Arrangement to Pay

Rocket

Dear All,
I currently have 6 credit cards that have been on arrangement to pay since January 2009. No payments missed and have kept in touch with each company advising them of any change in my circumstances.
What I owe is as follows:
cap one £6547.07/£100.00
halifax £5868.44/£100.00
Barclaycard £1776.47/£25.00
NatWest £2008.77/£60.00
Unison £1069.84/£21.00
Barclaycard (previously sky card) £665.23/£21.00

Cap one have offered to take a partial settlement of £4517.48 which I think is good, when I last spoke to Halifax 3 months ago they said no to my partial offer and then added that I would get another 3 months from October 2010 at my agreed amount to pay and then my case would go straight to the debt collection agency - is this correct is there anyway I can stop this?

My total payments come to £327.00 (listed beside each amount owed) now if I can get any of the others to take a partial settlement my second question is how feasible is it for me to get a loan at a fixed rate to pay it all off? I suppose credit rating is shot to pieces as I have been on arrangement to pay for so long, Any advice would be much appreciated as really don't to end up with the debt collectors at Halifax:(

CLAPTON

your chance of getting a loan is just about zero although one never can tell

Tixy

Well it would make sense to check your credit file to see how these are recorded. If you are paying less than the minimum amounts then some of them are likely to have issued a default against you. If they have then further large lending will certainly not be an option at the moment.

Which of these creditors (if any) have agreed to freeze interest on your account?

You mention you spoke to Halifax about a settlement - settlement offers should always be in writing not done by phone, you need to have written proof that any payment would be in full & final settlement. http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=24_full_and_final_settlement_offers

I think its unlikely you will get many of your creditors to accept such low F&Fs as cap one appear to be. Usually when your debts are still owned by the original creditor its hard to get much of a discount at all. you are far more likely to get deals once your debts have been passed to internal debt collection companies and more likely still once they have been sold to a third party DCA.

Why don't you want the debt to go to the debt collection agency? often people find it much easier to negotiate reduced payments/ frozen interest / reduced payments etc once the debt is passed on.

Rocket

I pay 0% to Cap one, Natwest and Unison.

I wrote to the Halifax offering £3700.00 and they wrote back declining my offer although so did cap one but then my plan is up for renewal and they mentioned that partial settlement may be an option.

Debt collection agency just seem very very grim and probably very scared by the horror stories I read on here as well. Will continue to chip away with my amounts and see what happens.