Debts & Redundancy

Aiming_High

My husband is about to be made redundant, and we were wanting to pay off as many debts as we can with the payout so we can get the monthly bills down to a comfortable level. (leaving some as a buffer until he gets another job).

Does anyone know if we're likely to get a reduced settlement figure on the basis he's being made redundant? At the moment we're up to date with all payments and have no defaults. (we've been overpaying on some) but we know it will be tight with only my wages coming in, so the more we can stretch the money the better.

sistafromanothermista

I would imagine if you have always been a payer with no lates or defaults then i wouldn't have thought there's any hope of them offering a settlement figure ! why would they? It will probably be a different matter if you had defaulted or couldn't pay the min...

Well done on the ones you have cleared though
Might be worth calling them when OH is out of work?

McKneff

They have no reason to accept settlement figures, it would be different if you had defaulted on the payments, but they probably think you are good payers.

Pay off the ones that have the highest interest rates first

Your other half should 'sign on' as soon as he finishes work and apply for JSA.

Hope he finds a job soon. Good luck

Aiming_High

Thanks that's what I thought, but it was worth a question. We'd rather pay them off though than struggle by leaving them as is and holding onto the money.

We're going to phone most of them this week and try to get settlement figures, then we can work out if we're able to pay them all (which we're hoping) or at least all but one (the biggest one) by the end of the month.

I guess that will make my signature show a true reflection of what our debt is...and hopefully I'll be saying soon once was....

mandz1

you will never know unless you try. Tell them if your OH isnt working you cant pay them, they may soon reconsider, even if its a small reduction, it all helps you.

you dont ask, you dont get. Hope it goes well for you

Aiming_High

That's true. We'll ask anyway when we do the phoning. Saying we're trying to pay off what we can as without his wage we won't be able to make payments... we want to phone sooner rather than later so we can have the figures sent through the post to make payments as soon as he gets paid (to big a bank balance isn't good for our souls. LOL)

McKneff

If you are lucky enough to get some sort of discount, please get this in writing. Its so easy to get carried away with a phone call and they end up leaving the balance without your knowledge and 6 months down the line you get a call from a debt collection agency.

Happened to my daughter so its easily done.

Aiming_High

McKneff wrote: »

If you are lucky enough to get some sort of discount, please get this in writing. Its so easy to get carried away with a phone call and they end up leaving the balance without your knowledge and 6 months down the line you get a call from a debt collection agency.

Happened to my daughter so its easily done.

Thanks - that's part of the reason I want to make the calls this week. Then we've got plenty of time to receive the letters before his final payday.

endora

If you've been keeping up your agreed/min payments your creditors are not likely to accept a reduced settlement. They'd rather keep raking up interest which is why they lent you the money to start with.

Reduced settlements are more likely to be accepted from those who have defaulted. Creditors would rather have some of their cash now than having to struggle to collect monthly repayments for years.

Aiming_High

Just a little update, we've done some phoning and got normal settlement figures from most (many of which are a few hundred) the big one - which the figure stood at around £7,000 have said they'll accept £5,000 as full and final settlement and are sending it out in writing! - YEAH!!!

This means we could be well on our way to being debt free!!!

jules888

Great stuff!