Advice:Lowell offering discount on settling. account.

stephielou

Hi, apologies if this is in the wrong section.
I have received a letter from Lowell offering a 30% discount on my account and any others i hold with them (4 in total). This would take monies owed from £1700 and change to just under £1200. I had all intentions after my credit card was paid off (£1600 left to clear) in june, to spend the next 4 months clearing my Lowell accounts.
My accounts went into Default in August 2011. So if what i've researched and understood means that these accounts will be wiped from my credit score.
Lowell have stated that my credit report will state 'partially satisfied' after discounted payments are made. If i do this does that mean that i will have these accounts for another 6 years on my credit score stating such, or will it be wiped come august 2017. If so i can live with that, just don't want to settle and have that negative on my score for a further 6 years.
Any information/advice would be greatly received, thank you in advance.

National_Debtline

Hi there,


The defaults will be removed 6 years from the date of default whether the accounts are settled or not. If you do a discounted settlement then it would be very common for the creditor to mark the debt as partially settled on your file (because you settled the account but did not pay 100% of what was owing). If you do decided to do these settlements then make sure that Lowell agree, in writing, to all of your conditions of payment before sending any money. We have a sample letter to help you.


You mentioned that you planned to make an arrangement with Lowell after your credit cards are cleared - how long has it been since you last sent a payment to these 4 accounts? Could they be statute barred?


Laura
@natdebtline

stephielou

Thank you for your reply Laura.
That's great, i just didn't want to partially settle and have a negative on my record for another 5 years after the defaults are removed.
I have been making token payments to Lowell since my accounts were sold to them, so from what i've read that means they can't be statute barred.
Thank you very much for the link to the sample letter and for your help it is greatly appreciated.
Stephie