Full & Final Settlement offer help

EdinburghGuy_2

Hi Everyone,

I'm just looking for help on F+F as I don't want to mess up my opportunity to sort out my financial problems. Basically here is my situation:

I had a student current account with Bank of Scotland with an overdraft of £1000, a few years ago they decided to take away all my overdraft from one week to another, so I did not have any time to pay it. The debt snowball, charges of charges of charges and it now stands at £1700 :mad:.
Today I got a letter from 1st credit, asking me for the full payment and in the same envelope a copy of a "Agreed form of notice of assignment" from Bank of Scotland apparently signed by Craig Ballantine saying they sold my debt to 1st credit. I must say the copy from the bank of Scotland letter looks really dodgy, no phone numbers, inconsistent fonts and just weird; I really wonder if it is a real letter or is this 1st credit company just playing games (?).

Anyhow, I decided to sort out this for once and all, I had a look at the forums and a "full and final offer" seems best suited for me. So I check the national debtline website and I found this page with a template letter (can't post link so attached letter at the end).

So I was wondering if anyone can advice me just to be sure I'm doing this right:
I was thinking on sending the letter from the link on top saying that at the moment I'm unemployed, have no assets and all I can only pay 25% of the debt.

Do you think that would be ok?
I'm forgetting something?
Does being in Scotland changes anything?
Most people on other threads always seem to ask for proof that the debt is enforceable or something like that, I'm a bit confused there.

I know this 1st credit company are just bullies, thankfully they don't know my phone number .

Please any little tip is welcome, many thanks everyone.







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national debtline template letter:

Without Prejudice

Account No: _____________________________
I write with reference to the money which you are claiming on the above account.
I can confirm that I am unable to offer to pay the money which I owe in full (add details of your circumstances and financial situation). However, I can raise £ (put the amount which you can afford to pay) and I want to offer this as an ex-gratia payment in full and final settlement of the account. This offer is made on the clear understanding that, if accepted, neither you nor any associate company will take any other action to enforce or pursue this debt in any way whatsoever and that I will be released from any liability.
I also request that, if accepted, you will make an entry on a credit reference agency file relating to the above account as having been paid and the account closed.
Payment can be made within (put the number of days or weeks within which you will pay) of receiving your written agreement of this offer and method of payment.
I look forward to receiving your reply.
Yours faithfully
(Your signature)
==========================================

fatbelly

Any chance that it is five years (or nearly five years) since they called in the overdraft?

Factsheet | Liability for debts & the Prescription & Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973

Under Scottish Law, the debt is legally 'extinguished' if that is the case (don't expect an England-based dca to tell you this)

“If after an appropriate date, an obligation (an appropriate debt) has subsided for a continuous period of five years: (a) without any relevant claim having been made in relation to the obligation, and (b) without the subsistence of the obligation having been relevantly acknowledged; then as from the expiration of that period the obligation shall be extinguished...”

FireWyrm

I dont know about Scotland, but in England, you can make a F&F offer for any amount you want. However, the creditor is under no obligation to accept your offer, or may, counter offer. The only hard and fast rule is to have the words FULL AND FINAL settlement at the top of the letter so there is no doubt as to what you are offering. Those words form what I believe to be an ad-hoc contract in law and without them, the letter bears as much weight as any other private correspondance. In short, it's so that if they come back and try to take another bite, you can stand up in court and say "But m'lud, I have this letter and they said it was all done and dusted" or words to that effect. There can be no argument with a F&F so if it is accepted, you are relatively safe. It does not repair your credit rating as far as I know, it just stops them hounding you.

However, you should always have obtained proof that the debt is truly yours before you even get to this stage and the F&F is basically an admission of guilt as it were. As FatBelly has said above, check this out first....you might be able to get out of it yet.

Quick words of advice in writing F&F. I never bothered with templates as there weren't any when I did mine. However, be straight and to the point. The person reading it wants to know what you want within the first 30 seconds. Their opinion will be formed in that first few seconds so put all the relevant stuff at the beginning like account number, amount, outstanding amount, F&F amount etc. Be honest in your justification for your request, but dont waffle and go off into irrelevancies. Be polite and formal, but not obsequious. You are a debtor, but this is a business relationship and they are your creditor, they have to give you at least a chance. Dont be bullied into accepting a counter offer unless you are sure. They want to get rid of you as much as you want to get rid of them. You have to make it worth their time to write it off, so demonstrate briefly how it would be in their interests to accept your offer. For instance, you could say something like "I would like to offer <amount> but should this be insufficient, I will be forced to continue payments at £1 per month" or something like that. Make them think that they are never going to get paid, but dont lie. Omissions and evasions are fine, lies are not.

Good luck.

chanz4

the op admitted it was his debt, the assignment notices would be printed by the dca with permission a lot of companys do it this way

FireWyrm

chanz4 wrote: »

the op admitted it was his debt, the assignment notices would be printed by the dca with permission a lot of companys do it this way

The OP admitted he knew of a debt to Bank of Scotland, not that the notice he received was for the same debt. There is no harm in requesting proof using the templates and I think this ought to be the very first port of call for any OP in this situation. He might, for all we know, have a number of outstanding debts, some or none of which might or might not be his. He needs to establish that this one is truly legitimate. I'm not saying that people should use this as a mechanism to get out of their obligations, but on the other hand, if DCA didnt use underhanded, scattergun tactics to lure unsuspecting people into paying debts that weren't theirs, this wouldnt be a problem....