Full and final settlement help thread

fatbelly

KeepFighting wrote: »

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?

20% of £78k is £15600. I don't think anyone will settle for that but you could start there.

I think it is possible to settle 78k debt with 30k (38%) and yes you should do this yourself.

I am guessing that the reason you did not go bankrupt is that you are a property owner. You'll have to keep your fingers crossed that no-one goes down the ccj/charging order route. Don't give them any information they don't already have.

Tixy

KeepFighting wrote: »

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?

Would definitely try making offers yourself - there is a useful factsheet on national debtline website on full & finals, what to include in your letter etc thats worth a read.

If you decide not to do F&Fs or can't access the money etc then you might want to reconsider your DMP provider. Presumably they are taking a cut of your £500 a month? you could instead consider either a self-managed DMP or a DMP with CCCS or Payplan, who won't charge you fees.

KeepFighting_2

fatbelly wrote: »

20% of £78k is £15600. I don't think anyone will settle for that but you could start there.

I think it is possible to settle 78k debt with 30k (38%) and yes you should do this yourself.

I am guessing that the reason you did not go bankrupt is that you are a property owner. You'll have to keep your fingers crossed that no-one goes down the ccj/charging order route. Don't give them any information they don't already have.

Thanks

I did not go down the bankruptcy route for two reasons.

1) I would lose my job as I am in financial services (I know I should have known better)
2) As I said it is a long story my wife has come close to a breakdown and our marriage is on a knifes edge to say the least. She was unaware of the debt and trusted me (not anymore she doesn't obviously) and losing the house would finish her off and our marriage.

Will keep you posted

KeepFighting_2

Tixy wrote: »

Would definitely try making offers yourself - there is a useful factsheet on national debtline website on full & finals, what to include in your letter etc thats worth a read.

If you decide not to do F&Fs or can't access the money etc then you might want to reconsider your DMP provider. Presumably they are taking a cut of your £500 a month? you could instead consider either a self-managed DMP or a DMP with CCCS or Payplan, who won't charge you fees.

I did think that about changing plans not sure if my wife could cope with that but if I cannot get them to accept F and F will change to speed it up. I was desperate at the time but have now come to realise that they really are not doing anything for the money apart from trying to sell me an IVA. Used an affiilate company to claim back PPI again all very nice and understanding and then wham here is a bill for £3000.00 for filling out two forms and doing nothing else. even then I had to keep on chasing. Currently arguing abotu that one.
Time to sort to face up to it and get it sorted once and for all.

sickasachip13

Hi,
I forgot to update this with my F&F news from the end of last year. I settled with Cap One and Ikea (Ikano finance) for around 40% of what was owed. These weren't huge debts and I am on a DMP so I was happy to go forward on that amount.

The process I undertook:
I phoned them to see if, hypothetically, they were open to a F&F offer and both said they were.
I mentioned it to CCCS.
I wrote, using the template letter from the National Debtline website, adding in a few lines about being on a DMP and it being years before these debts would be paid on the DMP.
They wrote back, each looking for around 60% of the debt.
We wrote back to them with a counter offer.
They wrote back. I rang National Debtline and read the letters down the phone to them to ensure all the bases were covered in the wording.
I contacted CCCS to inform them that the F&Fs were going ahead, this was fine with them.
Sent a cheque and covering letter back to creditors.
Reduced to £0 the amount owing to these two on the CCCS file.

Job done. Stress free, just a bit of to-ing and fro-ing.
SAAC

sickasachip13

Now I'm wondering if there might be some good deals to be had on all these MBNA debts that have been sold off. My own is far too big to even consider, but Mr SAAC's is just over £1k, so if we could get a 30% F&F that might be achievable with a little help from family.

Loubylou2

Anyone got any advice for me please?
Our final creditor Tesco have refused our offer of f&f 55%. We have reduced payments to £1 and now they've said they're happy to leave it at that and review in 6 months time. I know that'd be goo for some but we really want to settle. They want whats owing to date although they're insisting that is a settlement as it was initially a 'front loaded' loan.
Any advice would be gratefully received as we really want to settle if possible. Should we stop payments altogether for instance?
Thanks everyone

sueby78

Hi I have been offered some money by a very close friend to pay off my credit card after I was made redundant.
I owe about £740 and offered F&F of £400 which whilst I pay minimum payment evey month of about £24 I get charged £17 interest so taking all charges into consideration and the fact I only have £400 its all I can offer as I am struggling to meet my monthly DD's now I am redundant.

I tried to speak to Creation (Flybe card) on the phone but because I haven't missed any payments I was not allowed to be put through to their debt team....so in other words I have to miss payments and then they might speak to me!
I sent them a letter with the offer and got a flat no we do not accept offers of F&F payments but call us if struggling to pay...but they won't speak to me.

Any advice?
I will pay the £400 off and be left with the £300+ balance but it doesn't see me in any better light.

Thanks in advance.

fatbelly

sueby78 wrote: »

Hi I have been offered some money by a very close friend to pay off my credit card after I was made redundant.
I owe about £740 and offered F&F of £400 which whilst I pay minimum payment evey month of about £24 I get charged £17 interest so taking all charges into consideration and the fact I only have £400 its all I can offer as I am struggling to meet my monthly DD's now I am redundant.

I tried to speak to Creation (Flybe card) on the phone but because I haven't missed any payments I was not allowed to be put through to their debt team....so in other words I have to miss payments and then they might speak to me!
I sent them a letter with the offer and got a flat no we do not accept offers of F&F payments but call us if struggling to pay...but they won't speak to me.

Any advice?
I will pay the £400 off and be left with the £300+ balance but it doesn't see me in any better light.

Thanks in advance.

You will not get a settlement deal while you are meeting your contractual payments.

If you stop payments or just pay £1 for 6 months they might consider it

Only you can decide whether it's worth trashing your credit file and risking a court judgement to save £300.

If you have no defaults, late payments or ccjs then could you consider a 0% balance transfer to a new card?

PinotGrigio41

Loubylou2 wrote: »

Anyone got any advice for me please?
Our final creditor Tesco have refused our offer of f&f 55%. We have reduced payments to £1 and now they've said they're happy to leave it at that and review in 6 months time. I know that'd be goo for some but we really want to settle. They want whats owing to date although they're insisting that is a settlement as it was initially a 'front loaded' loan.
Any advice would be gratefully received as we really want to settle if possible. Should we stop payments altogether for instance?
Thanks everyone

Hi Louby Lou, sorry I cant offer any advice on this one but wanted to bump your post .