F&F Settlement

Stuckinarut

I am trying to clear my debts off a bit quicker and I have 2 which are currently sitting at £123.96 and £256.61 I pay £5.00 per month to each of them which pretty much means it will take 24 and 52 months to clear these debts, so I have wrote to both companies asking if they would accept a £30 and £50 payment as F&F settlement.

I realise that this is a long shot with the amount the current balances are sitting at, but I thought if I started low I could negotiate upwards from there, and the first debt has been outstanding for a few years so they may be glad to just get rid of it.

Is what I have done the right way to go about it?

Thanks for any advice.

bottleofred

Hi stuckinarut,

I think you have definately gone the right way about this, by starting with low offers and waiting to see what the response is. You've also been correct in putting the offers in writing. However, don't pay any money to settle the debts unless you receive written documentation that the agreed amount is as a full and final settlement of the debts. This is to ensure they or some other dca cannot come after you at a later date for the remaining balance. Also stick to your guns about making counter offers, as you should not accept an offer your not happy with.

Good luck

Stuckinarut

Thanks for that, due to the length of time they have been outstanding I am hoping that they will accept these just to get rid of them.

Stuckinarut

Just trying to clarify here, but if my F&F settlement is refused, how much do I increase my offer to, and do I just keep increasing this and chancing my luck until it is either accepted, or until I reach the maximum I am willing, and can afford to pay?

Thanks for any advice

Silvafox

When I did full and final offers I always found that although you want to save a lot of money yourself - you still need to be reasonable with your offers. No point in going just 5% more on your previous offer etc...

I generally always started at about 50% and worked upwards. Some of them accepted the 50% and one said no initially and then rang me back a month later asking if I'd still be willing to pay the amount I offered! So I did there and then and they removed the entry from my credit file completely - which is very rare I think.

Good luck - any money off the balance will be a bonus.

Also, i had succes in offering 2 or 3 large one off payments towards a reduced balance. They went for that also.

Stuckinarut

Thanks for that, I never thought about offering more than one payment for a reduced balance. I offered 20% to start with, and if that's refused i'll offer 50%. Then I will considerer asking for a reduced balance for 2 or 3 lump payments.

Stuckinarut

I wrote to 2 companies on 19/08/2010 with settlement offers and to date haven't heard anything, although I understand they may take there time. I have stated that I can make the payment on 05/10/2010. How long do I wait before taking the money and offering it to another company? Do I wait until after 05/10/2010?