Am I asking too much?

National_Debtline

Hello again,

That does sound complicated, and it could be worth giving us a call about it. When did they restart the loan?

If there are paperwork issues this may well help your quest in securing a low full & final settlement.

David.

AngryDog

I'll see if I can call your service tonight when I get home, failing that then tomorrow will be possible.

I have checked my Noddle account and it seems that I can only find the most recent Default. I will have to do a £2 check I think. It was restarted on 08/07/2011 and defaulted 7 months later

National_Debtline

We're here 'till 9pm tonight and then from 9am tomorrow. It's usually quite quick to get through on Fridays

David.

nolongerindenial

ASingleParent wrote: »

Is this for 'normal' debts, i.e., not subject to CCJ or being collected by debtors etc?
Under what circumstances would one be able to negotiate with the bank to allow a final payment?

We had some very difficult circumstances in 2008, we went from earning a combined income of in the region of £50,000 pa to a income of less than around £15,000 on the 2nd December.

I have one CCJ, I am still paying that off at the token payment of £1 a month (one DCA refused to cash my cheques for 24 months).

I negotiated hard with every single creditor, did things I do not recomend others to do (Ignore letters for 6 months with DCA's unwilling to negotiate fairly to try to give me a little leverage), used the data protection act to force them all to use the method of writing letters only, but as I picked up the CCJ early on through Natwest refusing to take a loan payment from a HSBC account.. and my forgetful nature for transferring the money to the natwest account and bankruptcy was recomended as my only way out. I figured my credit rating was shot to pieces already and so what damage was done was done and there was not point trying to keep it in a good state.

At this point, I vowed to myself to treat every single debt like what it was to them, a business transaction. In my negotiations I would tell myself I was purchasing stock for the business (positive asset of no debt) and so I could emotionally detach myself from the situation and negotiate harder - and it certainly worked.

I use every penny I have to try and grow my business, as my business pays my debts back, my credit rating is still terrible, the amount of money I have on a friday whne I check my bank balance is still somewhere between 20p and 90p, im still stressed about money but when we have our good weeks I see very big chunks get removed from my debts!

I could not do this without the loving support of my wife, my 4 year old little boy or my old cars to work on (which I make money on somehow and pay off more debts - apart from this year so far ). If I didnt have the escape of working on the cars I know I would have cracked by now and would have just declared myself bankrupt - those few hours on a saturday to myself is worth millions to me.

Pschool1

nolongerindenial wrote: »

I have done a number of full and final offers and had some luck..

MBNA - £3400 Owed - £1096 Paid to clear
Egg - £1100 Owed - Sold on between DCA's a few times, both them and me lost paperwork so have written debt of for £0
Natwest: £400 CC, Paid it off for £108

my tip - offer to pay before the end of the month by phone and then get them to confirm in writing - they work on commission so may be entitled to bonus's if they can get the money in quicker

hi denial, i saw your approach to natwest, how did you manage that?
I've had an student overdraft for around 4 years now...I wasnt wise about the interest free period..i thought it would never end..(stupid i know) i maxed it out at £2k and i now have it down to about 400 quid.. do you think i could approach them like you did? in the last year i started paying £80-£100 a month, do u think they will look at this as me being able to afford it?
I just want it out my hair as I have some other debt to pay off, the interest on it was a killer when it rocketed up to 18.%

Shadow14uk

DO you have to have missed payments etc? All our ccs and loan are paid each month and more than the minimum amounts too. CC are 0% interest, we've never ever missed a payment

Tixy

Shadow14uk wrote: »

DO you have to have missed payments etc? All our ccs and loan are paid each month and more than the minimum amounts too. CC are 0% interest, we've never ever missed a payment

If you are on top of payments then creditors won't accept reduced offers.

Reduced offers are usually only considered by creditors/debt collectors after a debt has been defaulted and often only if interest has been frozen.

nolongerindenial

Pschool1 wrote: »

hi denial, i saw your approach to natwest, how did you manage that?
I've had an student overdraft for around 4 years now...I wasnt wise about the interest free period..i thought it would never end..(stupid i know) i maxed it out at £2k and i now have it down to about 400 quid.. do you think i could approach them like you did? in the last year i started paying £80-£100 a month, do u think they will look at this as me being able to afford it?
I just want it out my hair as I have some other debt to pay off, the interest on it was a killer when it rocketed up to 18.%

So you have it down to £400, are paying £80-100 per month, clearing this in around 5 months based upon quick mental maths, a reasonable amount of time in the banks mind so I doubt you have a cat in hells chance of making them take a reduced offer - your good business!

Me, I went from a 50k joint income per annum, to a only £8400 guaranteed per annum joint income + whatever I could make whilst one of us found work - all this with a £655 per month commitment to my mortgage, £287 per month commitment to a loan, 4k in overdrafts, 3.4k on one card, £1100 on another, 400 on a third card, my wifes credit card (about 1k iirc), I think you can see that im not a dishonest person but had to choose what to pay..

Do NOT use me as a hero figure for getting out of debt - what I have had to do has completely destroyed my credit rating, and it will probably take around another 7 years for it to recover (by the time I have finished paying my debts off based upon current calcs), I had to default because it was either default, pay the mortgage (although gain some arrears we should hopefully pay off this year (6 years on!), put a little food on the table and pay what we can...

People always think that lowball offers are the best way out of debt - nope the best way out out of debt is to pay it back!

AngryDog

^^^^ In an ideal world yes, but I expect neither you or your creditor wants you paying buttons for the next 15 years, I'm sure they'd rather have as much at they can get now. I say you, but I mean "any one"

sourcrates

As previously mentioned, I take the view that s**t happens in life, incomes drop, for whatever reason, you have to make that choice what to pay, and what not to pay, when push comes to shove, its the priority debts that must be paid, everything else can wait, and when you've been in that situation, as I have, you'll know what I mean, when you have really tried to keep up with payments, and all the creditor has done is pass you on to a bottom feeding DCA, then in my book, the rules go out the window, I will do anything and everything in my power not to put a penny more than is necessary in that DCA`s pocket, if you can settle for less, then do it, its all about profit and loss for them, you have to play them at there own game.