PRA Group Full & Final Settlement 25 February 2019 at 8:53PM in Debt-free wannabe 6 replies 6.8K views

Mintyman1978

I have 5 debts totalling about £46,000. Three of these debts used to belong to Natwest (Overdraft, Credit Card, & Loan) and two with Tesco (Loan & Credit Card). These debts were originally passed to Westcott Group, and have since been sold to PRA Group.

For the past 18 months I have been under a Debt Management Programme with GW Financial Solutions and have been paying this and not missed any payments. I have approx. 11.5 years left on this DMP.

My sister has very generously offered to lend me some money to try and clear myself out of this DMP. However the amount that she is able offer me falls short of the £46,000 That I owe by approx £16,000.

I have called the DMP company that I deal with and they said I need to have the money in place before they can negotiate. With this in mind I called PRA Group myself and they said they are not able to negotiate on any of the debts that I have. I find this very hard to believe. Is this them playing hardball or is this a common situation. I would like to reach an agreement over the debts I owe rather than being stuck with this plan for the next 11 years. Any advice greatly appreciated.

kjw327

I’d find it very hard to believe that they won’t settle.

Could you not cancel your DMP and self manage? That way you are in control and are taking out thet third party.

fatbelly

Looking at this

4. How we will be paid
4.1 We will take from each monthly payment, under the Debt Management Programme, a gross fee equal to 15% of the periodic payment. However, this is subject to a minimum fee of £37.95 per month. Where your disposable income payment changes your fee will be subject to the same calculations. We will inform you of any changes to your fee verbally and in writing and this will only be effective from the month your payment changes.
4.2 As most of the work for you will be done at the start of the Debt Management Programme, we will retain as a fee 50% of the first four monthly installments to reflect the work completed in establishing the Debt Management Programme.
4.3 Where a short- term payment arrangement is agreed for a sum of lesser (sic) than £80.00 your monthly management fee will be 49.99% of your monthly payment. Where a short- term payment arrangement is agreed for a sum greater than £80.00, your fee will be subject to the calculations in 4.1 of these terms and conditions. A reduction in payment via a short-term payment arrangement is likely to mean a substantial reduction in the amount distributed to your creditors. We will confirm this verbally before you enter such arrangement.

I'd ditch GW straight away - stepchange or payplan would do this for you without a fee.

30k is far more than you should need to clear 46k of debt. You need this factsheet

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

and this thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=115430

sourcrates

Dump the debt management company, they are costing you money that could be going towards your debts.

Time to focus the creditors mind somewhat, and make them take you more seriously, send a sec 77/79 (CCA request for information) to each creditor, this is a request for a copy of your credit agreement, without which they cannot enforce the agreements against you.

More information and a template letter here :

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

Mintyman1978

Thanks for the quick reply. I will look at cancelling the DMP for sure and start to self manage. This was taken out at the start as I was unsure where to start in resolving things. The letters as suggested should be sent to the original creditor or the PRA Group? Do I just need 1 for all the accounts or 1 for each account?

fatbelly

cca requests need to be specific for each account, and do not cover overdrafts.

That's an excellent suggestion for a first step.

Suseka97

As fatbelly advises - send one for each account, although you can send them all in the same envelope if you want (I did that). Also, they go to PRA group who have purchased the debt and thus now own it and it is up to them to contact the original creditors to track down the paperwork.

Definitely cancel the fee charging DMP and the good news is that whilst you are waiting on the CCA responses, you could choose to stop making any payments and save what you are paying towards that F&F. All bar the overdraft debt, which you should keep paying as you cannot send a CCA request for that.

Note that it can sometimes take several months to hear back from them - but the PRA group are one of the better ones for a) acknowledging the request and b) for updating with progress.