Quick one. Happy!!

David848435

Just had a letter through from Lowell offering 90% discount on 800 debt. It’s only a small debt of mine but it’s better than nothing.
Have accepted over 3 months. Lady on phone was really nice and as I have a fair few debts with Lowell once this is paid, she will see what they can do in regards to other debts in a similar manner. If not I’ll carry on with my £1 token a month and wait it out.

National_Debtline

Hi David,


When you do full and final settlements there are several things to consider. First of all, if you are going to do this type of settlement you should do it with all debts of a similar type (i.e. other non priority debts - cards, loans, overdrafts, catalogues etc). If you only do it with one debt, even if the proposal came from the creditor, there is a risk this could be viewed as a preference payment. If the creditors feel the debts are not being treated fairly they may be less inclined to negotiate going forward or potentially more aggressive in taking action.


When doing this type of settlement you will need to get the creditors to agree, in writing, not to chase you for the shortfall, and not to pass to any other organisation that will chase you for the shortfall. You should also ensure that any lump sum is divided fairly between the debts.

They will need to agree to mark your credit file as partially settled and with a £0 and that the account will be closed. If they agree to all of that, in writing, then you make the payment to settle the account. Do not accept confirmation over the phone and keep a copy of everything for 6 years.


Laura
@natdebtline

David848435

Hiya,

Thanks for your reply.
I have in writing confirmation that it will be marked on credit file as partially settled, and the account balance will be set to £0 amount owed.

Have I done something wrong?

National_Debtline

Hello again David,


If you have details of the settlement it in writing then that part is good news. The only concern is how your other creditors may view this (if they are aware of it) and if you can't do similar offers to them. Perhaps you could post a SOA so that this can be looked at more closely.


Laura
@natdebtline

David848435

I doubt my other creditors would be aware, I have several,through Lowell and did a new I&E which shows that my situation hasn’t really changed all that much. Still left with a shockingly small amount but the feeling of having a big debt gone meant I’d go even tighter for the next couple of months.

Will try and get the SOA done at some point but currently travelling for work at the moment, remember doing it a little while ago and it messed with my head haha.

bipixel

Really ? Very good news :T

David848435

Yeah that’s what I thought. Saw the letter this morning and thought “oh great, what now” and turned out to be pleasantly surprised. Didn’t really think they’d ever come down that much.

Willing2Learn

Just to add to what Laura said. I self-managed repayments of all my debts and made ad hoc f&fs offers to my creditors as and when funds became available. Some of the creditors did moan to me about preferential treatment but I just kept doing it the same way until all debts were cleared.

I think it is best to do it as Laura says, but an ad hoc method can work too. You just need to ignore the moaning creditors lol

David848435

To be honest, having my 3rd biggest debt and biggest with Lowell gone made me a little emotional haha.
All my accounts are frozen and no interest is going onto the other. I’ll just keep making the payments as agreed with them and concentrate on the Lowell ones if they are “being nice” and then revert back to the other ones.

macman

David848435 wrote: »

I doubt my other creditors would be aware, I have several,through Lowell and did a new I&E which shows that my situation hasn’t really changed all that much. Still left with a shockingly small amount but the feeling of having a big debt gone meant I’d go even tighter for the next couple of months.

Will try and get the SOA done at some point but currently travelling for work at the moment, remember doing it a little while ago and it messed with my head haha.

If you don't do an SOA (whether you post it here or not is irrelevant), then how do you ever expect to deal with your debts? You cannot budget properly unless you know exactly what your income and outgoings are, which is presumably how you got into debt in the first place?

David848435

No of course I have a budget of all my incoming and outgoing, debts, etc etc. Just that when I last went to do an SOA it baffled me!
I know what I owe, and have a plan in place to tackle. I’ll try do one over next day or so in order to gain your advice as it will most likely be different to mine.
Wanted to do it tonight but only just got to my hotel and up at 05:30 for work.