DMP, Full & Final & CCA

How_much

Hi All,
We have been in a DMP with Stepchange for around 10 years, We have paid £21,000 plus off our debt in that time and have around £35,000 remaining taking us to 2040. Our debts have in the most been transferred to the likes of Fredrickson, Cabot, Westcot, IDEM, Capquest, Link Financial....13 in total.

I will be 55 in around 6 weeks and I have the opportunity to take a tax free lump sum of around £10,000 from my pension, I wanted to try and pay off the above with this even though I realise it is probably not sufficient? I have spoken to Stepchange and they have told me that they wont offer F&F's unless I can offer 40% minimum (£14,250) but I can contact and try direct if I want to.

What do you think my chances of paying off everything with the £10,000 would be? Should I request CCA's from them all first before I look at offering Full & final settlements?

January2015

I would definitely CCA those debts first. Given the start date of your DMP you have a high potential for one, or more, of them to be unenforceable (UE). That definitely would increase your bargaining power for reduced settlement figures.

I had a UE credit card debt. I could have ignored it and not paid it off, but I wanted it settled and my credit file marked accordingly. I settled £12,000 for £1,200 - so 10% of the outstanding balance.

sourcrates

Definitely go the CCA route first, don`t` waste that pension pot on unenforceable debts.


Template letter here :


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

How_much

Thanks both, Yes that is my hope, they were mainly if not all taken out earlier than 2007, one or more were around 2000, they still have 22 years to go and the present monthly payments to the highest (£5,000/£6000) debts are less than £20 a month.

Just_Di

How_much wrote: »

Our debts have in the most been transferred to the likes of Fredrickson, Cabot, Westcot, IDEM, Capquest, Link Financial....13 in total.

. . . . Should I request CCA's from them all first before I look at offering Full & final settlements?

And that's a "Yes" from me too

I recognise the names on your list of current owners. Debt purchasers often struggle to produce the necessary documentation since they don't all automatically have access to the information held by the original creditor, depending on the conditions written into the Deed of Assignment.

Di

How_much

Just another thought, Upon checking my credit file I only have one creditor listed on my file, this is Capquest (says DM on record and shows outstanding balance) from an original HFC Marbles CC, the start date is listed as December 2012, but it must have been well before this, in fact it has to be before I started our DMP in 2008, so should this not have been removed from my credit file after 6 years? thanks

January2015

How_much wrote: »

Just another thought, Upon checking my credit file I only have one creditor listed on my file, this is Capquest (says DM on record and shows outstanding balance) from an original HFC Marbles CC, the start date is listed as December 2012, but it must have been well before this, in fact it has to be before I started our DMP in 2008, so should this not have been removed from my credit file after 6 years? thanks

Debts are removed from credit files either

1. six years after date of final payment, or
2. six years after date of default

So in the case of DMP types debts they are 'usually' defaulted prior to the final payment and therefore the six years would start from the date the default was recorded on your credit file.

Does the HFC Marbles debt show as defaulted or is there some other marker - perhaps AP for arrangement to pay?

How_much

January2015 wrote: »

Debts are removed from credit files either

1. six years after date of final payment, or
2. six years after date of default

So in the case of DMP types debts they are 'usually' defaulted prior to the final payment and therefore the six years would start from the date the default was recorded on your credit file.

Does the HFC Marbles debt show as defaulted or is there some other marker - perhaps AP for arrangement to pay?

At the moment it shows DM which it has shown all of this year, the last 3 years it has shown AR and before that it showed DM for 2 years when starting in December 2012. thanks (Surely it must have defaulted as soon if not before I went into the DMP in 2008?)

January2015

How_much wrote: »

At the moment it shows DM which it has shown all of this year, the last 3 years it has shown AR and before that it showed DM for 2 years when starting in December 2012. thanks (Surely it must have defaulted as soon if not before I went into the DMP in 2008?)

I would write Capquest and original creditor and formally request default if backdated to beginning of the DMP date. Explain they are penalising you for being responsible and trying to deal with your debts by continuing to mark your credit file with DM. If you had walked away and made no payments and not kept contact the original creditor would have defaulted you in a matter of months and therefore by 2009 would have registered a default. This would have been gone from your credit file by 2015. However, because you are being honorable and dealing your debts they are penalising you and this debt could remain showing on your credit file until at least 2024 - and that assumes you could clear it this year.

Threaten to complain to the ombudsman - but be warned they don't always play nice and backdate defaults, and the ombudsman doesn't always agree they should. Very frustrating.

How_much

After doing a bit more research on this I can see I took out the HFC Marbles credit card in 2000, we entered our DMP with stepchange in February 2008, the debt was first sold to Equidebt shortly after, it was then sold on maybe to someone else but has ended up with capquest since at least 2012, capquest send me statements with minimum payments required of £80 plus every month even though I am paying them around £10 per month via stepchange, the statements also mention that the account is being managed by NCO Resolve. So my questions are who do I request to back date the default? Surely it shouldn’t be that this account is still on my credit file 10 years after being in a DMP?