debt advice needed

sharpen

ok, third time lucky. am new to this forum and have posted this twice before with no response but i think i was not in the right bit so here goes again! had 43,000 worth of debt, now down to 19,000 thanks to doing some full and finals, but have a couple of outstanding questions that i hope someone can help me with:-
1. if i get defaults on my credit file, i believe they are on for 6 years, is that 6 years from the original debt or would the 6 years start now?
2. would missing a payment or two help with full and final negotiations, ie make creditors more likely to accept a lower offer?
3. debt management plan. the company i am with have been brilliant but feel like i know what i am doing now. i only have 4 credit card debts left and hope to get rid of them by mid next year so cant be bothered to change company to a free one, and am paying £30 a month. will there be problems if i come out of the plan now but carry on paying the creditors every month. will they start chasing me, or charging interest again. would they even need to know?
thanks for any help with this

Jimby509

1) The default drops off 6 years after the date of the defaults issue. e.g you fall behind with payments and a proper legal default is registered against the account on the 6/6/2010 the default will not be there after 6 years being 6/6/2016.

2) Hard to answer as don't think missing payments on purpose is that recomendable, or responsible, it could lead to other issues such as door step visits or county court judgments if you did not handle it well. However in my experience yes, if the lender/DCA are finding it hard to get any payment from you they may be willing to accept a lower amount as they will be happy to get anything at all.

3 ) If it is all going well and you only have a bit more time to pay them off I would stick with it. But I have not been in a DMP so maybe someone else can give better advice.

sharpen

thanks, really useful. agreed re late payments - dont feel comfortable with but just want out of this mess

Sazzie23

Well done at reducing your debts, awesome achievement.
Good advice from Jimby

Self managed DMP's seem to work fine (check out the DMP support thread) as long as you are still paying. By going solo or to a free charity you should free up a bit of cash to pay them extra. Good luck

dancingfairy

I seem to recall other people going it alone before and finding it sucessful, there's even more reason to do so (from the companies point of view) if it means they get an extra 30 a month spread between them (or is that being saved for a full and final)? Either way I can't see it being a problem as long as you write and let them know this is what you are doing.
Best of Luck
df
Edit: missing a payment or 2 might make a company more likely to accept your offer but it is a high risk strategy in my opinion. You want to prove that you're doing your best to pay off your debt, you don't want to mess them around or get their backs up. What if they decide to start adding interest and charges again? what if they say you've broken your deal or decide to take you to court? If things are going well I wouldn't personally risk upsetting the apple cart at this stage, you might well start the avalanche of calls and letters/threat of courts/bailiffs etc and who needs that?

sharpen

thanks all, really appreciate it. helps me to think clearly. i think you are absolutely right, i dont want to cheese them off., and i fully recognise - i do owe this money ! i have 4 cards left, two barclaycard and 2 natwest. barclaycard were very reasonable with my husband., took offers of less than 50 per cent for full and final., so think i will clear them then maybe leave the dmp when i am down to just oweing natwest., so that i can give them more monthly,
thankyou again