When to make F&F offers on a DMP

mistertml

Hi Again

I have started to deal with my own DMP and the creditors are accepting my offer of payment as it is a lot more than the amount they used to receive from my DMC.

I have claimed PPI and other charges from most of the creditors and paid it towards the DMP.

I currently owe £12000 and can comfortably pay £150pm towards the debt.

What I would like to know is at what point do I start to make full and final settlement offers to the creditors?

I have been advised that it is best to make Pro rata payments to all creditors instead of trying to pay the smallest balance off first etc.

The reason I ask is that discovered I have a redundant HFX account which was also part of the DMP previously and found that they had applied O/D charges on there. After going through the template on this site I found that they owed £1500+ to me. I cleared the £100 O/D some 15months ago. An advisor called me and has offered a refund of £750. I advised I would think aboutit and get back to him.

What I would like to know is should I accept this?

Should I use the money to make F&F offers to all or some of my creditors?

Any advise on the matter would be appreciated as always

Thanks again

TML

National_Debtline

Hi mistertml

It's not my place to say whether or not you should accept the current offer of £750 - just to point out that if you have calculated that the "true" scale of the charges is nearer £1500, you may wish to hold out and pursue it further using the templates available on this site:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

Ask yourself whether that £750 would be so useful right now that you would be prepared to forgo a potentially higher figure by toughing it out.

Re: F & F offers - £750 would only be approximately 6% of what you owe in total, and the equivalent of 5 months' payments at your current rate. Personally I'm not convinced many creditors will be biting your hand off, but you can only ask.

A sum of that size, in my opinion, might serve you better as an emergency fund in the event of car breakdown, boiler repair etc etc.

F & F offers can be proposed at any stage of a DMP - having an offer rejected at one point does not stop you from going back at a later stage with a new proposal or even a rehash of the previous one.

Dennis
@natdebtline

mistertml

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hi mistertml

It's not my place to say whether or not you should accept the current offer of £750 - just to point out that if you have calculated that the "true" scale of the charges is nearer £1500, you may wish to hold out and pursue it further using the templates available on this site:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

Ask yourself whether that £750 would be so useful right now that you would be prepared to forgo a potentially higher figure by toughing it out.

Ree: F & F offers - £750 would only be approximately 6% of what you owe in total, and the equivalent of 5 months' payments at your current rate. Personally I'm not convinced many creditors will be biting your hand off, but you can only ask.

A sum of that size, in my opinion, might serve you better as an emergency fund in the event of car breakdown, boiler repair etc etc.

F & F offers can be proposed at any stage of a DMP - having an offer rejected at one point does not stop you from going back at a later stage with a new proposal or even a rehash of the previous one.

Dennis
@natdebtline

Hi Dennis

Thanks for the advice.

At my current level of debt how much money do you think I would need to put together to start making F&F offers.

Some months I do end up with upto £150 spare cash which I intend to put towards my debt if at all possible but cannot commit to up the monthly amount just in case of emergencies.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

National_Debtline

mistertml wrote: »

Hi Dennis

Thanks for the advice.

At my current level of debt how much money do you think I would need to put together to start making F&F offers.

Some months I do end up with upto £150 spare cash which I intend to put towards my debt if at all possible but cannot commit to up the monthly amount just in case of emergencies.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

It might be worth you posting up the Statement of Affairs that you are using for your current negotiations. I would suggest that you try to earmark a fixed monthly amount for emergencies so that this can be saved up until such time as it becomes needed, rather than varying the amount you pay creditors each month depending on what has cropped up. I hope that makes sense!

Dennis
@natdebtline

mistertml

National_Debtline wrote: »

It might be worth you posting up the Statement of Affairs that you are using for your current negotiations. I would suggest that you try to earmark a fixed monthly amount for emergencies so that this can be saved up until such time as it becomes needed, rather than varying the amount you pay creditors each month depending on what has cropped up. I hope that makes sense!

Dennis
@natdebtline

Hi

My current SOA only has my contribution towards the household bills. The rest is paid for by my partner. I have not added any of her outgoings or contributions. Just added a note on the letter advising the missing bits of info is paid for by my partner.

I didnt think i needed to provide the her income etc as she isnt in debt.

I am assuming I need to provide a full SOA??

Thanks

TML

mistertml

Hi
On a separate note.

Hfx have declined O/D charges from my other account as it is over 6 years old.
I take it I would need for them to confirm this in writing and to take this to the Ombudsman?

Thanks

sourcrates

mistertml wrote: »

Hi
On a separate note.

Hfx have declined O/D charges from my other account as it is over 6 years old.
I take it I would need for them to confirm this in writing and to take this to the Ombudsman?

Thanks

Yes, but, when you make your complaint to the FOS, on the complaint form it asks you :


"when were you aware that something was wrong ?"


put a date within the last six months, as because this seems to be over 6 years ago, that it occurred, it could be thrown out as out of time.


Best to be on the safe side

National_Debtline

mistertml wrote: »

Hi

My current SOA only has my contribution towards the household bills. The rest is paid for by my partner. I have not added any of her outgoings or contributions. Just added a note on the letter advising the missing bits of info is paid for by my partner.

I didnt think i needed to provide the her income etc as she isnt in debt.

I am assuming I need to provide a full SOA??

Thanks

TML

Hi again

You are quite free to use an SOA that reflects only your income and your share of household expenditure, as your negotiations with creditors are effectively informal. It is worth making this very clear to creditors, and putting something like "paid by wife" by the relevant items in the Expenditure part of your SOA.

It is up to each creditor whether they are happy to accept this, and to take it at face value that you are not paying more than your fair share of the household bills.

Dennis
@natdebtline