Paying off DMP fully ... advice?

Keezing

Hi Swells,

What I said has nothing to do with the statute of limitations. Your debts are not statute barred.

They may well be unenforceable, though. So send those letters and find out :-)

Geoff1963

£300k is the biggest number I've seen on this forum, by a long way ; so you need congratulating for not folding.

Making offers to settle is quite commonplace, though I don't know if that applies to such big numbers. I'd recommend getting something officially agreed, at least for the big ones, perhaps through a solicitor.
The way to suggest it, isn't that you want to sell the house to return home ; it's that you want to pay as much as possible for a F&F settlement, and are willing to leave your foreign paradise to do that.

swells_2

Yes it is a pretty big figure isn't it but we have managed to get £96k apx off that and of the remaining £200k-ish £97k is the NRAM for our UK property which we had to 'give back'.
But now we would like to ratify everything if we are successful in getting this money together. The next largest debt is £16k and then they dwindle down to £3k (I think about £30k of the debts are £5k and under). I think the most % we will have to pay will be NRAM ... we have had loads of letters over the years from some of the others offering 50% settlement figures so I know some of them will be OK. As we pay our DMP through StepChange do you think we should use them to negotiate or maybe they don;t do negotiating... I guess I will find out in due course. Thank you for your comments...it has been a bit of a struggle but we have always tried to do our best.

Keezing

swells wrote: »

Yes it is a pretty big figure isn't it but we have managed to get £96k apx off that and of the remaining £200k-ish £97k is the NRAM for our UK property which we had to 'give back'.
But now we would like to ratify everything if we are successful in getting this money together. The next largest debt is £16k and then they dwindle down to £3k (I think about £30k of the debts are £5k and under). I think the most % we will have to pay will be NRAM ... we have had loads of letters over the years from some of the others offering 50% settlement figures so I know some of them will be OK. As we pay our DMP through StepChange do you think we should use them to negotiate or maybe they don;t do negotiating... I guess I will find out in due course. Thank you for your comments...it has been a bit of a struggle but we have always tried to do our best.

It's best to do the CCA request letters and the settlement negotiations direct.

Stepchange have an obligation to settle debts 'equitably', whereas you may have a preference to clear certain debts that offer you the best deal.

sourcrates

My plan would be something along these lines.

Write to all your relevant creditors with a CCA request, that's any card, loan, catalogue, accounts you may of had, in fact any account regulated by the consumer credit act, (This does not apply to old bank accounts or telecom accounts).

Advice and template letter here :

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Information-about-your-agreement-under-the-Consumer-Credit-Act-%28sole-name%29.aspx

That may take a few months to complete, but your next step is dependant on what they come back to you with.

So that would be your first step in the dance, so to speak, do that, wait for response, then act accordingly.

If they can't supply what they are supposed too, the account may be unenforceable in court.

swells_2

Thank you both. A few questions again... sorry.
1) If I get F&F settlement agreements with some creditors but not others is that OK? Can I pay off some whilst not settling others?
2) Do I have to ask every creditor for the same discount?
3) If a bank account debt has been 'sold on' to 3rd parties is that still counted as not being under the CCA?
4) Are you saying that my bank overdraft debts will be counted as the same sort of debt as my mortgage? and would they normally demand a larger %?