Paying Debt Collection Agencies - Desperately need advice

buryheadinsand

Not sure if this is the right place for this but hoping really someone can help. I basically buried my head in the sand when leaving a house i had rented 2 years ago (was 21 at the time and very naive and scared of the figures stacked up against me) and ever since have always been about to pay them off. After seeing an IFA about 6 months ago he told me to get the Experian credit check to know what we against me and this has basically opened the flood gates. I have come into some money and want to clear them ASAP but it's not enough to clear them all so....

My first question is my Abbey National debt which has been passed to a debt collection agency:

Abbey National - Debt Now Handled By Robinson Way - £395.87

Can I offer them a lump sum which is less than the amount i owe and what is a likely figure to go to them with?

npower - Outstanding Debt - £656.52

Can I also offer npower a lump sum? Also I don't understand how it could have got to that figure I think I remember the debt at the time being £300 odd?

Finally I had a 3 mobile phone which I defaulted on and my credit report shows that I owe £119.14. I have now received a letter from Red Collection services which also includes an early termination fee of £315.62!! Can I go back to them and offer them the £119.14?

I have read on here that Debt collection agencies obviously buy the debt from the companies at a lower amount than is actually there so they can make the profit but can't see any idea on whether or not they reduce the amount you owe if you pay them a big chunk of what’s owed.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated!!

sweetiepie2121

It is hard work dealing with debt collection agencies.They wont go away.They put more pressure on ya.They r a bit more stricter.My advice to you is go to citizen advice.

anniecave

it's important to distinguish between companies who buy debt, and companies who just collect debt on behalf of the original company.

You can usually tell by the wording on a letter. If Robinson Way say "we have been instructed by our client Abbey National to collect this debt on their behalf" then obviously they are just acting on behalf and will probably be paid a % commission of what they manage to recover

If Abbey National write to you and say the debt has now been assigned to Robinson way and all payments must now be sent to them blah blah. And Robinson say that they are the legal owners of the debt then that's obviously the other one

Once a debt gets sold on then they are more likely to accept a lower figure, as it's likely they've paid only a small amount for lots of customers debts so anything they can get out of it is a bonus for them. Not all companies do sell on debts though, sometimes they will repeatedly send the accounts out to different collection agencies one after the other just to chase on their behalf.

That said there is no harm in asking for settlement figure and trying to negotiate either way. They can only say no. Bear in mind also they may have month or quarter targets so they may be willing to accept less at the end of a month say.

With a mobile phone bill did you default part way through a contract? If so they may be charging you for the remining months to a contract end.

With npower they are unlikely (in my experience) to add on interest or charges, but there may have been a final amount due that you didn't receive a bill for if you didn't give a forwarding address. Npower should be able to give you a statement of account and copy invoices to substantiate what it relates to.

Good luck in getting them all sorted.

Rustvaar

Hopefully this doesn't sting too much, but looking at the figures you owe just under £1,500.

I think the best approach, if you're being charged interest on each one is to find out first and foremost, who's charging you the most for your current debts?

As Annie has said, a company now in possession of the debt might be more inclined to take on a lower offer - finding out which belong to a collection agency and write them an offer that you'd be able to pay off a suitable sum in one go if they would be willing to clear the debt upon receipt of that sum.

If you don't mind me asking, just how much money have you come into? I think if each debt is running a similar interest rate it would be best to totally wipe out the largest figure first; even if you pay off a little chunk of each it'll still begin to build back up. It'd do you a world of good to kill off a load of it in one fell swoop.

Best of luck.