A bit of a mess......

Tia0101

Hi everyone,

A Few years ago i managed to get myself in a real mess with my finances I had 2 credit cards, 2 store cards, 2 bank loans and a catlogue. It got to the point where my outgoings were more than i had coming in and i went to the CCCS for help. They were fantastic and put me on a dmp which i have paid every month for the past 2-3 years. My partner and i have just remortgaged out home and i now have enough (or so i thought) to pay off all of the outstanding debt with the CCCS and leave myself with just my car payment to make each month. :j I took some advice from this brilliant board and contacted all of the companies involved and ask for a figure of full and final settlement. In some cases i was able to make them an offer and negotiate the sum owed. However Black horse finance have just gotten back to me and i cant believe it! I borrowed £3800 (I think) i have made regular payments with the CCCS for the past 2-3 years and they want to settle for £5141.28!! I havent contacted them back yet as i had to put my request in writing but this seems crazy! What do i do?? The MOST i can offer them is £2500. If they wont settle i am still no further forward as i dont think i can keep just one debt on with the CCCS and i just want to be free of all of this. All of the other companies have been fantastic (especially Barclays) and just seem to be pleased of payment at last! My CCCS payment is £140 per month and if i take the loan back on it will cost me £130 per month so i am no better off by paying the others of in full! Has anyone else been in a similar situation? what is the best course of action? Any help would be gratefully recieved.

Sorry it's so long!

Tia

klare_2

im sure someone will be along with some advice taken from experience soon. If it was me in this situation, i would still approach them with the figure you can manage... can you work out from that figure they gave you how much of it is money you borrowed and how much of it is interest that they have whacked on .. maybe if you can pooint out the % of what you are offering is out of the original amount that you borrowed and also explain that if they dont accept then they will continue to receive the amount you have been paying through the CCCS.
My dad used to work for lloyds and i have known him have to accept tiny % of debts as final settlements because its still been the better option.
Definately still go for it ... it will be interesting to see what someone else has to say on the matter.
klare

ffs

Have Black Horse send you any statements since the start of your DMP?

fatbelly

Sounds like they didn't freeze interest and your 3800 has grown to 5141. Have you made your offer yet? Don't start with your final offer, if you know what I mean. You can go to 50% of their figure. I'd maybe suggest starting at 35%.

Can you tell us what percentages the others settled at?

Tia0101

Yes, Black horse send me statements all of the time. Usually just detailing the agreed next however many payments and the amounts. (This is all agreed with the CCCS) I dont usually even keep the letters as the payments are made automatically to them each month.

Tia0101

fatbelly wrote:

Sounds like they didn't freeze interest and your 3800 has grown to 5141. Have you made your offer yet? Don't start with your final offer, if you know what I mean. You can go to 50% of their figure. I'd maybe suggest starting at 35%.

Can you tell us what percentages the others settled at?

I have no real idea of the percentages, i ust looked at the estimated balances and gave them a figure slightly lower than i could afford. This has worked out fine for the others but i was so shocked at the Black horse balance! I am going to try today and see what kind of response i get from them.

Thank you all for your advice..... wish me luck!

Tia x

tattooed_lady

Good luck Tia! Just wondered though how you managed to re-mortgage whilst on a DMP?

Tia0101

Hi Ruyareece,
I was on a DMP when i took my mortgage out in the first place and it didnt seem to affect things. I just let the CCCS know that my circumstances had changed and they wrote it into my DMP. (The shared amount of the mortgage was not much different to the rent i was paying before). My partners wage is quite a bit higher than mine so the mortgage is mostly based on his income. The re mortgage has just been the same.

Tia

Tia0101

All,

I just called Black Horse and they have ageed that the settlement is too high. They have accepted my lower offer in principle and will have it confirmed by their head office this afternoon. They will then put the new settlement into writing for me! It worked!!!!

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who gave me advice on this. It has been a massive help and now i can be one step closer to paying off all of these awful debts Yeai!!!

fatbelly

Tia0101 wrote:

I have no real idea of the percentages, i ust looked at the estimated balances and gave them a figure slightly lower than i could afford.

Can't say i understand this, Tia, but well done anyway. I'm really pleased it worked.

FB

robertbruce

Hi
Well done on negotiating the lower settlement. It looks as though you followed one of my guiding principles on dealing with this type of problem and operated on a POLITE but FIRM footing to ask again and get the desired result. I got a refund of interest of £5000 on a bank loan which had added £12000 over the last five years when I thought it was frozen. Just shows what you get for asking politely. Truth is, I should have held out for at least £8000 refund but I had a balancing act to perform with other things which made this impossible. Still £5k is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp thingy. Cheers. Bob.