full and finals sent...

workinonit

Hello, more of a lurker than a poster, but I know I find other peoples stories and experiences useful, so I thought I'd throw mine onto the forum.

Very brief background - got into debt starting a business, around £35k of debt to start, credit cards and personal loan, no assets.

Been on a CCCS plan for a couple of years, run very smoothly and I've been lucky that all my creditors were receptive. Couple of defaults at the start, but nothing more nasty.

Debt is around £15k now and the business - after a long road - is looking able to pay out a reasonable lump of money. So, I sent off letters to the credit card companies (4 in total) yesterday with F&F's using the national debtline template. Offers around 55-60% of the value. All the debts are with their original holders, no DCA's involved... yet.

I won't mention the companies names until I get some feedback from them in a slightly paranoid, you never know who is reading these things way.

So that's my story at the moment, I'll update with info for anyone that is interested when I have it.

workinonit

right, well not exactly a great start. Bit more detail now, so any advice based on this would be appreciated.

Card 1 - balance approx £3500, default already lodged a few years ago. Payment about £60 pm via CCCS. Offered about 55%, not interested at all. Said with the payments I'm making it would need to be 90% + for them to accept.

Card 2 - £3000 no default on my record from them, £50 pm. Again offered around 55%, they said no and came back offering 75% but with a partial satisfied mark on my file.

I've got 2 defaults in total which are almost half the way through now, while it saves me some money, doesn't seem enough for having some fresh big black marks.

Not heard from the rest yet, any thoughts/opinions welcome.

DGJsaver

If the debts are still with the OC`s then you will struggle to get them to accept any offers , you did well on the 75% one......once they get sold to DCA then you would have a better chance of them accepting...lower than 55% as well i would say , but in turn you`ll get a default for the remaining accounts

workinonit

The 75% seems pretty good to me, but the issue of the partially satisfied is the concern. Is this something anyone has successfully renegotiated? This is with a company that is part of Bank of Scotland.

DarkConvict

Some OC's have accepted lower offers recently.

The important bit is that they will nor a 3rd party not pursue for the remainder of the debt. Partially satisfied is what is put on the credit report.

workinonit

thanks for that DarkConvict, I've gone down the third party route. From the first couple of response from creditors I'm thinking I'm just going to have to ride it out. Hoping my income will be going up a lot as the year progresses, so while I'm desperate to put this whole thing behind me, it'll be a little short sighted to do further damage to my file, when the light at the end of the tunnel might not be too far away anyway.

I'll be debt free at some point! Just looks like this short-cut isn't going to work. Guess I'll see if better news arrives from the remaining creditors, though not holding my breath.

workinonit

theme continues... card 3, not interested in a discount at all, though they did suggest I could pay a lump sum and this would reduce my monthly payment! What a useful suggestion...

seems to me that if your debt plan runs smoothly, they'll happily just sit and wait for the balance to eventually clear. I guess I'll be too much of a credit risk for years to come, but for now I'm not enough of a risk for them to just take what they can to close the matter.

workinonit

card 4, only interested in 95% settlement. What a glorious failure my F&f process has been. Better keep these monthlies going!