Step change charity

Mike75

I have asked Step change charity to offer a settlement to my credit card companies, they have told me in order to put the offer forward they need to have the money in their account, they have asked for this by money transfer, it's a five figure sum and am a bit nervous about transferring such a large amount before the companies have agreed to a settlement.
Is this company legit?

National_Debtline

Hi

Stepchange are a well know and well respected organisation so you shouldn’t worry about them as long as it’s definitely the right Stepchange. Their website is here:

www.stepchange.org

I'm not sure why they need the money in their account before they can make offer though.

If you're talking about making informal Full and Final Settlement offers, rather than in an IVA, there's no reason you can't do that yourself. There's a factsheet with more information here:

www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/fullandfinalsettlementoffers/lumpsumoffers.aspx#

James
@natdebtline

StepChange_Allen

Mike75 wrote: »

I have asked Step change charity to offer a settlement to my credit card companies, they have told me in order to put the offer forward they need to have the money in their account, they have asked for this by money transfer, it's a five figure sum and am a bit nervous about transferring such a large amount before the companies have agreed to a settlement.
Is this company legit?

Hi Mike

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

I noticed your query and wanted to provide some reassurance and clarification for you.

I don't know exactly whereabouts you are in the process with us, but I have checked and can confirm that we do ask for the funds to be paid into our account before the settlements are offered. The reason for this is that some creditors ask for the payment to be made within 7 days, so this way we know we're in a position to do this.

If some creditors decline the offer, you'd have the option of having every penny refunded, paying the ones that do agree, or sometimes creditors come back with a counter-offer so we can look at that.

Hopefully you're already aware of this, but just to confirm that we don't charge anything at all to propose these settlements for you. You can offer them yourselves as the advisor from National Debtline has said, but many people prefer having our support through the process, especially as it doesn't cost anything.

If you have any other questions at all, please don't hesitate to give us a call.

I hope this helps.

Allen