Settlement offers

Heidi1985

Hi Everyone,

I'm very new to this site and need some help and advice.
Not sure i'm posting in the right place but wasn't sure where was best.

I have been in a debt management plan with Churchwood Finance for around 2 years but am now in a positon to make settlement offers to all my creditors.

I had 6 creditors in total and 5 were willing to accept my offer or come to an arrangement.

Unfortunately the only one that won't is Welcome Finance.
Before I could even make an offer I was told that Welcome do not accept settlements and if I pay anything it will have to be the full balance.
I pointed out that at the moment they get £30 per month from me via Churchwood and it doesn't benefit me or them to let this carry on for the next 10 years (Balance at the moment is around £3500 which includes interest and insurance)
I was told that I could speak to the manager, district manager or someone higher up and they would tell me exactly the same thing.
The gentleman I spoke to said that they are willing to let people go bankrupt rather than accept a settlement offer.
I'm sure I read somewhere that they accept 45% but I was told today they have recently changed their policy on settlements.
My question is can they actually do this? If so what can I do as I really don't want to let this drag on for the next decade and I haven't got full balance. Any help would be so appreciated as I honestly thought I would be debt free for the first time in 5 years so I'm really upset by Welcome. Many Thanks

Tixy

Hi

Have you made the settlement payments to all the other creditors?
You can still do this even if you can't settle with welcome. Have you negotiated your settlements yourself not through churchwood? If so I would pay all the others off and cancel your DMP with churchwood.

Then you can use all the money you had been paying to the DMP each month towards your welcome debt so that you bring the balance down much quicker and won't still be paying in 10years.
Once welcome is your only debt you could try renegotiating a F&F with them again.

It sounds like you have been trying to negotiate with welcome by phone rather than by letter. Have you made all the F&Fs to the others in writing or just by phone? never ever settle a debt assuming its F&F on the basis on a phone call alone. You need to have it in writing from them first that your payment will be in full & final settlement, that the won't sell the debt onto anyone else and they will update your credit file to show the debt have been settled - useful factsheet here if you haven't seen it - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=24_full_and_final_settlement_offers

Heidi1985

I called all the other creditors myself and have settled all balances agreed. I got confirmation of the accounts being closed via email and also made a note of reference numbers, authorisation codes and receipt numbers. Asked all to send receipts via post too.

The plan was to pay all creditors and cancel Churchwood Finance so I could finally be debt free but unfortuantely that hasn't happened.
I will definitely try writing to them and am also planning on going to the Citizens Advice Beareau.

Would you recommend still paying a lump sum and then continue with monthly payments or just stick with monthly payments?

Thank you for your help. Fact sheet will be very useful