Full and Final Settlements

bankbuster13

I'm sure this exists somewhere else in this Topic, but I can't find it.
Anyway, I have spent most of this year trying to persuade Nationwide to accept a F&F. Right up to their CEO and Chairman.
Finally, after a range of responses (from nothing, to curt one liner rejections and to pages of management speak), I seem to have cracked it.
I had two outstanding accounts: Current and Credit Card.
For the first, they say they will accept a hundred quid or so less than the balance (ie 90%) but for the CC second, for some reason, they will accept just 20%.
So overall, Nationwide say they will accept my offer of what amounts to a third of my debts. Which is all I can afford, thanks to my family.
However, their letter says that while they will notify the credit agencies that my debts have been F&Fd, it will only be as "Partially Satisfied". Which still leaves a black mark. Not what the debt helplines tell me.
The word "Partially" should not be there. And I am now disputing that.
Anyone else around who can advise me please?

Deep_In_Debt

I've made some F&F at 45% to 55% when the debts got passed to DCA's as they buy the debts for peanuts and I've been paying them reduced amounts for months as I'm on a dmp and I think they want "rid" of bad debts, so it's often worth waiting until the debt gets passed on. My original creditors would accept nothing less than 70%.

If it is "partially" make sure they, nor an associate or third party will collect the remainder at a later date and that you are released from any liabilty. Keep on at them. Say that you will only give them the money if they agree to marking your file as "satisfied", or you will withdraw the offer. It's up to them then.

National Debtline have some good standard letters you can use.

Good luck.

fermi

Before you accept an offer you should have it in writing that:

a) Your/their offer is to be accepted a "Full & Final Settlement" and you will have no further liability for the debt.
b) The entries on your credit references should be marked in some way to indicate that the debt is settled/satisfied or partially settled/satisfied, with no outstanding balance.

I should just add that it IS acceptable in a "Full & Final Settlement" for the entry on your Credit Reference Files to be marked as "partially settled" or "partially satisfied" AS LONG as there is no balance outstanding.

Because there has been some confusion on this issue I checked this with both the Information Commissioner and National Debtline. Partially with NDL, as their factsheet makes no mention of it.

The Information Commissioner's Office directed me to one of their publications in which they wrote:

Technical Guidance Note - Filing defaults with credit reference agencies

Where the lender has accepted as part of a negotiated settlement a payment that is less than the outstanding amount and the customer has agreed as part of the settlement how their credit record will be affected:

In these circumstances, we understand a lender may be reluctant to mark the entry as ‘satisfied’ or ‘settled’. However the entry must record the position adequately, for example, by showing that no further monies are expected and the account was partially paid.

And National Debtline clarified the difference between that and their factsheet by writing:

We note that you require clarification regarding full and final settlement offers because the information on our fact sheet and the Information Commissioner’s website seem to differ.

You are correct in thinking that it is important for you to have confirmation from the creditor that your offer is accepted as full and final settlement. You must also ensure that you keep this confirmation for at least 6.5 years in case the debt is passed onto another debt collection agency in error.

If the creditor will agree to mark the credit file as satisfied this would be an excellent result for you as it would look better on your credit file. However, your credit file should show an accurate credit history and to mark a debt as ‘satisfied’ when it has only been partially satisfied could be deemed to be misleading. Therefore the creditors are well within their rights to mark your credit reference file partially settled/satisfied.