Full and final settlement advice

Catweazel68

As the title says, I'm looking for some advice re making full and final payments....


I was using a DM company up until the beginning of last year to handle my debts for me and stupidly paying them about £40 a month for the privilege. Fortunately I saw the light and decided to take matters in to my own hands and deal with my creditors directly.


The situation may be about to change now though in that a relative has very kindly offered to lend me some money in order for me to clear my debts. So my question is roughly what sort of figure in terms of percentage should I start with when offering a full and final payment?? I guess it's a bit of a haggling game until a figure is agreed


Also, one of my creditors has very kindly put a charge on my property as security for one of my debts, albeit this was about 5 years ago now.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you

sourcrates

Hi,
If debts are fairly old, you should CCA all relevant accounts first, if they don't hold correct paperwork, they will settle for much less than normal.
Assuming you do that, then as you say, it's all a matter of negotiation, start at around 30/40%, you can expect to play a bit of letter tennis, but you should be able to come to an agreement with them.
Make sure you do everything in writing, National Debtline has a good template letter on its website for this.