Nearly Debt Free Last bit of Advice

Baker1985

Hi all,

Hoping you can help.

After a long time of paying of the debt through a DMP with Money Plus Group i am now in a position to potentially pay of the remainder with a lump sum.

So here is where im at (Outstanding Debt)

PRA Group (UK) Limited £854.96
Wescot Credit Services £179.31
Wescot Credit Services £1,581.80
Total £2,616.07

Now i have potentially in the next few weeks will be getting a lump sum of 1600 so i was wondering what peoples advice would be for whether to offer a settlement amount with the above?

Secondly - the Westcot Credit services is showing as a default on my credit report ( it had been going down over the years) Can someone explain how my credit report will change if at all after these amounts are paid off.

Trying to build my credit score desperately as we are hoping to get a mortgage in around a years time.

Also what is a bit odd is that the PRA group amount isn't appearing on any of my credit reports- have pulled all three. Is this normal? Surely all of my credit should be on my report.

Anyway. Any advice any of you have about best next steps so i can clear my debt quickly and start to build my credit rating would be greatly appreciated.

Hope you are all having a brilliant week!

:beer:

MrsTinks

Firstly I would say if you're paying one of the low life scum companies to manage your DMP then you've been chucking away money each month... you might even have been debt free by now if you'd used one of the charities or done a self managed one - but hohum.

Chances are that your DMP provider won't want to get involved in negotiating full and final settlements - or if they do they will want a cut of the money you have to split. I would strongly suggest you do this yourself.

Work out the % of your debt each creditor is owed and then how much of your chunk that % is. Then halve it and make that your first full and final offer to them. Explain this is a full and final offer, the debt much be marked in such a way that no-one will be able to try to recover the remainder of the debt from you in future.

They will likely not accept the first offer so you have some room to negotiate.

Buying a house in 12 months... well if all your debts defaulted over 6 years ago then it might be possible I guess. Don't forget defaults will not drop off your files until 6 years from default date.
Will your credit worthiness improve? Yes but it's probably going to take more than a year - which is good because now you will have time to save a decent deposit AND time to prove you can manage having credit.

Once you are out of your DMP get a credit builder card and spend a little each month and PAY IN FULL - that bit is really critical!

Save like your life depended on it and see where you are in a years time. Instead of looking at your credit report score - then so long as all your defaults are gone from your report then go see a mortgage adviser. They look at lots of things like affordability and savings etc so don't go purely off what your reports say. Any defaults thought, even settled, will reduce the number of prime lenders who will offer you a good product

National_Debtline

Hi

This factsheet has some information on making full and final settlement offers and includes a link to a template offer letter, which might be useful –

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

James
@natdebtline