Paying off creditors

Anthorn

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,

The phrase "full and final settlement" is a little misleading, and often leads to posts such as yours.

What it should be called is simply "partial final settlement", where you receive a discount off the outstanding balance, to clear the debt once and for all.

Your credit file will show it's been partially settled, which is correct.

National Debtline have a template letter for just this purpose :

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Full-and-final-settlement-offers-%28sole-name%29.aspx

They too use the same contentious phrasing.

No. The correct phrase is "partial payment in full and final settlement". Basically an agreement to pay a lesser amount which pays off the whole debt which in turn results in a "settled" status on the account. Some people call it a "discount".

But I do agree in part because I absolutely hate using the phrase "partial settlement" because it causes so much confusion. "Partial Payment" says exactly what it is.