Full & Final settlement negotiations

baglady

Good Morning,

This is my first posting - I do hope I'm in the right place.

I wanted to find out if I'm being told porkies by a guy from Inrtrum Justicia (IJ) I have a Royal Bank of Scotland debt - can't remember if it was a loan or credit card. Debt was passed to them in Feb 2006, prior to that I was being chased by Triton credit services. Debt is for £1,800. I've been paying £40 or so montly.

I'm now in a postion to clear the debt but don't want to pay full amount outstanding. I called IJ today to negotiate a full & final. Said client will only offer 25% discount. He says if any higher then on my credit file some money will still show as outstanding and it will be difficult to get credit. H says that they are working for the client and have not bought the debt from them. Is he telling the truth or just using ploy? I told him that I would get back to him later. He wasn't nasty or anything but I just don't trust debt agencies.

Thanks in advance for any advice
Baglady

sportbeth

baglady wrote:

Good Morning,

This is my first posting - I do hope I'm in the right place.

I wanted to find out if I'm being told porkies by a guy from Inrtrum Justicia (IJ) I have a Royal Bank of Scotland debt - can't remember if it was a loan or credit card. Debt was passed to them in Feb 2006, prior to that I was being chased by Triton credit services. Debt is for £1,800. I've been paying £40 or so montly.

I'm now in a postion to clear the debt but don't want to pay full amount outstanding. I called IJ today to negotiate a full & final. Said client will only offer 25% discount. He says if any higher then on my credit file some money will still show as outstanding and it will be difficult to get credit. H says that they are working for the client and have not bought the debt from them. Is he telling the truth or just using ploy? I told him that I would get back to him later. He wasn't nasty or anything but I just don't trust debt agencies.

Thanks in advance for any advice
Baglady

They are blagging you a bit. They are starting at their first negotiating point and in any negotiation you would try and work them down. You should start at 50% and work up. You should do this in writing though, I found e-mail extremely useful when I was negotiating a F&F as you have documented proof of all conversations.

He is also being a bit cheeky about the credit oustanding bit. If you negotiate a full and final that's exactly what it is. You need to get a letter from them confirming that the offer is in full and final settlement and then get a letter confrming the same and that they have recieved payment once you've paid up. Then if you have anything outstanding on your credit file you can go to the Information Commissioners office and get it corrected.

If its a credit card file though I would highly recommend that once you've sorted this then you go back to the original creditor and start the process to get your charges back. If you've defaulted on a credit card with that amount I'd guarantee there are some fees on there that you can get back regardless of whether the card is defaulted or not. Or perhaps you can save yourself some time and get it investigated now and get the money knocked off the full and final. You'll find info on that at https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk

baglady

Thanks Sportbeth for the advice, I've just looked through my paperwork and the debt is for a Royal Bank of Scotland credit card I had in 2002 that I maxed out to £3,700.

Yes I always believed that a full & final settlement was just that so I did find it strange listening to what he was saying. I've been doing it over the phone to save time but I do need a letter from them confirming the f & f amount as I need to send it solicitors for them to raise the cheque. I remortgaged to raise extra funds to clear various debts and the solicitors have insisted on raising individual cheques payable to the individual debtors.

I did also think that if there was a discrepancy indicating any money outstanding then a letter confirming that f &f had been paid was suffice to get any records/files amended.

Thank you for the info about getting the charges back from the original creditor. This was somehting that I didn't know about. I'll start the process once I've paid the f & f as I want to get the cheque raised by next week.

Thanks again

baglady

They are not budging on 25% discount. Each person I speak to is like a robot sticking to the script. Any tips?

iolanthe07

If you can afford to pay the full amount outstanding, then you should do so. Why should you get away with anything less?