Advice with settlement letter

zenshi

I received a letter today from the DCA with regards to the smallest of my credit card debts.

It says......

Following a review of your account, we may be able to offer a discount to satisfy your debt balance. Should you agree a short settlement with us, your credit file will be marked on clearance of your agreed payment as satisfied with a partially settled flag.....

Obviously I will have to see what they offer and wether I can afford it but is the wording such that that particular debt would be no more? They haven't said full and final? Which I've heard about on here

Also, the DCA haven't had that debt for long and I haven't as yet set up a monthly payment, am waiting to get SOA to them

Any thoughts please

Angryatthesystem

a settlement order satisfys the account. which then the account would be closed

zenshi

This is the first one I've ever had, so excuse my thickness

Does the wording meant just that?! Or are they being clever because I may not understand?

Angryatthesystem

They do try to be clever with words sometimes but basically

say you owe 400

they say you can pay 200 and they would accept that to close the account

you say yes account closed gone forever


it will go on your credit report as partial settlement but they cannot claim anymore from you on that debt

remember debt companies buy debts for about 5-20% of their actual value so they will offer you a settlement that seems reasonable to you but will make them a profit

zenshi

Thanks, it was the partial settlement bit that I wanted to be sure was ok and would close the account. Will ring tomorrow and find out what they're offering

Yes I realise they buy debts for pennies....this debt is a tad over £500. I defaulted and have paid nothing for nearly a year. DCA took over couple months ago

Angryatthesystem

what i would do is whatever offer they make you make a counter offer. worth being cheeky!

zenshi

I briefly discussed it with my daughter tonight....she may be able to help me out with it

sourcrates

zenshi wrote: »

I briefly discussed it with my daughter tonight....she may be able to help me out with it

Again, make sure you get everything in writing.
That the offer you make is in full and final settlement of the account, and the remaining balance will be written off, and you will not be chased for it.


Do this before you pay them a penny, as lots of people fail to do this, and a few months down the line the remaining balance has been sold on again, and another DCA is chasing them.

spicefox

sourcrates wrote: »

Again, make sure you get everything in writing.
That the offer you make is in full and final settlement of the account, and the remaining balance will be written off, and you will not be chased for it.


Do this before you pay them a penny, as lots of people fail to do this, and a few months down the line the remaining balance has been sold on again, and another DCA is chasing them.

The wording "full and final" is only used when an account is paid in full.

Stating an account will have a zero balance and partial settlement on your credit file is the new standard under FCA.

Your account will be closed and you will owe nothing further - but future lenders will see that the account was settled, rather than paid in full.

You can request wording along the lines of "xxx will no longer pursue the remaining balance, nor will any of is subsidiaries" there's usually some compliance approved statement if you're worried about only paying part of your balance

Lensman_2

You are being offered a full and final settlement. But proceed with caution, you need to make sure the remainder is locked up with them.

I strongly recommend the National Debtline's advice and sample letter for this. (Sadly their site appears to be down right now so I can't give you a direct link, but here is one for the Google search).

Marking your credit file as partially settled is correct.

But please make sure that they cannot orphan the remainder off and send it out for further debt collection.

Lastly, you may want to negotiate on the phone (I wouldn't, I would do it in writing) but make sure the closure of the deal is done strictly in writing. From both sides. And keep the copies for 6 years if you are successful.