Full & Final Settlements - advice needed please!

wannabedebtfree_2

Ok, with it being 2010 I need to grab the :money:bull by the horns. I have 'tried' for too long and it hasn't got any better.

I am paying out £650+ per month to CC's :eek: and each month just under £300 is coming off my balances :mad:, at this rate we will be skint for another 43 months (according to the snowball calculator) and we never have any moeny for emergencies (like car breakdowns) or even any savings for annual stuff like car tax so we're well and truly stuck in the CC spiral.

If I were to empty my kids savings (I'd be able to pay it back pretty quick if I had £650 per month left over) I could scrape together about £5k so my questions are these;

Altogether we have currently have £22k debt on cards (this makes me feel sick and want to cry) so I would be offering each creditor about 22%........are they likely to accept this??

OR as two of the CC are on good balance transfer deals I could leave those out, which would make my offers to the others 30%ish.

I have looked it up and know how to calculate each offer, I have letter templates ready but what I want to know is how realistic it is that they will accept an offer, does anyone have experience of this good or bad???

I just want these debts gone now, and then we would be able to manage brilliantly on the money we have, at the moment we are existing and not living (we couldn't even afford a bloomin Sun £9.50 holiday last year - the last family holiday we had was in 2001, we've only ever had 3!!) I just want to stop worrying about money all the time..........so please help!

DarkConvict

Are these credit debts with the original creditor or a debt collection agency. If they are with the original creditor like a bank they are unlikely to accept under 70% offers because to them they are still worth alot.
A DCA on the otherhand would have brought them at a big discount so often accepts sub 50% offers, i.e. 20-50%.

You need to focus all your energy on tackling and clearing debts before beginning to think about the holiday yet, consider it the prise for getting debt free.
It is also a good idea for pre april 2007 debts to get a CCA of it, if it is not valid it might give you some room to pay off the others first before coming back to them.

I personally think something like a DMP would suit you better on what you have said as it is the interest that is stopping you getting debt free. You would do well to give national debtline a call and see what they say about your circumstances.

wannabedebtfree_2

Thanks, they are all with the original creditors as I don't miss payments.

Don't misunderstand what I was saying about the holiday, there certainly won't be one until we are debt free, which is in 43 months if I continue as I am, which means my kids will be 18 & 17............actually, working that out has just made me cry!!!! They have never known a life which is carefree, they always ask if they can go on trips etc and if they think they cost 'too much' they don't even ask.........bless 'em.......don't get me wrong they haven't gone without completely, my son went to Germany before xmas, but we are suffering as a family.

I will look into a DMP, but it will still mean a very long DFD, and I have been battling with this for years already. For one card in particular I have paid them over £7000 in the past few years yet I have paid almost £4000 in interest, my debt would have been gone a long time ago. They offered me 'an arrangement to pay' at 0% for 6 months but people here advised me against it as it is on your credit file, but then so would a DMP so I don't really know where to turn now!

wannabedebtfree_2

I have just filled in all the online CCCS forms and they recommend a DMP paying £435 per month, making my DFD 49 months.........I feel like I am finally losing the plot, I just don't know what to do! I just can't face this for another 4 years........what do I do?

Deep_In_Debt

If the debts are still with the original creditors and you've not been showing signs of struggling or missing payments - it's unlikely they will accept anything less than the full amount.

4 years is just a pointer - when I started my dmp in January 2008 CCCS told me it would take me 9 years to clear mine but I now reduced that to just under 5 years. I've saved since I've been on my dmp and lucky enough to have had pay rises and bonuses at work so anything extra has been going towards my debts.

A dmp may be the way to go to start with and see how you get on.

wannabedebtfree_2

I am now sat sobbing, I have just had a phonecall with Nationwide who took me through a very basic SOA to then tell me I can currently meet the minimum payments so they can't enter me into any sort of arrangement. He calculated that I could pay £208 per month, when cccs recommend £139.........I am so !!!!!!! upset and confused!!

He said if I send a copy of the thing I did with cccs they might be able to help.........I just want to get out of debt.....why is no-one willing to help???

Deep_In_Debt

I'd go with CCCS. Nationwide are probably trying to bully you into paying more. CCCS will negotiate for you.