making long term deals with debt collectors

kezflake

Well the good news is im now in a position to repay my debt and bf and i are hoping to pay all 17k of it within 2 years before starting a family.

Our debt is completly with the debt collectors now and between 9 diferent agencies I always thought the debt collectors were a bad thing but there seems to be advantages.

1 they dont seem to charge interest
2 they are keen to offer 50% settlements and considering to we spent nowhere near the 17k we actualy owe this feels fair to us.

There are a few things im unsure of thought but i dont understand the process

if i make long term agreements and stick to them with these agencies will this effect my credit rating at all or positivly or negativly just because of the fact that it has been passed on to an agency?

will settlements adversly effect my credit rating?

will collection agencies pass on record details of good repayment so when we finally try to get that mortgage we so desperatly want we can

if i make and stick to these arrangements can they pass us back to the origional creditor?

We have an agency who are handeling a loan bf took out 4 year ago for £1500 we paid on time for 3 years at £250 per month and currently now owe £3500 as redundency left us in a position of not been able to affor to pay back and the interest was £200ish per month anyway the debt agency are not charging any intersest and now we can make the £250 per month payment again we are keen to stick with them.

I have googled all this but i dont seem to get a straight answer from anywhere

thanks im so confused (and my spell checker wont work so i did the best i can for a dyslexic):)

Tixy

Hi

Re your credit rating - you will already have defaults for these debts recoreded on your credit report. Making a long term arrangement to pay will probably have little extra effect on your credit report (its possible that a DCA would mark your file as 'arrangement to pay' but I don't think they often do.

Settlements could adversley affect your credit rating - it depends on what you get the DCA to agree to - whether they will agree to show your settlement as a full settlement (not partial) on your credit report. When it comes time to make settlements read this article and template letter - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=24_full_and_final_settlement_offers
You can always start your offer low (some will accept less than 50% if you negotiate hard).

will collection agencies pass on a record of good repayment - unlikely.

Can they pass back to original creditor - unlikely - this usually only happens if you request the CCA (consumer credit agreement) and they don't have it and the OC cannot provide it to them. Or if at the time the debt was sold it was already statute barred (in which case even if they pass it back you won't need to pay). Though sometimes the debt may not be actually sold on, just collected on behalf of the OC.

A couple of other issues you may already be aware of (but in case you are not)
-could any of your debts be statute barred? this is when you have not made any payment or acknowledged the debt for 6years or more (and providing there is no CCJ).

-if any cc/catalogue debts have you considered trying to reclaim any charges (if applicable).

-have you considered requesting the CCAs and seeing if any of the debts could be unenforceable? - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2305463 (you may decide its not the right route for you but might want to have a read).

Did you have any PPI at the time of redundancy on any of the debts and did you try to claim on it at the time? or have you considered if any PPI could have been missold.

Good luck