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Haggling a way to debt-free
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TheYeti
Posts: 6 Forumite
Gooooood evening all, TheYeti here beginning my documented journey.
As this story starts with my 18yo self.
I was young, borderline alcoholic partying 6 nights/week. Funding my 'nightlife' with my wage simply wasn't cutting it so began my downward spiral.
I opened up a £500 overdraft with RBS. £500 turned into £600...then £700, then £900....
I met a girl, and after not too long discovered we were expecting.
A year later and I'm £2,000 in an overdraft along with a few other CC debts.
Debts piling and we've now become accustomed to a certain lifestyle I took out a loan to 'consolidate'. Did we? Did we f**k!
Loans become bigger loans. Took out another loan.... Insecurities with money springs to mind.
6 years later me and baby mother split up.
I'm 25, living back with my mum and dad and the truth hits home hard. I'm £37,000 in debt, with nothing to show for it, forking out £1200/month to debts. Being back at home was a true god send as it gave me financial breathing space. I wasn't paying rent so everything spare was being thrown at my debts. I entered a DMP with StepChange who took masses of stress off my plate (I seriously cannot thank them enough).
Fast forward two years and I've now moved out and my debts have just reached a new era. I've been promoted at work and now have a healthy income coming in. All the bills in the house have been renegotiated and nothing goes on credit. We either pay for it out our own pocket or its tough... be it a TV or a new phone.
At the time of writing this my debts are as follows:
Cabot (Zopa) £4,779.13
Lowell (118) £3,144.31
Rate Setter £1,914.05
Capital One £1,290.02
SalaryFinance £587.17
Moorcroft £507.17
MyJar £412.76
PRA Group £183.76
Capital One £139.71
_______________________
TOTAL £12,958.08
I've just recently celebrated my 28th Birthday. My goal is to be debt free by 30 and I'm well on track to do so.
Here comes the great news story. Taking some inspiration from the MSE forums I've done some research on F&F settlements. Based on how long I've had the debts and how little I'm paying them through my DMP I've started making offers as follows:
The £1,200 Capital one card. £300 as at current rate will take them 9 and half years to collect full payment. I'm awaiting response.
PRA Group (Was barclaycard) Were offered £60 and have just counter-offered £167. I'm playing the bartering game with £85 as my response. I'll update once a response is received.
My personal favourite; Moorcroft. Originally offered £250 have today accepted a counter-offer of £279, meaning a 45% discount!
It's such a relief to finally see light at the end of the tunnel, I'll be bartering all of them down to get debt-free as quickly as possible. The way I see it is my credit rating is already beyond damaged so I'm not relying on it anyway.
Stay tuned for my journey!
As this story starts with my 18yo self.
I was young, borderline alcoholic partying 6 nights/week. Funding my 'nightlife' with my wage simply wasn't cutting it so began my downward spiral.
I opened up a £500 overdraft with RBS. £500 turned into £600...then £700, then £900....
I met a girl, and after not too long discovered we were expecting.
A year later and I'm £2,000 in an overdraft along with a few other CC debts.
Debts piling and we've now become accustomed to a certain lifestyle I took out a loan to 'consolidate'. Did we? Did we f**k!
Loans become bigger loans. Took out another loan.... Insecurities with money springs to mind.
6 years later me and baby mother split up.
I'm 25, living back with my mum and dad and the truth hits home hard. I'm £37,000 in debt, with nothing to show for it, forking out £1200/month to debts. Being back at home was a true god send as it gave me financial breathing space. I wasn't paying rent so everything spare was being thrown at my debts. I entered a DMP with StepChange who took masses of stress off my plate (I seriously cannot thank them enough).
Fast forward two years and I've now moved out and my debts have just reached a new era. I've been promoted at work and now have a healthy income coming in. All the bills in the house have been renegotiated and nothing goes on credit. We either pay for it out our own pocket or its tough... be it a TV or a new phone.
At the time of writing this my debts are as follows:
Cabot (Zopa) £4,779.13
Lowell (118) £3,144.31
Rate Setter £1,914.05
Capital One £1,290.02
SalaryFinance £587.17
Moorcroft £507.17
MyJar £412.76
PRA Group £183.76
Capital One £139.71
_______________________
TOTAL £12,958.08
I've just recently celebrated my 28th Birthday. My goal is to be debt free by 30 and I'm well on track to do so.
Here comes the great news story. Taking some inspiration from the MSE forums I've done some research on F&F settlements. Based on how long I've had the debts and how little I'm paying them through my DMP I've started making offers as follows:
The £1,200 Capital one card. £300 as at current rate will take them 9 and half years to collect full payment. I'm awaiting response.
PRA Group (Was barclaycard) Were offered £60 and have just counter-offered £167. I'm playing the bartering game with £85 as my response. I'll update once a response is received.
My personal favourite; Moorcroft. Originally offered £250 have today accepted a counter-offer of £279, meaning a 45% discount!
It's such a relief to finally see light at the end of the tunnel, I'll be bartering all of them down to get debt-free as quickly as possible. The way I see it is my credit rating is already beyond damaged so I'm not relying on it anyway.
Stay tuned for my journey!
0
Comments
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You've done so well so far! Good luck to you!Store card £140 £117 - Store card £150 - Overdraft £200 - PayPal £364 - Loan 1 £5052 - Loan 2 £1733 - Credit card £2890 - Car hire purchase £3200 - Savings £0.0
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Good luck on your journey x0
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well done and good luck - please do update with your F&F's, I have some debts with a couple of the same companies and always interesting to see what they accept0
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good luck!"Good financial planning is about not spending money on things that add no value to your life in order to have more money for the things that do". Eoin McGee0
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I will do, thanks. Which companies are you also with anna?0
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So Capital one for my big one just came back with a counter offer. I owe them £1,290.02. I offered £300 and they've just counter-offered at £645.01 (half).
30 days to pay, but I'll be waiting until I get that in writing...0 -
I have settled 14 debts so far at 25%, a 75% reduction, most of these were with Lowell.
The thing is I could of paid the full settlement but why should I? These parasite debt purchasers have paid peanuts so you need to set the scene that they will get little or nothing and keep trying till the figures go very low!
Keep up the good work!I have numerous qualifications in Business and Finance, Accountancy, Health and Safety and am now studying Law.
Don't rely on anything I write as it may be wrong!!!0 -
Hi UseTheForce, any advice on how you got them to settle so low? Great work!0
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Wow, what an inspirational first post! Massive congratulations for everything you've achieved so far.
Good luck with your diary - look forward to following!
DSL0
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