Problems settling credit cards

Sallymitchxx

Hi folks I'm looking for advice on how to approach credit card companies to get a full and final settlement as so far I've just faced roadblocks by them.

A bit of background - I'm a.single parent to a son with additional needs and I suffer with bi-polar - I took out a credit card to set up in self employment to be there for him - things got out of control so I took out another '0%' one to transfer the balance. It wasn't 0 %! I sold my flat - things went wrong I lost £5000 then moved and boiler, C.H, roof, fire and general renovation needs fixing. I now have 3K spare to clear 5k debt and have lost a significant amount of business with moving house so times are only going to get tougher.

I wrote to each C.C company (Barclays and Llyods) to offer a full and final settlement explaining my situation. Neither have responded but Barclays are chasing monthly payment. Llyods say they never received the letter (I sent it with a change of address in the same envelope - they changed my address though. Suspicious?). They say they don't offer settlements on credit cards and I'd have to go through a financial assessment if I'm in financial hardship. The problem is though, because I have the money in my account from the house sale, despite my circumstances I'm not technically in hardship- yet. If I can't clear my credit cards though I surely will be soon and don't know what steps to take next.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks

z1a

Not sure, but I would think that if you're up to date on payments they won't want any F&F settlement other than full amount owing.

sourcrates

Hi,

In order to do what you describe, you would first need to default on your payments, in other words, the agreement you have to pay the account every month would need to be broken, this is usually done by non payment.

The account would then need to be sold on to a debt collector, then, and only then, will a settlement figure be concidered.

You have to break the terns of your agreement as until that point you are still liable for the full amount, once an account gets sold on, usually very cheaply, you can then expect to get a reasonable settlement deal.

The whole process can take between 6-12 months to get to that stage.