DMP, defaults, and f&f offers.......what to do for the best?

lemoncheesecake

In 2009 my husband and I entered into a DMP. We've paid it religiously ever since. Recently been thinking about our future and we really want to move in a few years so need to make sure the credit checks is going to be ok now we've resolved the money situation (sort of).

I've checked credit files to see what happened when we entered into our dmp.

Next directory defaulted Nov 2010 - this was paid off feb 2011 (was about £250)
Apex (was Hitaachi capital) defaulted Aug 2009 - still paying, owe £500
HSBC overdraft defaulted Feb 2010 - still paying, owe £600
HBOS (was AA) defaulted Aug 2009 - still paying, owe £400
HSBC credit card - didn't default us suprisingly but credit report says AR....is this arrears??? - owe £3500, still paying

My question is how best to tackle all this so we stand a chance with a decent mortgage in the future. We've sorted out our finances and spending and want to do the best we can with this sorry situation. Will the arrears on the credit card look bad and do they stay for 6 years too?? Why showing as arrears and not a default??? They accepted our lower payment?

I was thinking of wriitng to Next directory and asking for removal of the default - is it best to go down the unenforceability route and see if it could be removed that way? Any other ideas?

Also - we may be able to pay off the other 3 defaulted debts but I understand these will show as settled and still sit on our file for the remaining time until 6 years is up and look as bad as an unsettled one - is this correct? In which case should we just go for full and final and not pay the full amount? My other thought was attempting a full and final offer on the basis the default was removed (not just marked satisfied)?

Sorry for all the questions but really don;t know what to do with this. It is completely our own fault and we had some tough times but we now want to put ourselves in the best position we can with lessons learnt.

Thanks for any advice.

lemoncheesecake

bump......please can anyone help?

sickasachip13

Hi there,

Lots of questions! Not sure I can help with many tbh. Your credit files will show the debt six years from the default - whether or not it's paid, partially paid or fully settled. I would have thought that the 'bad' marker is the default itself and these are going to preclude you from good mortgage deals - I would think (but I'm not an expert) that it's not going to make a huge difference whether these are partially settled (through a correctly done F&F) or whether they're fully settled.

Hopefully someone else will be able to help soon

SAAC

moohound

Can your DMP provider point you in the direction of a suitable mortgage lender? I think payplan have a thing called who's lending?

If you could clear the debts quicker and cheaper I would go for that. This may allow you to save a bit towards a bigger deposit which would be favourable I guess.

I would not worry about what looks bad or not so bad or one thing worse than the other, it's going to take a while for the defaults to drop off anyway so I would concentrate on putting myself in the best position in real money terms rather than what a credit report may or may not look like.

lemoncheesecake

thanks - that all makes sense. I'm with payplan so will have a look at the mortgage thing. We're going to do with some full and finals and see if they'll negotiate a default removal at the same time. Nothing ventured nothing gained as they say!