Creation Full & Final Settlement problem

Toffster83

In November I agreed a full & final settlement offer with Creation Finance for a credit card I had years ago. I was paying it off for years on a DMP, however my mother retired and give me money to pay off my debts. The debt was
approximately £2700 and I made a full & final settlement offer of £800 over the phone. The creation employee on the phone said they couldn't accept this but he then came back and said that if I made a full & final settlement of £872 that they would close the account, mark it as partially settled on my credit file and not pursue me for the remainder of the debt. I was happy with this and told them I would arrange for the payment from my mother. I got this and called them back at the beginning of December and again reitered that this was a full & final settlement offer that had been accepted, the correct amount and the person confirmed this was definately the case (all calls are recorded and will state all this) I made the payment and believed that the matter was then resolved and I had no further outstading debts with Creation. I have just received a phonecall today from Creation saying that the people who dealt with me before meant to say that my full and final settlement was £872 OFF the total debt and that it should have in fact been approx £1700 that needed to be paid. They said that this amount was now still outstanding but they would be willing to put me on a plan to pay it off!! I said under no circumstances would I be entering any plan to pay it off, as far as I was concerned I had made the payment offer that was confirmed to me by 2 employees, this would all be recorded and that my debt with Creation was cleared. I advised that I will be seeking legal advice. They have said they will put the file on hold for 14 days while I seek legal advice. Obviously this is quite concerning to me as I believed I was debt free and do not want to pay back a debt I believed I had cleared. I am considering passing the matter on to my Solicitor, however cant afford legal fee's if Creation take it further. Does anybody know where I would stand. Could I defend this matter? Can I also stress that Creation have said they are going to forward me a "Write off sheet" that will show what my Full & Final Settlement Offer SHOULD have been and this will show that the employee's who dealth with it got the figures wrong.

crispycornflake

Hi, I would write to them asking them to provide you with transcripts of the call recordings. I would also now only deal with them in writing, I know it's too late now but you really should have done this from the outset, they then could not have disputed what was said on the phone. What was said regarding it being a partial settlement recorded on your credit file & then no longer pursued is common practice, if that was said then they should stick to the agreement. Stick to your guns but as I said put everything in writing to them to cover yourself.

La_escocesa

I'd call the Financial Ombudsman about this:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact/index.html

Maybe similar to case 81/03 here...?
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/81/81-debt-collecting.html

sourcrates

Hi,

Sorry to hear of your plight, this is why it's imperative you always get things like this agreed in writing, before you part with a penny.

However, that's bye the bye now, this is what you should do.

First off, stop speaking to them on the phone, any future contact should be in writing only, you won't need your solicitor, not yet anyway, you need to put in an official written complaint to creation, detailing the events, keep it concise, and to the point.

You must follow the correct complaints procedure.

They have 8 weeks to investigate your complaint, and provide you with a final responce.

Some complaints will get settled at this point, however, if they do not uphold your complaint, you then take it to the FOS (financial ombudsman service) as mentioned in an earlier post, however, you must allow the business a chance to put things right first, before the ombudsman can become involved.

Do this first, allow them to investigate, see what they say, if your not satisfied, ombudsman.

Toffster83

Thanks for the replies.

I know I should have done everything in writing but I just wanted to get the matter sorted as soon as possible so rang and made the f & f offer. I thought as the calls are all recorded I maybe wouldn't need to get it in writing.

I will go down the route of making an official complaint and if not satisfied get the ombudsman involved.

It's a kick in the teeth when you believe you are debt free and then a creditor comes back 2 months later looking more but I won't be giving in. Thanks

Toffster83

Sorry just to confirm that they are not disputing what was said on the phone, they are agreeing that the offer that was made to me for full and final settlement was £872, however what they are saying is that the employee got it wrong and should have told me that in fact the offer was £872 off the debt ie approx £1700.

sourcrates

Toffster83 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

I know I should have done everything in writing but I just wanted to get the matter sorted as soon as possible so rang and made the f & f offer. I thought as the calls are all recorded I maybe wouldn't need to get it in writing.

I will go down the route of making an official complaint and if not satisfied get the ombudsman involved.

It's a kick in the teeth when you believe you are debt free and then a creditor comes back 2 months later looking more but I won't be giving in. Thanks

It is a kick in the teeth, your right.

That's why it's soo important to get it right first time.

I think you have a good chance of getting a result here, you asked for a settlement figure, they gave you one, you paid it in good faith, it was reasonable to assume that would be the end of the matter.

If they made an error, that's there problem, not yours.