Negotiation to pay a reduced settlement on credit card

chris_gray1980

Hi all

I wonder if you can help me,

i have a credit card with the Halifax which has a total of £2585 (or there about's) and the interest is a silly 25% a month in essence i pay around £57 a months (min payment) and the interest is around £46-£48 a month and so i pay off on average about £10 a month so will take MANY years to clear.

I have been talking to my mum and she has offered to help me and she has said she will pay the card off for me and i will then pay her £60 a month until the loan is re-paid this way i will at least pay the loan of quicker than i would pay the card off with that kind of interest.

my question is - my mum asked me to try negotiating with my credit card company to see if they will accept a reduced settlement, i have never defaulted on the card since i started using it about 4-5 years ago and the credit card is with my main bank (wages and direct debits), my mum said default on it and then open talks with them but the of-set rule i assume will apply, they will just take the payment if not more if they want to so i do not think defaulting is an option (not like i want to default any way) but i would like to pay the balance off and as cheap as possible if possible. is there any hints or tips you can offer to allow me to pay back a little bit less that my balance actually is, i know people who have done it in the past and saved a lot of money but i think most of them defaulted and then opened negotiations.

I look forward to hearing from you all and thank you in advance.

Chris

foolishboy

chris_gray1980 wrote: »

Hi all

I wonder if you can help me,

i have a credit card with the Halifax which has a total of £2585 (or there about's) and the interest is a silly 25% a month in essence i pay around $57 a months (min payment) and the interest is around £46-£48 a month and so i pay off on average about £10 a month so will take MANY years to clear.

I have been talking to my mum and she has offered to help me and she has said she will pay the card off for me and i will then pay her £60 a month until the loan is re-paid this way i will at least pay the loan of quicker than i would pay the card off with that kind of interest.

my question is - my mum asked me to try negotiating with my credit card company to see if they will accept a reduced settlement, i have never defaulted on the card since i started using it about 4-5 years ago and the credit card is with my main bank (wages and direct debits), my mum said default on it and then open talks with them but the of-set rule i assume will apply, they will just take the payment if not more if they want to so i do not think defaulting is an option (not like i want to default any way) but i would like to pay the balance off and as cheap as possible if possible. is there any hints or tips you can offer to allow me to pay back a little bit less that my balance actually is, i know people who have done it in the past and saved a lot of money but i think most of them defaulted and then opened negotiations.

I look forward to hearing from you all and thank you in advance.

Chris

Move the balance to a 0% card? Or a 0% card in your mum's name seeing as she'd be helping you out anyway.

If you did manage to negotiate a reduced settlement I'm pretty sure they'll default you (after all, you will have broken the agreement to repay everything in full) and mark you as partial payment on your credit file, neither of which are good news for you and you'll struggle to get mainstream credit for a few years - this is a VERY bad thing, avoid at all costs, believe me Of course if your file is knackered anyway then negotiation might not be so bad.

HTH
FB

chris_gray1980

Hi FB

i really did not know that about if you pay a reduced settlement it goes on your credit file, if im honest yes my credit file is knackered, but i have been trying to rebuild it by using a credit card which has a credit limit of £300 all i do is use it and pay it off monthly in the hope that builds me up a bit because i hate having a bad credit file from past events that were not directly my fault BUT onwards and upwards.

Unfortunately a credit card for me is a no no, they wont even entertain it BUT my mum getting a credit card and transferring my balance does sound very interesting that way my mum doesn't have to pay out a large sum of money, is this something that you can do? transfer one persons credit card debt on to another person credit card?

Thanks

Chris

CannyJock

chris_gray1980 wrote: »

i have a credit card with the Halifax which has a total of £2585 (or there about's) and the interest is a silly 25% a month in essence i pay around £57 a months (min payment) and the interest is around £46-£48 a month and so i pay off on average about £10 a month so will take MANY years to clear.

I have been talking to my mum and she has offered to help me and she has said she will pay the card off for me and i will then pay her £60 a month until the loan is re-paid this way i will at least pay the loan of quicker than i would pay the card off with that kind of interest.

my question is - my mum asked me to try negotiating with my credit card company to see if they will accept a reduced settlement, i have never defaulted on the card since i started using it about 4-5 years ago and the credit card is with my main bank (wages and direct debits), my mum said default on it and then open talks with them but the of-set rule i assume will apply, they will just take the payment if not more if they want to so i do not think defaulting is an option (not like i want to default any way) but i would like to pay the balance off and as cheap as possible if possible. is there any hints or tips you can offer to allow me to pay back a little bit less that my balance actually is, i know people who have done it in the past and saved a lot of money but i think most of them defaulted and then opened negotiations.

I look forward to hearing from you all and thank you in advance.

Chris

You need to default before they'll entertain it. And even then it will still leave a marker that it was only partially settled. You've already said that you haven't defaulted so your credit rating may not be as bad as you think.

Why not simply take your mum up on her offer and pay her the £60 per month.

25% APR isn't ridiculous for credit card interest. Spending money you've no way of repaying is fairly stupid though.

You seriously can't pay any more than £60 a month to your debts?