Full and Final Offer Advice Please

Runningbackwards_2

Hello Folks

Wonder if any of you can offer any advice. I have one main debt of approx £13,500 which due to becoming a full time carer I have been unable to re-pay.

I have been asked to make an offer by the DCA (or rather their Solicitors). The Loan is unsecured, I have no assets such as a car or house, no savings left, and live on £90 of benefits made up of Carers Allowance and Income Support per week - basically when I have paid for the essentials there is nothing left over, especially with winter fuel bills.

I have been offered £2,000 by a kind relative to either use this to settle the debt, or to use part of it to pay for BR.

Do you think the DCA will accept this sum? They have asked me to suplly a SOA - should I give them this? I would have thought they could see from the facts I have supplied to them that I don't have the resources to offer anything more - in fact without the possible gift of £2,000 I would be able to offer them not one penny.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

property.advert

I've never gotten to the bottom of just what people will take and thus cannot really attack my 50-100k of debt but I am still trying.

Some say agencies buy debt at less than 10% to about 20% of face value. My argument is going to be something like. You accept 20% or I go BR. That might be aggressive but if I was in their shoes and staring at someone offering 20k or me getting nothing and I thought they were really serious, I am not sure why I would not just accept the 20k.

Applying the same logic to your case, 20% would be £2700 and your £2000 is 14.8%.

If you haven't got it then you can't pay it I say and I would think about saying that you have nothing but a family member is willing to put up £2000 in full and final settlement and that is it. If the offer is not accepted within XYZ days then the offer is withdrawn.

Others know far more than me about the technicalities but in business, when faced with getting nothing or something, something is always better than nothing.

Runningbackwards_2

Thanks for the advice

So if they perhaps only paid 10% then they might just consider my offer...... There is no more money available so it's that amount or nothing!

Good luck to all of us trying to reach a settlement.

property.advert

Runningbackwards wrote: »

Thanks for the advice

So if they perhaps only paid 10% then they might just consider my offer...... There is no more money available so it's that amount or nothing!

Good luck to all of us trying to reach a settlement.

I guess you (and I eventually) have to get over strongly enough that there is no money available, zero, and you will proceed to BR to get them off your back. If you can convince them that there really is nothing but that to make all this go away, without having to go BR (which costs about £500), then a family member has offered £2000 and they have 7 days or whatever to decide.

The flip side of this coin is that you have to be prepared to go BR because you have only 1 more chance to do a deal and that is the "on the court steps" agreement where you pull back at the very end.

My guess is that the first line people you speak to cannot do the deal and you need to get hold of a supervisor or manager who you can convince that it really is £2000 or zero.

Goodtimesahead

Offer them £500 max or tell them to get lost, you have no assets and are a carer, I wouldn't lose sleep over it, these DCA are heartless besterds and if they think that you have you means of getting £2k they will push for more. The worst they can do is put a default on your account or go for a CCJ but in todays times the latter seems highly unlikey if they already know you have no assests. Whatever you do don't give them your telephone number, communicate only in writing and make sure as part of any settlement they remove any default on your credit files and any other derogatory info.

Also when did you take the loan out? if it was pre Apr 2007 there's a good chance its unenforceable anyway, in which case you wouldn't want to waste £2k of valuable family money, you would only be offering a nominal sum in F&F in that case!

Good luck, don't loses sleep about it!

Goodtimesahead

and don't even think about BR for that sum of money!

property.advert

Goodtimesahead wrote: »

Offer them £500 max or tell them to get lost, you have no assets and are a carer, I wouldn't lose sleep over it, these DCA are heartless besterds and if they think that you have you means of getting £2k they will push for more. The worst they can do is put a default on your account or go for a CCJ but in todays times the latter seems highly unlikey if they already know you have no assests. Whatever you do don't give them your telephone number, communicate only in writing and make sure as part of any settlement they remove any default on your credit files and any other derogatory info.

Also when did you take the loan out? if it was pre Apr 2007 there's a good chance its unenforceable anyway, in which case you wouldn't want to waste £2k of valuable family money, you would only be offering a nominal sum in F&F in that case!

Good luck, don't loses sleep about it!

You really have to think about it from their point of view if you are going to try and get a resolution. You are just wasting your time if you follow this advice.

If I, as a business, have bought a debt in for 15p in the £1 (£2025 in this case) then I am really not going to take £500 because I crystallise a loss of £1525. My worst case scerario is a loss of £2025 which is so near the offer as to make me reject it without thinking.

Of course, I make my money by collecting far more than 15% of the debt but when I am backed into a corner and am staring at very few "outs", then an offer to get this off my books with a small or near zero loss is attractive. It gives me the chance to get out and move on, wasting no more time on this.

Perhaps I would reduce the offer to £1500 but I might speak to them first. Many cannot speak to such people so I cannot answer for the OP but there is a price for getting rid of a problem, removing the stress and being able to forget and that price is worth paying if it is small enough. The alternative is to have it drag on and on, wearing down on the mental health of the debtor. That fact must be considered.

Goodtimesahead

Trust me these numpties wouldn't pay 15p in the £ for a debt where the customer has no assets, and is a carer on £90pw lol! Max they would pay is 5p for such a debt, if they paid more they would sure as hell be joining the ever growing number of Companies going to the wall! They buy these debts in blocks, so your's might be in for free anyway so whatever they get back is profit.

I don't recommend making telephone contact unless you are used the playing the game and are as cold and ruthless as they are, if they detect the slightest weakness be sure they will expolit it to the max!

Anyway first was the loan taken out pre Apr 2007 and if so when?