Can it be written off?

Willstastic

This may be a really stupid question but does anybody know if its a waste of time writing to my creditors and asking them to write off my existing debt?

Basically I have been on a DMP for over 3 years with 5 different creditors totallying about £40k. The debt overall now is about £16k but it seems like this is taking forever. I know it was my choice to decide to do the right thing and pay my dues but its holding me back from doing alot of things with my wife, contributing to the bills and house etc and it just doesnt seem fair for her to continually shoulder the burdon; I haven't even got a pension!

Hence my question, if some or all of the creditors would write it off I could get back on my feet sooner. I have never defaulted on the DMP with any of them, and after 3 years I would have thought they would have written this off their ledger by now.

Any thoughts?

Tixy

You could write and ask them to - but in reality the only time I've ever seen this happen is where a person is seriously ill / terminally ill and has little or no assets and little income. In some of those rare occasions a creditor may consider writing off a debt.

If you've cleared £24k in 3 years then hopefully you should only have a couple of years left on the DMP - is that about right?

Who is your DMP with? is it a free one or is it a commercial company taking a cut of your contribution each month? If the latter then switching to a charity will save you money and get you debt free quicker.

Also to consider is whether you might be in a position to make some reduced full & final settlements to any of your creditors?

and after 3 years I would have thought they would have written this off their ledger by now.

They may have written it off as a bookkeeping exercise but your debt is still worth something to them, either what they receive back from you, or what they can sell it to a debt collector for.

Are most of your debts still with the original creditors? or have they passed to debt collectors?
Typically debt collectors will accept lower full & final settlements than the original creditor.

Willstastic

Yeah thats pretty much spot on, got around 2014 I think depending if they keep playing silly !!!!!!s and adding interest & unauthorised overdraft charges to an overdraft I don't have!

Its with the CCCS who have been absolutely massive in helping me through it all. Just thought it was worth asking the question, I mean you never know it might have been worth a try! Its just reaching the point that I feel I've paid so much out and its still there. At 30 I should have a pension in place ticking away nicely but I just can't afford to have one!

2 of them are with agencies but the others are still with the originals. The worst 3 that I only get grief on are still with the original creditor (Certain bank begining with L), which as I mentioned above is always a battle to deal with.

I was in a position about a year ago where my parents were willing to take a loan, but that fell through. Other than that the reduced settlements we're still more than I could afford as just don't have that in spare cash!

Hey ho, thank you for the response though!

Tixy

This is possibly something you've already done (or done many times)

but with regards to the overdraft, have you tried you (not cccs) writing to them and asking them to reconsider freezing charges and interest (and quoting the lending code to them).
Do you have other debts with the same bank? and have the frozen interest on those?

the_cat

Well there is nothing in it for them really is there? You have paid back a large percentage already and have no changed circumstances which will prevent you from continuing to do so. What possible reason would they have to just write the debt off?

Prob not the answer you want to hear but the truth imo

Willstastic

Yeah I write to them, phone them it doesn't seem to do any good. They just say we are right to charge interest and we will. When they charge me incorrectly or say I have defaulted my plan (Never happens, they just have their silly 6 month plans that expire and are never spoken about until I see charges on the statement!); It is always a real battle to get them to refund it. The latest I was on the phone for 50mins to their overseas call centre, on my mobile (no home phone) and after ages on hold, being told the same point 5 times and then speaking to the supervisor i finally got a £30 charge refunded! Which is ruined by the £10 charge I will get on my phone bill for calling them!!! It just seems they try at every turn to keep the debt going which is really annoying. The loan & Credit card with same creditor are frozen but they keep insisting on charging me a monthly £5 overdraft fee & interest & unauthorised overdraft charges despite the account having been unused since 2009 and repeatedly asked them to move it to collections! (Bangs head against wall)

Cat: I know what your saying. I can't say I would let someone off a few thousand just because they have been loyally paying it off!!

Tixy

There is a clause in the lending code (somewhere around 220) about whereever practical treating debts from the same subscriber (them) the same in terms of freezing interest - I'm paraphrasing. I wonder if you coudl try using that and specifically quoting that clause to try to get them to stop the charges (permanently).

Edit

Here is a quote
-

227

Where possible, subscribers should have consistent policies for customers holding more than one product type in terms of charges and interest concessions.

In fact if you were going to try writing again (good starting template on national debtline website sample letters) it might be worth reading that section on the lending code about charging interest when a person is in financial difficulty to see if there are use bits you could quote to them and remind them that they subscribe to that code. It might not help, but it might be worth a shot.

Lending code here http://www.lendingstandardsboard.org.uk/docs/lendingcode.pdf
(page 34 ish for the relevant part)

Willstastic

Thank you so much. Lets hope that they listen this time!! Joke is even by writing it takes 3 attempts. 1st one recorded, 2nd one recorded to ask why they havent responded and the 3rd one with copies of both signed delivery reciepts to prove they had recieved both letters:D!

Fun and Games, thank you again!