Full and final settlement help thread

sourcrates

DFW_ASAP said:

Hi guys 

I requested a CCA from PRA group and received by email (as per my request) a file that appears to show a copy of credit card statements from a a handful of random months between 2018 and 2019. 

It has on there my name, address, card number and then the statements. Along the top of each page is 2 rows of the words 'COPY STATEMENT COPY STATEMENT' COPY STATEMENT' etc repeated for 2 lines.

Is this acceptable as a CCA or does it show that they don't have it. There are no terms and conditions, no contract, no signature.

@sourcrates @fatbelly

No, a copy statement is not a credit agreement is it, it is what  it is, a statement.

Unless they send you something headed "credit agreement" containing your name/address and all financial details as set out in the prescribed terms, then they haven`t sent what they should have sent you.

KatieAnne

Hi, I will be 55 soon so can take some pension from a previous employer ( Still leaves me State Pension and also current work pension to survive on in years to come )  Myself and hubby each have a Tesco & MBNA credit card with PRA group  ( 4 in total with debt left of 52k remaining )....I did CCA them a couple of years ago and my old Tesco was unenforceable but we continued to still pay. We was paying £400 per month but in Oct 2021 we reduced to £50 as we said to Stepchange that our Mortgage would not be paid off in 8 years... I was not sure if the £50 shared out would be accepted but it was and we have been putting the £350 by in a separate account for the mortgage....  The Small Pension I can get will be about £26k .... how do I go about requesting a Settlement ....do I send PRA  4  x separate letters, do I become self managed first ?  I did ask PRA a couple of years ago about settlements and when they checked on the system they would accept settlements on MBNA , but not Tesco, me & hubby had to phone them separately.

If they refuse to accept settelement on Tesco, would they expect me to use the £26k on MBNA ? and then continue paying the remaining 2 Tesco cards £50 between them ?

 I so wish I did not have all my eggs in the PRA basket.

I also have a large Tesco Pension I can take but need to get financial advice on that one and would be heavily taxed.

Apologies for the waffle, I just do not know what to do for the best.

fatbelly

KatieAnne said:

Hi, I will be 55 soon so can take some pension from a previous employer ( Still leaves me State Pension and also current work pension to survive on in years to come )  Myself and hubby each have a Tesco & MBNA credit card with PRA group  ( 4 in total with debt left of 52k remaining )....I did CCA them a couple of years ago and my old Tesco was unenforceable but we continued to still pay. We was paying £400 per month but in Oct 2021 we reduced to £50 as we said to Stepchange that our Mortgage would not be paid off in 8 years... I was not sure if the £50 shared out would be accepted but it was and we have been putting the £350 by in a separate account for the mortgage....  The Small Pension I can get will be about £26k .... how do I go about requesting a Settlement ....do I send PRA  4  x separate letters, do I become self managed first ?  I did ask PRA a couple of years ago about settlements and when they checked on the system they would accept settlements on MBNA , but not Tesco, me & hubby had to phone them separately.

If they refuse to accept settelement on Tesco, would they expect me to use the £26k on MBNA ? and then continue paying the remaining 2 Tesco cards £50 between them ?

 I so wish I did not have all my eggs in the PRA basket.

I also have a large Tesco Pension I can take but need to get financial advice on that one and would be heavily taxed.

Apologies for the waffle, I just do not know what to do for the best.

There's no harm in starting negotiations with PRA, in writing, maybe offer them 25% on the enforceable ones and see how they respond. With regards to your pension, it does not have to be all-or-nothing and once you hit 55, it should be an easy and swift process to draw down. 

Don't say how much is in the pot

Personally I wouldn't be paying anything to unenforceable debts

KatieAnne

fatbelly said:

KatieAnne said:

Hi, I will be 55 soon so can take some pension from a previous employer ( Still leaves me State Pension and also current work pension to survive on in years to come )  Myself and hubby each have a Tesco & MBNA credit card with PRA group  ( 4 in total with debt left of 52k remaining )....I did CCA them a couple of years ago and my old Tesco was unenforceable but we continued to still pay. We was paying £400 per month but in Oct 2021 we reduced to £50 as we said to Stepchange that our Mortgage would not be paid off in 8 years... I was not sure if the £50 shared out would be accepted but it was and we have been putting the £350 by in a separate account for the mortgage....  The Small Pension I can get will be about £26k .... how do I go about requesting a Settlement ....do I send PRA  4  x separate letters, do I become self managed first ?  I did ask PRA a couple of years ago about settlements and when they checked on the system they would accept settlements on MBNA , but not Tesco, me & hubby had to phone them separately.

If they refuse to accept settelement on Tesco, would they expect me to use the £26k on MBNA ? and then continue paying the remaining 2 Tesco cards £50 between them ?

 I so wish I did not have all my eggs in the PRA basket.

I also have a large Tesco Pension I can take but need to get financial advice on that one and would be heavily taxed.

Apologies for the waffle, I just do not know what to do for the best.

There's no harm in starting negotiations with PRA, in writing, maybe offer them 25% on the enforceable ones and see how they respond. With regards to your pension, it does not have to be all-or-nothing and once you hit 55, it should be an easy and swift process to draw down. 

Don't say how much is in the pot

Personally I wouldn't be paying anything to unenforceable debts

Thank you so much Fatbelly, So do I write separate letters to PRA, do they look at them all together do you think ? What I'll do is request a CCA again for the Tesco, as they never replied but the card was taken out 1997 so a long time ago,  Do I say I have some pension I can take or that a family member is willing to help us out ? xx Would you change to self managed first ? xx

fatbelly

You said you CCAd Tesco a couple of years ago and it was unenforceable. It stays that way till they comply so I wouldn't do that again. But when you get into the detail of negotiation you may wish to remind PRA that that one is unenforceable.

To start with I'd just do one letter. No particular need to go self managed if you are continuing to pay.

My first instinct is to say the money is coming from a family member.

KatieAnne

fatbelly said:

You said you CCAd Tesco a couple of years ago and it was unenforceable. It stays that way till they comply so I wouldn't do that again. But when you get into the detail of negotiation you may wish to remind PRA that that one is unenforceable.

To start with I'd just do one letter. No particular need to go self managed if you are continuing to pay.

My first instinct is to say the money is coming from a family member.

Great, So I'll write one letter from myself and hubby, list the 4 debts, reminding them about my Tesco, say that a family member has offered to help, but not tell them how much,  offer them 25% and go from there.  Thank you so much Fatbelly xxx

fatbelly

Sounds like a plan...

Getting_there_slowly

Good Afternoon. I've been skimming through these pages and it's awesome to see the amount of time people are willing to invest to helping others. Well done and thank you.

I'm just in the process of sorting out letters for F & F settlement offers and have a quick questions. Does one include the details of all creditors and explain the percentage that the offer recipient would be getting? Or just give them the offer individually? I guess sharing means they know you owe more and explains why the offer is something obscure, like £628.47.

I'm starting with a 30% offer because my DMP would last another 9 years at it's current rate. If they come back with something worthwhile I can see about stretching to it, but if they don't budge (looking at you Paragon) then I'll CCA it. I don't want to CCA it first because part of me feels like it's only fair I try...... It is my debt after all.

But thank you all for the mountains of information contained in these pages.

Oh, one more question... Can I just email the F&F offers? I don't have any stamps and it's raining.

I really hope there is some flexibility. I've been on a DMP for about 10 years. (I didn't want to IVA or bankrupt back in the day because I "thought" I owned a house, before realising my ex of 15 years screwed me..... In my youth I didn't know the difference between being on a mortgage and paying it and paying the bills and physically renovating the house.... and actually OWNING a house by being on the deeds!! The house increased in value by £150,000 while I lived there and I left with nothing. Oops!   )

fatbelly

Email is OK. Get the final deal on their letterhead even if it comes as an attachment.

You can give full disclosure about the other debts as long as it's not against your own interests - sounds OK in this instance.

In that final scenario you mention, how long ago was that? Are you aware of the concept of beneficial interest?

Getting_there_slowly

Hello there Fatbelly.

Thank you for getting back. I'll fire off the emails today.

I've included details of all 4 debts in the letter because the offer (from a relative) is £3000 and it shows that I'm splitting it fairly. I'm on a DMP and put an offer in through them a couple of years ago but it didn't go well (two outright refused anything less than 100%) but I'm not convince as to how hard my DMP provider tried in negotiating so I figured I'd do it myself this time.

With regards to my previous issues. I was in an abusive relationship, but was unaware. I'm a very laid back bloke who is also autistic so I just tend to see things in black and white and what I "think" should be right or fair and don't really like to argue. So she subtly picked my life apart until I didn't see friends, didn't go out, didn't make plans, basically didn't live, but didn't really know any different anymore. At the same time I was put on the mortgage, working 60-70 hours a week, spending my days off rebuilding kitchens, fences, bathrooms, etc....But as silly as it may sound she basically destroyed me slowly until I was a shell. And I let her!! I just figured that those were the cards I was dealt and I had to suffer it until I died. Until one day I kinda woke up and left. But I'd somehow amassed £40 grand of debt. (She did the finances and I just did what I was told). 

Anyhoo, a few years after I had left she said she was selling the house, which she then did at a price that left her over £150 grand in the bank after the debts in her name and the mortgage were paid off. She told me I wasn't getting any of the money and that I would have to continue paying my half of a loan that was secured on the property. I was gobsmacked. I then found out that I was NEVER ON THE DEEDS!! But I didn't know about that stuff. She was older than me, already had the house and I moved in straight from my parents so I'd never dealt with anything like that. I rang a solicitor that my work provides for free. They said that because I didn't register my claim with the land registry office BEFORE the sale I wasn't automatically entitled and, if I made a claim as a beneficial interest they'd have to comb through 14 years of statements, banks, bills, etc, and estimate how much I may have put in to the property and I would only get a portion of that back and it wouldn't be that much. And also, the cost of the time it would take for a solicitor to trawl through all that would probably cancel out any benefit. And there were no guarantees. So that was that! I also asked how can I be liable for half of a debt that was secured on a property that is now sold and all the debt repaid so it didn't even exist anymore and was told that if it was a joint debt then she is perfectly entitled to ask for me to pay my half. That was one sucky phone call! lol

(to be fair... she did eventually let me off the rest of the secured loan)

Sorry, this post got long.

However.... I pressed on with the DMP and over the years got it all the way down to about 10 grand. Which is awesome. And I now have a great job and live comfortably and see light at the end of the tunnel. So I shall stay positive. I decided at the beginning of this year that my DMP will be over before the year is through. And I'm absolutely going to get there! Any way I can!

Got sidetracked there a bit. Emailing now. Thank you!