Full & Finals on CC's - advice please

piccalilli_2

Hi,

We are slowly but surely starting to get there on our DFW journey, but need a bit of advice....

We are about to come into some money, and want to clear a large lump off our CC debts. So far we have been able to meet the minimum payments (apart from 1 blip a month or two ago - bounced DD's). Has anyone done a Full and Final Settlement on a CC when the account is still seen by the company as "ok" eg not defaulting payments?

Any advice appreciated

Piccalilli

DarkConvict

If they have not defaulted then they will consider the debts payable, and not high risk. As such they won't be grabbing your hand off for a repayment plan.

At a guess you may even struggle to get it below 90%.
The odds are they will want 100-95% to settle, and if they agree to anything under 70% you are super duper lucky.

piccalilli_2

Hi DarkConvict,

So is it worth a go then? and is it best to phone or to write? Have tried to make sense of other threads about this but still left a little bit muddled....
Thanks
Pic

DarkConvict

Don't bother to phone, they won't give you an offer on the phone and its probably only collections department that would have a clue about it, and without a delinquent balance you arent going to be speaking to them.

Go with a written letter to the customer services department of the bank, use national debtline for the F&F template.
Ensure you add in a deadline to reply by (e.g. 14 days), state the money is coming from a family member to help clear a debt at this time and if they do not accept it will be offered to other creditor.

Also, ensure any offers you do make you can afford to pay. Do not offer 90% to everyone, if you can only cover 2 out of say 5 creditors. Wait for rejections before offering to others.

piccalilli_2

Thanks for that - I'll post and let everyone know how we get on.... fingers crossed, any reduction in the amounts can only be a good thing!!