First Plus

allan7710

Do you know if this company has ever accepted a partial settlement? Need to sell my house, should get enough to pay off my mortgage and half of the balance on the secured loan. Want to know if I could get the balance written off or switch to a personal loan to pay it off? In a lot of debt secured and unsecured and also need to move (long story)

R0bert_Sterling

allan7710 wrote: »

Want to know if I could get the balance written off

In a lot of debt secured and unsecured a

Yeh, you sound in an ideal position, just ring them and tell them you are a bit bored with all the payments and you should all call it quits.

I can't see any reason you should have to continue with all this hassle and expense.

allan7710

Look, I haven't explained my personal circumstances so don't judge when you dont even know me. I'm not trying to run away from paying my debt, my life has just taken a sudden change in direction that I wasn't expecting. I just wanted to know if partial settlements have ever been done on secured loans. I'm still trying to sort a way in which to repay all of my debts if possible but thanks for your very unhelpful comments.

highway_star_2

I settled a secure loan before its end a while back. I assume although a secured loan this was, for you, basically a loan for something in the past like home improvements, restructured debts etc etc etc.

When settling adjustments are made for all the interest etc you would have paid over the original loan period and there may be a fee (a 'penalty' if you want) for early settlement but yes, you can of course settle a loan secured or unsecured.

In my case it was a fairly small pay-off - I think the loan Company were surprised when they saw how much lower it was than may have been expected! lucky me! however....some Companies can be nasty when it comes to early settlement and hit you with some big fees ('penalties' as I say) that jack up how much you pay back.

Bottom line is - call their Payments area and explain you are looking to make an early settlement. They will probably have a settlements team that will send you a statement of the outstanding amount adjusted for early settlement and any fees (there will be some) relating to the settlement. Remember, this is just a quote basically and you arent tying yourself to anything so if it looks steeper than you thought you can walk away from the whole idea. If you go ahead with it you will probably have to pay it within a certain time period otherwise you will need to jump through the hoops again and get another quote!

Another option would be to discuss options if you could at least pay a big chunk and reduce payments but again you would need to speak to them and get an idea of figures involved. First things first, ask for a settlement quote and take it from there. Good luck :beer:

highway_star_2

I'm back!

Googled First Plus and they have a page about early settlement:

http://www.firstplus.co.uk/accountmanagement/Pages/early-settlement.aspx

check the 'write to us' link at the bottom of the page about how to go about it. It appears they prefer a written letter requesting a settlement. Other than that it looks to be pretty much as I said.

Ignore the first guy - some people seem to come on here for no reason than to dig at people they know nothing about. Its a disease prevalent in all forums!

You can try the number on that page as well just so you are sure about everything - watch out for 0845 numbers though, they aint cheap!

BLT_2

I would avoid suggesting you are selling your house and paying of the mortgage - your chances of an them writing off any of the balance will probably disappear at that point :-)

Lets be honest, if they even know you have a house your chances of them writing off any balance are probably neglible at best

aimingforadebtfreelife

Looking at how First Plus operate once you are accepted and got a loan you are stuck with them as it is secured. Yes, they will allow you to settle early but that will be the balance of the loan less a bit of interest rebate. Which is probably a lot less than what you are hoping for. You are in a catch 22 as you will not be able to move unless your asking price covers the mortgage o/s + any redemption penalties + first plus sett fig.

All I can suggest is that you ring up First Plus and ask for an early sett fig and look at your sums to see if this + mortgage sett (get one of them as well) is near the asking price of your house (get an estate agent to give a free valuation - just say you are looking to sell). This way you will know once and for all.

First Plus wont budge and if negative equity has hit you I'm afraid you are stuck. If you stop paying First Plus or go on a payment arrangement with them the interest stacks up big time. There is no way they will switch it to a personal loan as once they have released the charge on your house and you have moved address they will think they will never see you again.

Good luck.

opinions4u

Lets be honest, if they even know you have a house your chances of them writing off any balance are probably neglible at best

I believe they specialised in secured lending. So there's a reasonable chance they know that there's a house around somewhere!

CHR15

I think it is little more than wishful thinking.

I don't read it as the OP asking about a Settlement Figure per se, it comes across as wanting to write off the remaining balance of the Secured Loan.

Whilst the points made about Settlement Figures are valid, it would involve the OP obtaining further borrowing to be in a position to accept the Settlement Figure.
From the opening post I can't see how that would be possible.

Partial Settlements are only normally agreed to for accounts which are already in arrears.


I hope I come across a little more sympathetic, but I have essentially said the same thing as the first reply.

allan7710

Thank you to Chr15 and to everyone else who has tried to help and not judge. You are right Chr15, I already have a settlement figure for the Secured loan. The situation is that the balance is £29.5k. My house is up for sale at a discounted price in order to try and get a quick sale, if it goes through I will be able to pay off my mortgage and approx £20k of the secured loan, which obviously would leave a 9.5k still owing. I really need to sell my house and have no alternative so I was hoping that First Plus would allow me to sell it, pay the majority that I owe them and either allow me to continue making my regular payments after my house is sold or accept what I paid in the house sale as a partial settlement. I am not in arrears at present but I have a very short time scale in which to try and sort something out (around 3 months) so I'm just trying to work out all my options. I can't take out anymore personal loans to cover the shortfall, my only other alternative is to ask family for help but I'd rather not involve them if I can help it. I have an appointment with the CAB on monday so I'm sure they will be able to tell me all the facts but I just wondered if anyone else on MSE has ever had to do anything similar. I do want to pay everything off in full if I possibly can and I am trying to be responsible and dealing with it before any arrears happen. Thanks again to the people who have tried to help me with their advice, I really do appreciate it.

BLT_2

opinions4u wrote: »

I believe they specialised in secured lending. So there's a reasonable chance they know that there's a house around somewhere!

Damn good point