Full and Final advice please

dudley3012

Good morning
Followin g some very good money saving, thanks ot this board, we are clearing off our debts. WE have a little money this month to spare and would like to make a F& F to a low creditor. The figure we owe is £168, what is a fair figure to offer and how do we do it?

Thanks

GeorgeUK

It would depend if the debt is with the original creditor or if it has been sold on (rather than being dealt with by a DCA on behalf of the creditor)

Original creditor: 50% - 75%
Sold to DCA: 25% - 50%

Sometimes it's worth pointing out in the letter how long it would take you to pay the offerred amount at the current payment rate.

dudley3012

it is a DCA. Ifound a templete her enad have offered 25%, Iam now considering another letter to one that I am paying £13 a month to, to see if they will take a redused offer as well. It would be so good ot go into 2011 with a few more debts taken care of. The bigs ones are still there but getting rid of the littlies which can be more problematic would be a great start. Any more hints and tips would be gratefully received

Blobby8_2

Why not pay what you owe in full ?

dudley3012

we simply cannot afford it. We cannot pay the little ones in full but could, with some careful planning, pay larger amounts as an F & F to hthe smaller ones. It generlaly works out at around £40 -£50 a time. Some have been getting monthly token payemnts and the largers ones are getting larger pro rata payments. WE are getting there and it is not that we don't want to pay back what we owe, but we just cannot givne that our circumstances have changed so much

GeorgeUK

Blobby8 wrote: »

Why not pay what you owe in full ?

I'll take a wild guess here - lack of money?
The original creditor has alread sold the debt and the DCA has probably recouped what they paid for it and more.

If you don't hear back from them, send another letter with a date that you require to hear from them as you will offer the funds to another creditor.

dudley3012

just a shamelss bump for advice. We offered hte 25% and that was refused. They counter offered 80% and I went back with 40%. That was 5 weeks ago and we have heard nothing at all from them. Do we need ot do anything at this point? The money that is aside for that can now be used for another if they don't reply. I just wondered if there where any guidelines for a situation like this

GeorgeUK

There's not really any guidelines, but may be worth writing back to them stating that you will offer the money to another creditor if you are unable to come to an agreement. Give them say 'til the end of the month before you will be contacting other creditors.

Not sure what you put in your offer letter, but if there wasn't a timeline given then it would be worth informing them that they are about to wave goodbye to the money.

lvm

dudley3012 wrote: »

just a shamelss bump for advice. We offered hte 25% and that was refused. They counter offered 80% and I went back with 40%. That was 5 weeks ago and we have heard nothing at all from them. Do we need ot do anything at this point? The money that is aside for that can now be used for another if they don't reply. I just wondered if there where any guidelines for a situation like this

Any chance you would mind saying who the DCA is? I offered 20% (ish) to Arrow Global and they declined but offered 80%. I then went and increased offer a bit and they replied saying as a gesture of goodwill they would extend the offer for the 80%.

Equidebt recently offered 50% - I declined.

Wescot (debt still owned by Halifax though) - I offered about 20%, they came back with 50%. I've replied offering about 40%. Awaiting response.

Lowell - have offered about 25%. They replied saying they are currently dealing with my enquiry and will get back to me shortly.

Just in case your DCA is one of these, thought it might help!

dudley3012

Thanks for the replies
George- I gave them 21 days, they are well out of that now

Lvm- the DCA is Link Financial. I have dealt with Lowell and Wescot, and seem to be enjoying the same 'service' as you.

I guess I just want the debt settled whilst we have the money, because it could easily get frittered away and Idon't want that

Thanks again

GeorgeUK

If they don't want to take a reduced offer, there's not much you can do. Might as well make offers to other creditors at around the same level and see if they are willing to settle.