Contacting debtors - Hows best to do it ?

waveydave

Ive worked out that i should have a few quid left over at the end of teh month so i want to contact the people i owe money to and make an arrangement with them to pay all or something of teh debt.

Whats best way of contact ? Letter or phone - obviously phone will be quicker but letter will be trackable and leave a trail of offers and arrangements should anything go to court.

Im looking at contacting X amount with my SOA and saying i can afford to pay X amount a month

and a couple of the smaller ones i want to clear - but obviously i want to contact them and say if i pay now will you reduce the amount.

So whats best way to go about it ?

Cheers

LilDevil

I contacted most of mine by letter, I've had so many bad experiences with taking someones word for it in a phone call only to be told later that it is incorrect - or in some cases where I was told that someone at XX company would never say such a thing etc.

Or, you could call and then send a Futher to my telephone call letter reiterating what was discussed/agreed - and remember to take the name of the person you speak to - I'm so bad at this and it has always come back to bite me on the butt when I haven't!!!!

Good luck!

Angie

Wonder_Girl

You need to do it all in writing, this way if they agree to something you have proof, by all means call them but make sure that they send you anything they have agreed to in writing.

If your offering settlements in my experience it’s best to make the offer in writing as the people in the call centres will only have authority to agree a certain reduction, whereas is you write in it will get passed to the correct department who will have the authority to accept a lower settlement
Good luck

WG xx

waveydave

Cheers for the advice - ill get writing some letters then first.

If i put a break down in of what we are earning and what we have to spend out each month will it be "listened to" by the debters ? Is it worth doing that ?

moozie_2

waveydave wrote:

Cheers for the advice - ill get writing some letters then first.

If i put a break down in of what we are earning and what we have to spend out each month will it be "listened to" by the debters ? Is it worth doing that ?

That sounds like a good idea as it will be clear then how much you can afford to pay to them.

You could always post a draft letter on here and I am sure you will get some good feedback. I do think you're on the right track though :T

waveydave

moozie wrote:

That sounds like a good idea as it will be clear then how much you can afford to pay to them.

You could always post a draft letter on here and I am sure you will get some good feedback. I do think you're on the right track though :T

toptastic
Shall work on it this evening and post up tomoz

Thanks everyone

Wonder_Girl

waveydave wrote:

Cheers for the advice - ill get writing some letters then first.

If i put a break down in of what we are earning and what we have to spend out each month will it be "listened to" by the debters ? Is it worth doing that ?

That's exactly right, that way they will know they are getting all you can afford and will be happier to accept your offer,

It's also worth letter each creditor know how much you owe all your other creditors and how much you have offered them, this lets them know they are being treated fairly and will again go in your favour :j

Good luck

waveydave

Welllll ive wrote the letter below and stuck them all in envelopes to send off to all my debters.

Im sure that the majority wont accept the paltry figure im offering ( but its a start)

anyway - what sdo you think ?

Payment Proposal

Dear Sir/Madam,

ACCOUNT NUMBER:
AMOUNT:


I am contacting you in relation to the recovery of the aforesaid debt with a payment proposal of £X.XX per month.

Enclosed with this letter is a copy of my statement of accounts clearly showing my current financial situation. Although the offered amount is small you are unfortunately one of 18 debts owed by myself of which I have every intention of clearing in full.

I am happy to review this arrangement in 3 months time when hopefully my financial situation will of improved and I may be able to offer more.

I would be happy to set up a Standing Order with my bank for the proposed amount to be collected on the 1st of every month, starting, 1st December 2006.

Please send acknowledgment and acceptance of this offer within 14 days to enable me time to set up the Standing Order at the bank in time for the above date.



Yours faithfully,

and with each letter i have also enclosed an SOA with a complete breakdown of incomings and outgoings and what we have to live on thats left etc.

Anyone got any opinions on this ? Am i doing teh right thing by making contact and offering something to each one etc ?

waveydave

well a couple have got back to me to agree to be paid £5 per month and another one has sent me a letter saying i can settle for 50% ( which is about £120. That will be paid off in a couple of days time so since joining the DFW ive already got rid of one debt and on my way to sorting out the rest

Im chuffed lol

Wonder_Girl

waveydave wrote:

well a couple have got back to me to agree to be paid £5 per month and another one has sent me a letter saying i can settle for 50% ( which is about £120. That will be paid off in a couple of days time so since joining the DFW ive already got rid of one debt and on my way to sorting out the rest

Im chuffed lol

Well done Dave, thats great news :j :beer:

sgx.saint

When you send any important corrospondance to creditors remember to send it by Royal Mail - Recorded Delivery. You then have proof of sending
and also you can prove that the creditor received it.

This is very handy when you get the templated replies from creditors which usually say something like "We are sorry to see that you still haven't contacted us". These letters normally come from the smaller, dodgey DCA companies. Also, if you ever have to present information to a court, you then have a record of all the corrospondance you sent.

I'm not sure if this is useful or not, but I have pasted below a typical offer letter that I recently sent to my creditors. This may help you and other MSE members who are managing their own DMP. Let me know if it proves to be useful.
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Account Number: XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Three matters concerning the above account

1. Circumstances Update & Repayment Proposal

I am now in a greater financial position to increase my monthly repayments to >>> CREDITOR <<<. I have enclosed a ‘Personal Budget’ sheet which details all my income and expenditure. As you can see from this information, I only have £XXX left over every month for my creditors. Therefore in view of my current circumstances I can only offer you £XX.XX per month, to be reviewed in six months, or sooner if my circumstances change. The offers to my creditors have been calculated on a pro-rata basis using the same method the County Court employs. I have written to all of my creditors asking them to accept the new repayments.

If interest or charges are currently still being applied to the account, despite my previous requests for them to be stopped. I again echo my request that all interest and charges be frozen so that the payments I make reduce what I owe you, for this I would be most grateful.

Should my circumstances improve I will contact you again.
The first repayment will be made on the >>> DATE <<< May I also request a standing order mandate be forwarded to me so that it is easier to pay you. A standing order between me and your company will ensure an automatic and prompt payment every month.

In summary, I am fully committed to repaying the principal balance outstanding on my account and I therefore hope you will accept my above offer and I appreciate your assistance in this matter.

2. Legal Action

You have previously stated in correspondence your possible future intentions to commence legal action if I do not offer a ‘satisfactory’ repayment schedule or amount. I would like to address this issue by stating that the method I have used to calculate the above offer of repayment is the same method used by the County Court. Moreover, I would suggest that your refusal to accept my above offer could be viewed as unreasonable and we would ask the court to consider this matter with reference to the Overriding Objectives. The commencement of legal proceedings under such circumstances could be counter to the ‘Overriding Objectives’ of the new Civil Procedure Rules. You will be aware that the Overriding Objectives underpin everything the court does. Moreover, paragraph 4 of the Protocols Practice Direction states that in cases not covered by an approved pre−action protocol, the court will expect the parties “to act reasonably…….. in trying to avoid the necessity for the start of proceedings”.

3. For your information

I do not wish to be contacted by telephone under any circumstances and request that you remove my telephone number(s) from your records immediately. All correspondence between myself and any representative of >>> CREDITOR <<< should be in written format only. This is so that an accurate record of all communications is kept for legal purposes. Moreover, any further communication by telephone will be viewed as harassment and a breach of the ‘Administration of Justice Act 1970’. Any such breach will not be tolerated and a formal complaint, containing copies of all correspondence including yours, will be submitted to the relevant authorities if your calls continue. This will be relevant to questions of your fitness to hold a licence under the Consumer Credit Act, whether or not it results in a prosecution.

4. Summary

>>> Insert own paragraph here <<<

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