Pay off credit card totally, and cut up, for a discount

sarymclary

[QUOTE=

I am not trying to do anything other than give them an opportunity to settle the debt to their advantage, otherwise they wont do it. It is merely working out what those benefits vs their risk is. And putting a price on it.[/QUOTE]


Do you really think taking an offer under the £13k you owe is to the bank's advantage? It's been mentioned already that it's more advantageous for the bank to keep you and your £13k debt, and in an ideal world you'll pay the minimum payment each month, the 0% will end, you won't be able to move your debt elsewhere easily as the offers are becoming less and less on the 0%and then you're back to paying interest on your £13k. What evidence do they have at the moment to show the debt is at risk? If you've no arrears, and no voluntary arrangement with them already, in commercial terms alone, taking an offer would be a poor decision on their part. It's only ever going to be attractive to them if you've already made the debt appear risky. Right now, with no poor track record with the debt (I'm assuming), they'd be fools to lose you. The bank wins. This is a relatively small debt to the bank, yes, but in commercial terms it's been a good one so far.

Why don't you just attempt switching your debt, or at least a portion of it to another 0% offer if you can find one instead?

Otherwise, why not ask your kind bank director friend to escort you to your local branch to get another great deal, or see if he can help you with your negotiations for an offer?

You keep mentioning the costs involved in administrating your debt, and any other departments that might become involved, or forwarding the debt onto a collections agency. The top 5 banks declared their mid-term results last week, and I don't see any of them struggling to make vast profits, despite 100,000 people obviously having serious financial problems this year, and having to file for bankruptcy (which must have involved most, if not all of the departments you mentioned). It was just a thought, but your £13k is looking like a smaller and smaller drop in their ocean of non-commercial opportunity.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do. BTW, I don't think we posters are necessarily emotional as such, but if you were to have a browse through the other forums on here, you'd realise that there a some guys on here with some very serious problems, who appreciate the advice given, whether it's positive or not, perhaps we were shortsighted enough to think we might have been helping you out.

Paul_Herring

NickNik wrote:

[...]What I owe includes the charges which many people find excessive.
[...]That is why I asked the question in the first place.
If you have an answer to my original question, I would be delighted to have your thoughts.

You appear to have missed this little fact out of your original question, and it appears that most people missed it in this reply.

Pay off the total amount currently due. Then take them to court for the charges. See the bank charging arguement threads for details.

(And for those who've seen my differing opinion on this sort of action on the bank charging threads, I'm not trying to advocate this approach, merely pointing out the route the OP should be taking to achieving what they're after)

The_Boss

Why would they accept a lesser figure? They will rejecet because what will happen is either

1. You then pay back in full the correct amount you owe, meaning they win.
2. You dont pay back the correct amount, meaning they charge interest and win.

As said before, negotiating will result in an 'arrangement to pay' which will seriously screw over future chances of getting any credit.

Nicky321

I rang several credit card companies on 25th August for the balance outstanding as I was going to pay it off. After I had received the balance I proceeded to pay them. Today I have rang the companies again to check that the balance outstanding is now £0.00. All but 2 of the cards are balances of £0.00, but 2 have now had interest charges applied. I wouldnt have minded but one of the cards i have incurred interest charges of £60.60 (balance i settled was £4352.34) which was applied to my account on the 24th August (the day before I rang) the other £35.28 (balance i settled was £2380.53). All accounts are clear apart from the interest charges and I feel that I should have been told about these. Either the balance is £xx amount excluding the interest we are going to add. Im going to see if they are willing to remove this charge as a gesture of goodwill. As I believe i wasnt informed of the correct outstanding amount.

M_Thomson

Nicky321 wrote:

I rang several credit card companies on 25th August for the balance outstanding as I was going to pay it off. After I had received the balance I proceeded to pay them. Today I have rang the companies again to check that the balance outstanding is now £0.00. All but 2 of the cards are balances of £0.00, but 2 have now had interest charges applied. I wouldnt have minded but one of the cards i have incurred interest charges of £60.60 (balance i settled was £4352.34) which was applied to my account on the 24th August (the day before I rang) the other £35.28 (balance i settled was £2380.53). All accounts are clear apart from the interest charges and I feel that I should have been told about these. Either the balance is £xx amount excluding the interest we are going to add. Im going to see if they are willing to remove this charge as a gesture of goodwill. As I believe i wasnt informed of the correct outstanding amount.

Were the balances made up of any balance transfers, purchases or cash advances that were not at 0%? If so then the only way to not get charged interest on these is to pay off the balances in full on the date that the statement is printed. You should have been told this at the time, but I don't think you'll get the interest refunded. If you pay them in full this month, then that should clear it.

Nicky321

M_Thomson wrote:

Were the balances made up of any balance transfers, purchases or cash advances that were not at 0%? If so then the only way to not get charged interest on these is to pay off the balances in full on the date that the statement is printed. You should have been told this at the time, but I don't think you'll get the interest refunded. If you pay them in full this month, then that should clear it.

your joking right???? lol, well it was a no go, they refused to cancel the interest charges even though they new about them and didnt include them in the settlement figure... to make it worse the balance of £92.97 on one card cant be paid over the phone (they reckon) and it then takes about 4 days to be credited into the account... so yes you guessed..... everytime i get a figure, im going to pay it...... then it takes 4 days....... 4 days interest......and yet the balance will still not be £0.... is this there way of keeping customers :mad: