Paying off Admiral bill

PhewThatWasClose · 13 September 2010 at 5:18PM

Hello,

I'm after a bit of advice from the community.

I decided to sell my car to save money and pay off outstanding debts and set up a debt management plan. I was so chuffed that things were looking up.

Then wham! Admiral want the cancellation few plus money for the outstanding days of insurance cover (I cancelled the cover mid month).

I don’t have the cash to pay up front but did offer them £10 a month until the debt has been paid and said I would pay more if I could.

They wrote a letter back stating the balance is outstanding and if they don’t receive the money it’ll be sent to the debt collectors adding £20 more to the bill. They didn’t refuse the offer but they didn’t accept it either.

Is it okay to go ahead and send them a cheque for £10.

I’m not refusing to pay I just don’t have it all straight away and them sending it to the debt collector won’t get them their money any faster. It’ll just get me in more debt.:mad:

Please advice

Hannah_10 · 13 September 2010 at 5:59PM

Yes send them a cheque for £10, make sure you send it recorded (click here for essential info on keeping yourself safe) and pop a covering letter in too saying something short and un-descriptive like...

Dear Sirs,

Re: xxxxxxxx (reference no)

Further to your letter of xx/xx/2010 I can confirm my circumstances have not changed. I am able to offer you £10 per month to settle the balance of the account. Please find enclosed my cheque dated xx/xx/2010 for £10 as my first payment. This will leave an outstanding balance of £xx.

Yours Faithfully.

In fact you can use that verbatim if you like. Just remember to change the red bits.

What that letter says, between the lines, is "I haven't got anything more than that, so you're talking to a brick wall here. Whether you like it or not I'm sending you a tenner a month till I clear it, anything else you try to do to collect from me is a waste of your time. The cheques will come, we both know I can prove I sent them, we both know you're gonna cash them, so do yourself a favour and shut up."

If they pass it to a DCA you send the same letter, a-bloody-gain, signed for postage, copies of the cheques. (Obviously change "first" to second/third etc). It's boring, but ahhh it works. The rest of the time you can more or less ignore anything they send threatening you with court/charges/summary castration/whatever... If they're cashing the cheques, in the eyes of a judge they HAVE accepted (they just hope and pray you don't know that).

And another thing, they have no right to add any charge for debt collection that you do not agree to. So if the next time you get a demand the money has gone up come back and let us know.

barbiedoll · 13 September 2010 at 6:01PM

Just send the £10 with a letter stating that you will be paying this amount each month to clear the balance. They won't not cash the cheque! Check on your terms and conditions as to whether they are allowed to add debt collection charges, if not, then you can challenge this.