So disappointed re: F&F settlement

lollyhop

Hi everyone,

I came on here a month or so ago for some advice about F&F settlement for 2 debts that I have had since 2002 with Egg (Moorcroft) and Halifax (BlairOliverScott)

These have been driving me insane for 9 years and Ive been absolutely desparate to clear them. Following advice I have tried to sell my car which is worth £5000 but it wont sell. My only option was 'we buy any car' but they would only offer £3300.

My debts are around £3700 - halifax and £2000 - Egg. Indications on here were that I would be able to get 50% off of these for full and final settlement so I thought although it felt mad I would bite the bullet and sell the car for the £3300.

So I have contacted the two debt companies and they have basically laughed at me and said because i am young and employed, and have never defaulted on my payment agreements, the most they can do is knock these down to £2700 and £1500 respectively. So now I have no car... and I can't even clear these debts. I am so miserable and sat here sobbing thinking I will never ever be debt free!

The bigger of the two debts was run up by an ex boyfrined who used my card without my knowledge and i stupidly did nothing at the time.. What will I do????

MrsTinks

What F&F did you go to them with? F&F is a haggling game - you start low, they start high, you keep haggling and hopefully you meet in the middle...

tallyhoh

Your problem is never having defaulted. I had this problem with the FIL, taken into nursing home & having £20 per week pocket money. He had a loan with the AA which he had never defaulted on. I called them to try & sort something out & was he had to default before any arrangement was made!!!!!!

Not that this helps you but that seems to be how it works.

Deep_In_Debt

tallyhoh wrote: »

Your problem is never having defaulted. I had this problem with the FIL, taken into nursing home & having £20 per week pocket money. He had a loan with the AA which he had never defaulted on. I called them to try & sort something out & was he had to default before any arrangement was made!!!!!!

Not that this helps you but that seems to be how it works.

That is pretty much how it works. If you have defaulted and missed a few payments, or on a repayment plan, etc, then you would get a better deal.

lollyhop

If I defaulted would that make more of a mess of my credit score? I can't bear the thought of defaulting after 9 years of never missing a payment and increasing payments when ever I could...

This is like a never ending nightmare. I know i'm not alone or special in this as every one on here is in the same coat but I feel so alone.

My partner says I shouldnt have sold the car for less than it was worth but I dont think he appreciates the emotional trauma of these debts. I just want them gone. I went to Blair Oliver 7 Scott with £2000 against a debt of 3798... and Moorcroft with £1300 against £2000.

katsu

So at worst you can clear one debt now with the £3300 and then the money you were paying on that debt can be used to over pay the other one?

Looks like you are moving forward just not as fast as you would like.

podperson

Unfortunately if you have kept up with all payments they are unlikely to go any lower - am actually quite surprised that Halifax knocked you £1000 with no missed payments. As far as they are aware you are making the payments somehow - they don't care of you have to struggle to do it - so chances are you will keep on making them and they will get the full amount back.
Why don't you look at paying off the Halifax one with the money from the car sale - this will then leave you £600 which you could put in a savings account and add the money you had been paying to Halifax each month until you get enough to pay off Egg. Yes, will take longer then you hoped but you are moving in the right direction. Good luck with it x

GeorgeUK

Something else you may wish to look at is shuffling the balances around. Are you able to get a 0% credit card to transfer the balance? Would it be possible to get a 0% Virgin card that will allow you to do a money transfer? You may be able to use this to fund the shortfall and hopefully pay it off before the 0% runs out. I believe there is a 4% fee for money transfers though. If you do try to do this, please be aware that only certain cards allow you to do these money transfers as part of a 0% promotion.

KiKi

lollyhop wrote: »

the most they can do is knock these down to £2700 and £1500 respectively. So now I have no car... and I can't even clear these debts. I am so miserable and sat here sobbing thinking I will never ever be debt free!

Hi Lollyhop

I'm saying this in a positive way(!): you can now pay off the £2700 in its entirety, and you can pay off another £800 - over half - of the other debt. And the payments you were making on the car will be able to pay off the remaining £700 debt quite soon.

That's fab news! £70 a month to pay off the last bit over the next year. And then all gone.

Just don't fall into the trap of "the £3300 doesn't pay off those debts completely, so I'll spend the £3300 on myself because I feel so crap about the debt..." as it's a very, very easy thing to do!

KiKi

Norfolk_Jim

Dont beat yourself up for taking the lowball offer on your car. Second hand car sales are on the floor and with rising costs and unemployment they wont get better any time soon. The "value" of your car is what people are willing to pay for it, so while you, or a trade book, might have valued it at £5000, the customers thought that too high - so no one would buy it.
A car is a depreciating assett - it becomes worth less day by day the longer you keep it - so while you accepted a low offer now, it would not be very long to wait before that was a reasonable offer.
If you use the money to repay debt you will save yourself interest - effectively boosting the sum you achieved. If being without a car if too much to bear - there are a of low priced perfectly reasonable older cars out there which can be picked up for hundreds not thousands. Maybe your partner could help you find one?
If you can live without a car - just think how much you are saving in fuel, tax, insurance, MOT, repairs - all money that can help bring down your debt faster. In one year you will save the difference between what you hoped for and what you achieved just by taking the best offer you could get

fatbelly

lollyhop wrote: »

I went to Blair Oliver 7 Scott with £2000 against a debt of 3798... and Moorcroft with £1300 against £2000.

And they said they would accept 2700 and 1500.

That's a very positive first response in this game, given that you have been making regular payments (I'm guessing that default notices have been issued on these at some time in the past). As Mrs T said, this is about negotiation.

Your problem is that you appear to have started with your highest offer. They were probably expecting 2500 and 1400, which you can't afford (?).

You can go back to them, in writing, and point out that you can settle at your original offer but that if they do not agree within 14 days, the offer will be withdrawn and the money offered to another creditor.

You can also request that they mark the account settled, and some will do that. But there is no requirement for them to do that. The usual mark is 'partially settled'