Full & final offers, on the brink of bankruptcy

seh567

Having bean on a DMP with CCCS for a couple of months and before token payments for 4 months I have now become unemployed again. I have debts totalling £16k and CCCS have recommended bankruptcy. I am desperately trying to avoid this at the moment because in my last pay packet I had £1500 wages & £500 bonus. My understanding is that the OR will take a big chunk of this as an asset after living expense and I would probably lose my car as well. After discussions with my parents they are willing to give me £7k for full & final settlements.

My debt is with Mercers (Barclaycard), Moorcroft (Nationwide), Egg, Alliance & Leicester and Natwest bank.

Mercers have already sent me a letter offering a 75% f & f settlement which I didn't even ask for. What are the chances of any of them agreeing to a settlement within the next month.

If I can't get agreements I will have no choice but to go bankrupt in early January.

Thanks

worried_jim

The cccs may have a dept that specialises in f & f settlements I know that Payplan do, I would give them a call and tell them that you have 75% of £16k as If one creditor will accept this maybe they all will which will be a lot less than £7k. Good luck!

seh567

Think I misled. Mercers offered 25% off the debt not 75%.

I have £7k against £16k which equates to 43%.

Regards

worried_jim

How would bankruptcy effect you, are you a home owner?

seh567

Hi, I am single and live in a housing association flat and I don't own any properties. I have a car worth approx £1300 and have approx £1400 in the bank which was my last wage and bonus before being laid off. Currently unemployed just applied for JSA, HB & CTB

worried_jim

Go Bankrupt today ! at £1300 your car is worthless. Have a good chat with cccs and follow there advice, you have nothing to loose except £1500 against £16k. No brainer.

hart_2

Why should he go Bankrupt, I think its a nonsense for £16k!

Have you done the CCA route to see if these scummy DCA's hold any enforceable agreements, what years did you take out these agreements, were they all prior Apr 2007? These DCA's will have bought the debt for between 7-15% in the £ so think about it, offer them 20% max as full & final settlement no more, especially considering your circumstances. Certainly don't go Bankrupt yourself it cost you money!! if these scummy DCA's have the money let them pay for it, let them do it but, I doubt they would even bother. Anyway they haven't even got a CCJ yet! Bankrupcy is a very last resort, easy for someone else to tell you to do it, maybe if you owed £160k the creditors might want to go for it but unless they thought you had hidden assests why would they bother?

Fight your corner and stand up to these to$$ers, many ordinary people are doing just that and winning.

All the best and good luck!

Maybe ask NID he seems to be very knowledge about these CCA matters

hart_2

Remember these DCA's use very nasty tactics and send all sorts of threatening letters, preying on the poor and vunerable, using every trick in the book to get money back from you, the more they can get the bigger their profits, if they see you as a soft touch they will ramp up the demands. Certainly I would advise not telling them you have family ready to cough up £7k that would be music to their ears, they will push for much more. They really are very cunning and will stop at nothing to get more from you!

Remember its your parents hard earned money and a small part of your future inheritance no doubt.

In fact 20% is too much to offer! Ask nid too see if he thinks you have a case to go down the CCA route, not sure if its too late or not?

If all the agreements are unenforceable they won't be able to get a penny off you! If that route is not an option then offer them 10% full&final saying you know my circumstances, no job, on HB and no assets, take or leave it. I can't see them bothering even to get a CCJ out on you as that would cost them money too! They will know you have Sweet FA to give them anyway. There are hundreds of thousands like you where the DCA's have just left a default on your credit file for 6 years (Big deal!) You can live with those but Bankrupcy A BIG NO NO! in my honest opinion.

Time to stand up and fight Seh567!

DarkConvict

My friend went bankruptcy in September for his 3rd time, with debts of £10,000. Mostly due to a mess-up in his tax affairs but also my the harsh tactics used by Vanquis Credit Card.

unhappy_with_ecar

I agree with the previous posts, you have no assets and no money, there's no need for you to go bankrupt. Of course its a personal choice, but for 16K its not worth the effort.
Get copies of the agreements, if they actually have them and they are signed and right then keep the token payments going of a £1 a month. Don't tell them you have parents money, suggest you might be able to borrow some money from a friend. Then as suggested offer them full and final settlement anywhere around 10-20% of the debt.
I've negotiated full and final settlements for people of around 20% and then got it interest free payable at £10 per month. The older this debt gets, the less money they will want to settle it. If they don't accept, tell them that is all you can offer, keep paying the £1 a month and you'd be surprised at what they will end up accepting.
Keep all correspondence in writing and make sure you get them to update your credit file showing the debt as settled and removing any defaults.

hart_2

Yes why go Bankrupt! Better to live with some defaults than the big B on your files for 6yrs, after a few years, lenders aren't too bothered about old defaults.

Living with the big B is much harder and it could have a bearing on where you live as technically you would be in breach of the terms of your rental agreement and it could have a bearing on any future job applications or things where you can often be asked on the form/s have you ever been declared bankrupt before, you can't lie about those sorts of things!

These DCA's ofetn send nonsense letters in big red letters about making you bankrupt its a sick joke really, if you read these forums you will become more knowledgable and know their tricks, once they know you are streetwise about these matters they won't bother you and move onto the next one they can manipulate with their not very nice staff using every trick in the book to get money from you!

Yes if you do manage to get them to fall in line and agree a full & final only do it in writing and on the basis they must remove all defaults and other onerous data from ALL your credit files, there are standard letters for this available, NID and a few others knows all about these matters.

Good Luck mate.