About to embark on negotiations

GreySquirrel_2

Hi Everyone,

I am new to posting on this forum but have been reading others' stories with interest. I'm hoping someone can give me a little guidance...

Currently I am on a DMP with CCCS - I have been on this since 2005 and they do keep reminding me that with my level of debt (now at around £27k) and my ever-diminishing monthly repayment levels, my DMP is not realistically sustainable.

On the plus side I am now in a position to have a lump sum to play with and would therefore like to try and negotiate settlement deals with my creditors direct. CCCS have sent me their settlement pack with letter templates etc. but what I want to know is whether it would be a good idea for me to approach all my creditors and ask for copies of all my agreements with them (is it called an SAR??) before I begin the process? My thinking being that since I don't have a large sum of money to play with, maybe I could leverage other things in my favour i.e. missold PPI.

My personal circumstances are not going to improve anytime soon and given that this is likely to be my last stand now before going down the bankruptcy route I would like to go into battle (sorry... negotiations) with as full an armoury as possible!

Any tips/words of wisdom from those who know better would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks very much...

Tixy

A copy of your agreement would be a CCA request (which costs £1) - this is only relevant for certain debts - ie those covered by the consumer credit act - it includes loans, credit cards, store cards, catalogues but doesn't include overdrafts and things like phone contracts.

A subject access request under the datat protection act (£10) can be used for all debts - and they should send a copy of everything they have on file (agreement, info on PPI, letters, full list of all transactions etc).

I would say definitely worth investigating if you had PPI and if your creditors/debt collectors can supply a copy of the agreement.

If you had PPI and it was missold then claiming it back will obviously reduce your debts - and is easy to do.

If any don't have copies of your agreement then you will likely be able to F&F settle for a much smaller amount (you could stop paying altogether on any where there should be a CCA but they cannot supply you with a copy but if they find the agreeement at a later date they could then enforce it again).

GreySquirrel_2

Thank you Tixy, that's really helpful. My debts are mainly loans and credit cards and I was missold PPI across the board so I think the plan of action now will be to request copies of everything and then take it from there. Hopefully this should weigh in my favour when it comes to offering F&Fs.... I hope! Thanks again
Best wishes
Wendy