The Way Forward with Full and Finals

Ex-Spendaholic

Can someone please advise the best plan for these. We have a sum of money now to throw at these in the hope of getting a discount to clear them.

In the meantime I have CCAd both of them and asked for a list of charges applied. I reckon there should be a fair few charges on the RBS but not many on Egg.


Egg (with CDUK) £6674 - paying £100 per month, interest stopped, taken out approx 2005

RBS (with Triton) £4522 - paying £100 per month, interest stopped, taken out 1995/1996

What is the best way forward? Do I wait until they respond to the CCA requests? Do I wait until the provide a list of charges? Do I go ahead and make an offer. What is the lowest realistically I am likely to get away with on these?

Many thanks.

Tixy

Were these credit cards?

Yes I would wait for the CCAs or confirmation they can't find them.

If they are with DCAs you could try starting offers around 30% (if no CCA maybe even a bit lower) - the national debtline factsheet has a good template letter and details the process.
Always start low, you can't negotiate down and can always go up if needs be.

Ex-Spendaholic

Thanks for your reply Tixy. :beer:
Yes both are credit cards and both are with DCAs.

GeorgeUK

If the debt is with a DCA, depending on the amount of time they have had it and bearing in mind that you are already paying a fair amount to them, you could start by making an offer of about 30%, making it clear that this is a full and final offer, not a partial or short settlement.

If the debt was with the original creditor, you may have been able to pay 50%-75%, but if the debt has been bought by a DCA, they may accept 30%-50%. Do you know if they are dealing with this on behalf of the OC or if they have bought the debt? If you can afford it, you may be able to start negotiating at 50% but as it is a DCA, i would start lower and see what their counteroffer is if any. It will take then 4/6 years to collect on the full amount so it may be worth their while in getting a lump sum now.

If you wait for the CCA's to come through, they would be mad to not accept any offer if it turns out that the debt is unenforcable. Sometimes it is best to point out that you are aware of this but feel obliged to make an offer anyway. Definately wait and see what the outcome is but remember they are allowed to give you reproductions unders s77/78 of the CCA74. You may not get to see the original CCA unless you do a SAR.

Ex-Spendaholic

Thanks for that George, its much appreciated as I really don't have much knowledge on this. :beer:

One of the debts is Mint (RBS). It is with Triton Credit Services. I have a strange feeling that this is just a division of RBS though. So I don't really know whether this one has been bought or not. It has been with Triton for about 2.5 years. Funnily enough we had that card for about 10 years and cleared the balance each month until things went pear shaped.

The other is Egg Card. It is with CD UK. Again I don't know if they bought they debt or not. It has been with CD UK for about 1.5 years.

With both I have asked for the CCA but have also sent £10 in for a SAR in order to get the penalty charges details so presumably I may get a signed copy of the CCA in with that.

Ex-Spendaholic

Actually I have a horrible feeling that the DCAs are just acting on behalf of the banks.

I just looked at a CD UK letter and it refers to "Creditor - Egg Banking".

Likewise I still receive an online statement each month from Mint.

So bearing this in mind are they going to be more difficult to negotiate with?

GeorgeUK

It depends really - have they issued a default on your credit file?

If they have and the agreement is not enforcable, they have nothing that they can threaren you with so it's in their best interest to settle. You may have a slight problem with Egg though. If the agreement was made online before (i think) 2004, then a signature is not required and i'm really not up to speed on online agreements. They are definately treated differently though.

itsalongroad

Triton is part of RBS - its an internal debt collection arm

Good luck

averageguy11

I thought all the business with debts not being enforceable was history with the recent court judgement??

Ex-Spendaholic

averageguy11 wrote: »

I thought all the business with debts not being enforceable was history with the recent court judgement??

Honestly don't know. People on here still seem to be doing the CCA thing so I kind of just copied them. :rotfl:

GeorgeUK

The recent court case was very badly reported.

In short, when you make a request for a copy of the CCA under s.77/78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, they must provide a 'true copy' of the agreement. Due to amendments in 1983, creditors were not required to provide a copy of the original signed document and could give a reproduction without any signatures. This case just clarifies what is required to be provided for a s.77/78 request - it does not close any kind of loophole. The unenforcability of the agreements is part of the legislation itself - not a loophole.

s.127 of the Act states that if the agreement is not properly executed (with the prescribed terms and in the prescribed form), then a court MUST NOT issue an enforcement order. If a creditor were to take you to court, they would need to provide the judge with a copy of the original agreement - not the reproduction. And this would need to be properly executed for the judge to rule that the agreement was enforcable (although you would need to make the arguments and point out the relevent sections of the legislation).

That doesn't really sound like what has been reported does it?
If the original agreement is not enforcable then the courts should not enforce it. A request for a copy of the CCA under s.77/78 simply means that they can provide a reproduction rather than a copy of the original and this case clarified exactly what was required of the creditors to meet their legal requirements.