Full & Final Settlement Advice

worriedsick22

Hi- I am stressed to high heaven and dont know what to do for the best at the minute. I cant get my head staright, have tried to search here and couldnt really find what I'm looking for. Any advice would be fantastic.

I wanted to ask everyone's advice as I am in the process of negotiating with 3 credit card companies to get a Full and Final settlement of £17,000 of debts. The alternative is that I go BR as I am on Incapacity Benefit and have no prospect of sorting the debts out. I have been a total idiot and only now am I facing up to reality and its not easy.

I owe £17000 to 3 Visa card companies and have made an offer of 35p in the pound as a relative can lend me some money to do this and then I'd have to pay them back at a slow rate. I have flipped money between cards and basically robbed Peter to pay Paul. This cant go on.

MBNA are one of the companies and they have written back saying they would take 45% in "short settlement". Can anyone tell me what this means? Does this result in adverse info at credit ref agencies and can they come back and try and seek the rest?

I am literally at my wit's end. One of the others has offered to freeze payments to £1 a month for 6 months then look again at it. Which ultimately will mean even more stress in 6 months time.

The other way out I guess would be to go BR and if it cant be sorted then I'll have to look at that as I have literally no assets.

I am sorry to bother everyone asking this stuff but I'm not sure who to turn to on this. I've seen my GP who shouted at me and told me I'd be on the street/living in my car or in prison if I dont sort myself out.

A very big thank you for any advice.

debtinfo

doesn't sound like a very nice GP.

Assuming that you have discounted bankruptcy (although you should have a look at this, maybe by phoning one of the free charity helplines) and want to make a settlement. Your credit rating is going to messed up for 6 years in any way so don't worry about this. If your health situation and job prospects are unlikely to improve then £1 payments dont help you as you will never pay it off. I would tell them that you are being EXTREMELY generous in the offer you have made, tell them that you will be making no future monthly payments and that in a bankruptcy they would get nothing and that you are seriously considering it. It is their choise of course but they will not get a better deal elsewhere

fatbelly

Your relative is giving you £6k to make these offers. There's no guarantee that the creditors would accept.

What about him/her giving you £360 to go bankrupt? Is there any reason why you shouldn't?