Full and Final Settlement Acceptance Letter

jackiebear_2

Hi bottleofred

I'm not sure how to start a new thread, but it was on a barclaycard from about 5 years ago, I've been paying them through a debt plan. The balance at the moment is over £5000 and the settlement figure was only £600 which is why I can't believe it's cosha!
Yours sincerely
Jackie

WRINKLES

Pott5y wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the info guys.

Believe you me I will be keeping my eye on them like a hawk.

I have just received another letter accepting from Wescot. They are much more vague and have only accepted the amount as a full and final offer. You can be rest assured that I will not be sending them a penny until they confirm everything as per my letter:

'[FONT=&quot]I want to re-offer this as an ex-gratia payment in full and final settlement of the account. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This offer is made on the clear understanding that, if accepted, neither you nor any associate company will take any other action to enforce or pursue this debt in any way whatsoever and that I will be released from any liability.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I also request that, if accepted, you will make an entry on a credit reference agency file relating to the above account as having been “satisfied” in full and the account closed.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As advised by CCCS no lump sum will be available until I have received written confirmation of all points in the above offer.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]However if you are unable to accept my offer then I will regrettably have to withdraw the offer and continue paying my monthly re-payments via Payplan.'[/FONT]


Wonder how long it will take them to confirm.


Anyway thanks again for all the advice

Do not offer an ex gratia payment this means you are giving them money for free ,be carefull how you word a letter to a DCA.

pipsi_2

I have a debt with Barclaycard, it was passed onto Wescot, when i first spoke tot hem after receiving a letter from them it was around 1700, the debt is in the region of £850, i was offered a final settlement of £165 to pay off the debt, i explained to the girl i spoke to that i didn't have the money in my account so would need to call my Mum and my sister to see if they could help, i explained that they were on holiday at the time so even if they could lend me the money i would need for them to find somewhere with internet so that they could transfer the money to me, so i would call back the following day to make the payment. After many calls back and forward to Portugal where they were on holiday and them spending ages searching for somewhere with internet access they managed to transfer the money and it showed on my account the following day. i called Wescot to pay and was told that the offer no longer stood and to clear it off i'd have to pay int he region of £600, i kicked up a fuss and explained that it was incredible that they thought i would be able to get my hands on £165 and pay them the same day when it was already around 1700 and even if my family were in this country it would have been too late for them to pay cash into my account to make a payment that day. They said that the only person i could speak to was someone called Sue, i spent a number of hours over the next couple of weeks trying to track Sue down, i was usually told she was on another line, i'd end up on hold for ages before getting cut off or giving up. No one else would take payment even for me to set up a monthly payment plan. It cost me a fortune in phone calls. Eventually one time i called and was told that the debt had been passed back to Barclaycard so i called them, again spent in excess of three hours trying to get through to the right department, i got through to someone who has set up a monthly payment, they asked if i could make an offer and i reiterated the issue i'd had when trying to pay the £165, they refused to accept anything in the region of that and again said they would only be willing to accept £600. It really frustrates me that they expected me to be able to find £165 at the drop of a hat, fair enough it's not a huge amount of money but i have other commitments and things to pay for, this month i've had my car insurance renewal, car tax, MOT and needed to buy a new power lead for my laptop, totally around £300. I run my own business and need my car and computer to carry out my business dealings, so these things are essentials. The debt would have never gotten to the stage of being referred to a debt collections agency if i had the money to pay in the first place.

Pott5y

Thanks for all your replies.

Wrinkles, you have woried me slightly now as all of my letters have been sent, including the reply to Wescot. I copied the National Debtline letter almost word for word (as must 1000s of people) and that includes the ex-gratia payment statement. (see link on DarkConvicts post as I cannot post links at present).
I must admit that when I checked ex-gratia, the dictonary definition was: as an act of grace or favour, not out of obligation, and with no acceptance of liability (Chambers 11th Edition).

Pipsi all of my correspondance with Wescot has been by letter. One thing I learnt very quickly from this forum is that you do not make any deals with your creditors verbally. At least if you have something confirmed in writing they are more likely, if not obliged to stick to their word. I have to say that up to this point (and I may regret saying this) they have been far better behaved and much more courteous to me than some of my other creditors.

Jackiebear, I am not sure who Connaught Finance are as I have not dealt with them but they may have bought your debt very cheaply from Barclaycard and are are just looking to make a quick return on their transaction. I would probably send them a letter similar to this and wait for their reply:

[FONT=&quot]Thank you for your offer of £ 600.00 in full and final settlement of this account.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As advised by CCCS, I must have the following points confirmed by you in writing before I release the funds to settle this account:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]This offer is made as payment in full and final settlement of this account.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]2. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]This offer is made on the clear understanding that, if accepted, neither you nor any associate company will take any other action to enforce or pursue this debt in any way whatsoever and that I will be released from any liability.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]3. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]I also request that, if accepted, you will make an entry on the credit reference agency file relating to the above account as having been “satisfied” in full and the account closed.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Payment can be made within 14 days after I receive your written agreement of all these points. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]However if you are unable to accept these conditions then I will regrettably have to decline your offer and continue paying my agreed monthly re-payments via my Debt Management Plan.[/FONT]


Then just carry on paying your DMP until you have all these points confirmed.

If they are all confirmed in writing then it is best to get payment made to them via a third party: family member or best friend and keep the letter for at least 6 years.

Good luck

WRINKLES

Hi Pott5y i never meant to scare you, Iam sure you will have a good outcome from your letter, I just wanted people to be cautious when dealing with DCA s

Pott5y

Wrinkles, No problem I completely understand that DCAs can be not too nice a people and they can be even more underhand than the banks and loan companies, difficult to believe but true!!!:D

WRINKLES

Pott5y wrote: »

Wrinkles, No problem I completely understand that DCAs can be not too nice a people and they can be even more underhand than the banks and loan companies, difficult to believe but true!!!:D

Glad you understand ,sometimes it is easy to get euphoric and make a costly mistake, far better to be cautious and go slowlly.:D

DarkConvict

Ex-gratia is used on all the F&F letters so i am sure there is a purposes for it and I've seen posts asking people to include it.

Whilst the letter cannot be used in court anyway, I assume it is been added for the purpose to say "I'm making you an offer of a lump sum as a gesture of goodwill, asking that you see it the same way and in return out of goodwill, and without any obligation am asking you to accept this as a Full and Final settlement... etc"

adrian1968

Hi

Can anyone help ? I have been paying Connaught Collections for over five years now. The debt they claim was £9995 I now owe about £5000 after 5 years of paying back weekly. In 2005 I recieved the letter saying I owed some money which I did.

But my main concern is that I had originally paid off just over £5000 of the original loan of £11000 but say the debt was still £9995

All I ever got was a letter saying who I owed the debt to and the amount of £9995 but no other information or breakdown of how much I had originally paid back or other charges that I had possibly incurred. I get the feeling that they basically pulled the figure out of thin air.

I think as I had originally borrowed £11,000 it doesn't seem to matter how much I had originally paid back (basically half of it) and now over time I have paid the other half of it. Can they do this ? And what would be the best advice on this matter and what agency would be able to give the best help and advice to resolve this matter ?