3 cards repaid with partial resettlement - ok??

cymrubaby

Hi there, a few years ago the hubby and I had a few credit cards on the go. Our second child was born with a lot of disabilities and so I quit work to take care of him until he became full-time school age. With the reduction of income we were struggling to repay even the minimums off our cards and in the end all of them went as far as the collection agencies.

We were repaying each one at a rate of between £30-£80 a month EACH and with 5 cards it was still a lot of money to repay each month from one income. Anyway, my HSBC card offered for me to repay half the amount in full and then it would be settled. I did this and had a letter to say that the account was now satisfied and closed. Then my Capital One lender offered for me to repay roughly half my balance by way of settlement and I also took this offer and then received a letter saying the account was now satisfied and closed with a special flag of 'partial settlement' noted on my credit file. My husband also took up an offer with his Capital One card to do the same thing and has been told his credit file will also be flagged with the same 'partial resettlement' note.

I'd like to do this with our remaining two credit cards (Barclaycard and Tesco) if the offer becomes available to us but I'm worried that the words 'partial resettlement' will look bad on our credit file. Of course I am very grateful that we were given the opportunities to settle and close accounts earlier (and without interest) but was just wondering whether this counts against us?

I'm not planning on applying for credit for at least the next 6-7 years as I am about to start a 3 year degree plus a one year PGCE after that. After that I'm hoping to save at least a 10-15% deposit for a house and I know that will take a couple of years so I know I won't be applying for a mortgage until roughly 2016. Will all this still affect me then?

I always wanted to wipe off our cards ourselves rather than ever try to write them off as it was our fault - after all, it was us who spent on them and we know we were a bit silly with them . I'm hoping future creditors (namely mortgage company) will see that even though we settled the accounts partially that we at least settled them ourselves.

CLAPTON

Partial settlement means what is says so any potential lender will know you didn't repay in full.
This will affect lenders willingness to lend to you
They will drop off your credit files after 6 years.
Mortgages are somewhat different from other loans as they are secured... however they may insist on a higher deposit and charge a higher APR.

suewiththeblues

hi
egg have offered me a part/short settlement, with an assurance that the blance showing on my credit file will be nil, and that the remainder wont be pursued, howver others on here are saying that part settlement is not good and it must be full and final settlement only am really 50/50 as to whether or not to go ahead with it now have you had any repraisals?