Tips on negotiating settlements

white91

Hi this is my first post, but I have read a little on here before.

Basically I have roughly £6000 unsecured personal debt, I am a mature student and I have the help of a family member if I want to clear some debt.

The good new is that an MBNA credit card with a balance of £772 has just been cleared for my offer of £232 (roughly 30%!)

I have an overfdraft passed to a DCA for £3014.56, they have just written to me with an offer of £1507.28 to clear it all off. This was their first offer an wasn't prompted by me, so I guess I should negotiate?

I have two other cards for roughly £1500 each, I had verbal offers of 80% fo settlements, however I am in no rush, as 20% off isn't great and I am paying a token £5 p/m.

What sort of settlements do people consider 'good'?

kimminess

I would negotiate, yes

I think the majority of people on here manage to negotiate to about 35-45% so perhaps offer them 25% and work upwards from there?

Good luck ! x

white91

Thanks I think I might even start at 20% as I have nothing to lose anymore.

emweaver

I offered mine 50% most accepted except Barclaycard wouldn't go less than 70%, Halifax credit card wouldn't take less than 65% but Halifax overdrafts said they do not take settlements. Store cards would only take 20% off for me.

kimminess

Yeah start at 20%, at the end of the day if they have a chance to get a chunk of money off you in one go, as opposed to taking small payment for however many years it's better for them.

When negotiating make 100% sure that they will change their entry on your credit report to show as 'Fully Satisfied' instead of 'Partially Satisfied' - very important! Get it in writing before you pay them.

Let us know how you get on and who your creditors are if you can, it helps others in your situation see how the companies will react!

white91

When negotiating make 100% sure that they will change their entry on your credit report to show as 'Fully Satisfied' instead of 'Partially Satisfied' - very important! Get it in writing before you pay them.

Is this realistic? It would be great but I wasn't aware it could be done? I think the MBNA one will be partially satisfied unfortunately?