Negotiating Settlement Figure

Barneyrubble999

Hello
Wonder if anyone can advise.
My partner lost his job in January. We have four credit cards and have always maintained at least minimum payment up to that time. Due to loss of job we are in a mess now financially. Our outgoings exceed our incomings!! At the moment our son is temp living with us while he waits to emigrate so we have a little respite as he is helping us out with rent and bills etc. We have not been able to pay any money off the C/C's since January.
Kindly he has also offered to help to pay off the credit card balances. However, he is not made of money himself and has not enough funds to pay the whole balances. so I used the National Debt Line formula and came up with an offer of settlement. All four credit card companys have refused and have said they will continue to chase the debt. My husband is almost 60, and the chances of gaining employment are slim. So you can see we are in a pickle! The total balance of ALL the cards comes to £10,700 and my son has offered £8000 so it's not like we are offering way way under the total balance we owe. I am worried sick about what is going to happen. we have no way of mustering up any more money than we have offered. Once my son leaves to live abroad the situation will be worse. Through Google I can see that credit card company's DO sometimes accept a lower financial settlement but in my case it seems not. Can anyone advise me what to do please? Thank you all for reading.

dresdendave

You say the total debt is $10,700? I assume this is a typo. Perhaps you should edit this as it will cause confusion.

Barneyrubble999

Upps! Edited thank you

bigadaj

If you have defaulted already in terms of missed payments then you should be in a stronger position to negotiate though as the debt has been paid until recently then the card providers obviously expect payments to recommence.

You might be best speaking to one of the free debt charities like step change, and completing a statement of affairs, people on the debt free wannabe board will help with that.

At the end of the day you can only afford what you can after you have paid for essentials so that is what the providers will have to accept. Your credit record will be damaged for several years but if you don't propose borrowing any more this may not affect you too badly.

If you have no other assets that you can sell there's little the card providers can do.

You also need to check you're claiming all the benefits that you're entitled to, such as housing benefit.

CLAPTON

Barneyrubble999 wrote: »

Hello
Wonder if anyone can advise.
My partner lost his job in January. We have four credit cards and have always maintained at least minimum payment up to that time. Due to loss of job we are in a mess now financially. Our outgoings exceed our incomings!! At the moment our son is temp living with us while he waits to emigrate so we have a little respite as he is helping us out with rent and bills etc. We have not been able to pay any money off the C/C's since January.
Kindly he has also offered to help to pay off the credit card balances. However, he is not made of money himself and has not enough funds to pay the whole balances. so I used the National Debt Line formula and came up with an offer of settlement. All four credit card companys have refused and have said they will continue to chase the debt. My husband is almost 60, and the chances of gaining employment are slim. So you can see we are in a pickle! The total balance of ALL the cards comes to £10,700 and my son has offered £8000 so it's not like we are offering way way under the total balance we owe. I am worried sick about what is going to happen. we have no way of mustering up any more money than we have offered. Once my son leaves to live abroad the situation will be worse. Through Google I can see that credit card company's DO sometimes accept a lower financial settlement but in my case it seems not. Can anyone advise me what to do please? Thank you all for reading.

basically most creditors will only negoatiate once you have defaulted (i.e. stopping paying).
they will then default your credit files and will usually accept a reduced amount to settle the debt although your cresit files will show the default which will make credit hard to get for 6 years.