Any advice much apprieciated

traceydc49

Hi, I have had PPI redresses amounting to 8000. I have been paying back my debts for 10 years as I am disabled & my husband is in low paid employment. We are with a DMC but they seem to be taking an age to make offers to the creditors. We have had to cut our budget back again, & the payments to the creditors are very low. The reason I am posting is to ask would it be silly for us, ourselves to make offers to the creditors? & if so, do I tell them its from PPI redress or do I tell them I have monies from elsewhere? I dont want to sound like I want to mislead them, but Im at my wits end. My debts amount to 16000. I know they are aware that our budget has changed. I cannot face changing DMC, my health is rapidly getting worse as I have MS. Trouble is, nice as the DMC staff are, each 1 gives me different scenarios. Any advice would be very gratefully recieved, thankyou

mum2one

The first thought are u with a free debt charity, if not I would look at Stepchange, if u are with a free one, give them a call. It may be there making offers and the creditors are slow to respond, sounds like the windfall come at right time xx

sourcrates

Hi,
You should always make full and final offers yourself, involving a 3rd party just complicates the issue.
You don't need to tell them anything about where the money is coming from, although they will ask if it's been borrowed, due to affordability issues, just say it's from a family member.

National Debtline has a very good template letter on there website, just for this purpose, you should also do CCA requests to all relevant accounts first, as if there are paperwork issues, creditors may settle for a lot less than normal.

This is why it's important to do this yourself, it takes a little time and effort, but it's all about negotiating with the creditors, and not giving in at the first refusal.

traceydc49

Thank you so much, sorry to sound stupid, but what are CCA? Thank you again for your reply, cant describe how much hopeyouve given me

traceydc49

Another silly question(no doubt) on a 6000 debt, being paid for 10 years, what realistically should I offer? Please forgive me for stupidity, just want to try & get it right

MoneyMission2015

In the past when people on here have asked what reasonable amounts to offer on full & finals, they are generally advised to pro rata the payments according to what percentage of your debt each creditor is.


So for example if you have £16,000 of debt and £6,000 of that is to one creditor, that creditor is around 37.5% of your total debt, so you would offer them 37.5% of your £8000, so £3000.


I think the advice has been based on the fact that this is the way to treat all creditors fairly.


However, they also advise to go in at a lower offer to begin with so that you still have room to negotiate if the creditor rejects your first offer.


Oh and make sure you get it in writing that it is FULL SETTLEMENT of your debt, otherwise they mark it as partially settled on your credit report and IIRC some people have then had trouble where the rest of the debt has been sold on and a debt collection agency starts chasing for the rest of the debt.



Hope this makes sense and good luck.

National_Debtline

Hi

I agree with sourcrates that you should make the settlement offers yourself if the company you are using will charge you a fee. The sample letter on our website is on the end of our Full and Final Settlement factsheet here:

www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/24%20EW%20Full%20and%20final%20settlement%20offers/Default.aspx

That’s some good advice from MoneyMission on pro rata offers and getting confirmation in writing too.

When people talk about CCA requests they mean requesting a copy of your Consumer Credit Act agreement. It’s what you agreed to when you took out your debts and if a creditor can’t supply you with a copy of it when you make a formal request the debt is unenforceable until it’s supplied. If they can’t supply you with it you might have more leverage in your settlement negotiations and could push for a lower percentage offer.

There is a sample letter for making a CCA request here. You need to enclose a payment of £1 to make it a formal request and it’s best to send it recorded delivery so you have proof.

www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/39%20EW%20Credit%20agreements%20-%20getting%20information/Page-04.aspx

James
@natdebtline

traceydc49

Thank you very much everyone, your advice has helped so much. Mark, do I make a request for my CCA before making any offers? Or just mention it in letters with offers? Thank you

sourcrates

traceydc49 wrote: »

Thank you very much everyone, your advice has helped so much. Mark, do I make a request for my CCA before making any offers? Or just mention it in letters with offers? Thank you

It's the first thing you do, search for a "CCA request template letter" or see post 7 above.
send to any creditor with whom you had a credit card, loan, catalogue account etc, it does not apply to bank accounts or overdraughts.

You must make a formal sec 78 request for it to be valid, so don't do it as a part of anything else.

It could take 6-8 weeks for the creditor to supply your agreement, you will need to post back for more advice at that point.

traceydc49

Hello again! Letters prepared ready to go, really feel silly asking this, please forgive the ignorance but do you just literally put a £1 in with the letters? Sorry again if I sound stupid, very new to this! Thank you

sourcrates

traceydc49 wrote: »

Hello again! Letters prepared ready to go, really feel silly asking this, please forgive the ignorance but do you just literally put a £1 in with the letters? Sorry again if I sound stupid, very new to this! Thank you

No, a £1 postal order is the normal method, or you can send a cheque, do not send cash !!!!!!