Quick question or two about full & final settlements.

carlene_2

Hi
Does anyone know what percentage you can offer a credit card as f&f settlement without them laughing in your face and also if you do make an offer and they reject it can they force you to pay more if you already have an agreement with them to pay them a certain amount each month?

CLAPTON

it depends upon your circumstances ... say something about the situation and history.

carlene_2

I missed some payments on my barclayard and they handed the account to Mercers who contacted me wanting full payment of the debt which was about £14000.When I phoned them I got an agreement to pay them £170 a month til November when they will review the situation but in all honesty I wasn't happy paying that much but felt bullied into agreeing,this was before I found this fab website.Anyway i am now thinking of cashing in my pension and offering them a F&F settlement to get rid of debt but not sure how much to offer was thinking 50%.

CLAPTON

is this your only debt... if not give full details

when did you start missing payments
what were your original payments
presumably your debt has been defaulted...when was this
when was the debt passed to mercers
when did you start paying 170 ?

i ask these questions because the longer the debt has been defaulted the more likely the DCA to accept a F&F settlement

carlene_2

Here we go then
Barclaycard £13900ish default notice sent in May 2006 paid £300 by debit card then £170 a month for six months,all interest and charges have been frozen.
Natwest £10300 default received last month paying £100 for next 3 months when it will be reviewed again all interest and charges have been frozen. Actually I had forgot all about this one it was at an old address and then they sent me a default letter
Marbles £8900ish whopping 23.9% interest currently paying £200 a month when I receive statement haven't defaulted on this and when I try to phone them about reducing interest I get put through to India to someone who doesn't understand what I'm talking about.
There you have it have never written it all down before its quite scary really

CLAPTON

what might be apropriate for a single debt of 13,900 may not be so for a total debt of 33,700...do you have any overdrafts? or any other debts ?


best to start from first principles and post a full statement of affairs, that is full details of income, spending and debts , any savings and general details about family situation , OH, any children, rent or own ,,if own then have much is the property worth and how much the mortgage.
add any other details that may be important...e.g. what is your pension fund worth ?
say the situation for each debt...defaulted or not, interest frozen or not, APR, monthly payments.

see this for more dertails of SoA
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

carlene_2

Right will gather everything I can and get back to you with SOA asap though will probably be tomorrow need to sleep had long week

KatrinaC_2

carlene wrote:

Here we go then
Barclaycard £13900ish default notice sent in May 2006 paid £300 by debit card then £170 a month for six months,all interest and charges have been frozen.
Natwest £10300 default received last month paying £100 for next 3 months when it will be reviewed again all interest and charges have been frozen. Actually I had forgot all about this one it was at an old address and then they sent me a default letter
Marbles £8900ish whopping 23.9% interest currently paying £200 a month when I receive statement haven't defaulted on this and when I try to phone them about reducing interest I get put through to India to someone who doesn't understand what I'm talking about.
There you have it have never written it all down before its quite scary really

Hi Carlene,

Have you thought about putting up a statement of affairs (SOA) to see if there is any way we can help to get your income up or expenditure down so that you can pay more than just the interest on your debts?

I only ask because you have about £33,000 of debt and to be paying a minimum of £470 per month is a lot of most people's income but still not enought to make much of a dent in the debts.

The other thing to take into consideration is that the Marbles card is still accruing interest and whilst the other two cards have their interest frozen it may be in your interests to use your pension to clear some or all of the Marbles card instead. However, that depends on what is happening with the other two cards and what will happen when the frozen interest is reviewed.

Kat