrowing (in addition to the mortgage) which we will clear first.
Of our secured debts (on DMP) We have agreed a settlement of 55% with Natwest/Triton which we have in writing and today Payplan have told us that Buchannan Clark & Wells (B.O.I) will also accept our 55% offer- (prior to that they were insistent on 80%). We have phoned them and they are going to put that in writing before we settle.
So although we know we could hold out for less we are pretty happy as we really want to move on and the DMP has not been running that long.
However Tesco are really digging their heels in. Unfortunately, the debt is still with them as they were getting nearly the full amount having lumped all the interest on at the start of the DMP. 55% is the absolute maximum we can go to and we tried to make our offers fair.
They don't want to negotiate at all so I fear we could be in for the long haul.
DH hasn't got a job although has been verbally promised a 6 month contract which we are fairly confident about. Nothing in writing though.
Any advice about our next move would be appreciated.
Also could anyone advise about how to word the letter that accompanies our settlement cheque? The cheques will come from a relative.

Many thanks in advance.
LL

jojo1964

Just wondering if anyone has phoned MBNA first to ask for a full and final settlement figure prior to getting it in writing, i have the possibility of getting around £4000 soon and have three debts, the biggest with MBNA which has a balance of approx £9000 left after 3 years on a DMP, it has never been passed over to a DCA, although interest is frozen, but my monthly payments are above the minimum monthly payment normally expected on a CC.

MusicalLawyer

jojo1964 - ALWAYS get it in writing. No point calling them. Just send them a letter asking for a F&F. They will then have to write back to you in response to the letter. It takes a little longer, especially if they don't agree to your first figure, but at least you're covered

jojo1964

KellyKing1987 wrote: »

jojo1964 - ALWAYS get it in writing. No point calling them. Just send them a letter asking for a F&F. They will then have to write back to you in response to the letter. It takes a little longer, especially if they don't agree to your first figure, but at least you're covered

I understand that, just wondering if anyone had called prior to getting it in writing, and whether anyone has had luck in negotiating F and Fs when its not been passed to a DCA, and payments are above the minimum required, even though its part of a DMP.

Loubylou2

We're not having any luck with Tesco. We were only £20 short each month via our DMP so they are just not interested.
It might not be the same for all creditors though.
Good Luck
LLx

KeepFighting_2

It is a long story but I owed £102,000 on bank loans and cards and an overdraft. I have been on a DMP since April 09 paying £500 a month. I have managed to get the balance down to £78,000 which included reclaiming some PPI back. I have possibly got access to £30,000 which by my calculations would mean that I could offer this as a Full and Final and the creditors would have got approximatley 54% back. When I asked my DMP organisers qbout the cost they quote 20% of what I saved which works out about £10,000!
Do you think that I could do this on my own without using them?