Help with full and final settlements

rattters

Good evening . I set up a self-managed DMP in April 2015 following lots of advice and support from here. I had a huge change in circumstances and since the end of 2016 I have been paying £1 token payments to 10 creditors, 5 of which have been taken over by debt management companies (Cabot, Westcot, PRA, Intrum and Capquest) and 1 has been closed down and written off (M&S).
My question is - following an offer of a 70% reduction offer from 2 of the companies as a full and final settlement- would it be a good idea to put in an offer of a full and final settlement to all the creditors (using an offer of help from a family member) .
If so- what is the best way around this?

We are unable to get our full credit profile as we are permanently resident in Spain now and have no UK address or credit cards.


Kind regards

Willing2Learn

Hi rattters,

If it were me, before making any F&F offers, I would first submit a CCA request for all eligible accounts (eg loans, credit cards, catalogues and store cards etc). If they were unable to provide you with compliant paperwork, then the applicable account would become unenforceable.

rattters

Willing2Learn wrote: »

Hi rattters,

If it were me, before making any F&F offers, I would first submit a CCA request for all eligible accounts (eg loans, credit cards, catalogues and store cards etc). If they were unable to provide you with compliant paperwork, then the applicable account would become unenforceable.

Thanks for that- but would that not stay on our credit file for ever?

Willing2Learn

rattters wrote: »

...but would that not stay on our credit file for ever?

No. An account is automatically removed from your credit files six years from the date the account was defaulted.

rattters

Willing2Learn wrote: »

No. An account is automatically removed from your credit files six years from the date the account was defaulted.

Ahhh- so if we apply for the CCA's and the ones that aren't enforceable- we should just stop paying?

Some have been defaulted already I believe- but we have continued paying £1 a month- should we stop that?

Willing2Learn

rattters wrote: »

Ahhh- so if we apply for the CCA's and the ones that aren't enforceable- we should just stop paying?

Correct. An account becomes unenforceable until the creditor can provide you with a 'true copy' of your agreement. You can withhold all payments whilst you wait for an adequate response from each creditor.

rattters wrote: »

Some have been defaulted already I believe- but we have continued paying £1 a month- should we stop that?

You would still remain liable for an account that has been defaulted and automatically removed from your credit file. (Liability and enforceability should not be confused)


Here - Have a read of the article linked below:
Debts - why, how & when to ask for the CCA agreement

sourcrates

rattters wrote: »

Ahhh- so if we apply for the CCA's and the ones that aren't enforceable- we should just stop paying?

Some have been defaulted already I believe- but we have continued paying £1 a month- should we stop that?

Just thinking out loud here, they ain`t going to chase you to Spain for credit card debt, the longer you pay the £1 a month, the longer it takes to become statute barred, you could just walk away to be honest, in order to enforce the debts in Spain, they would first have to trace you there, the card company would then have to sell it to a Spanish debt collector, who in turn would chase you for it.

UK debts are nearly always sold to UK collectors/debt purchasing companies, rarely if ever to a foreign collector.

rattters

Hmmm- feels very scary to just leave it all. They all have our address in Spain. our worry is if we ever have to return to UK we will have a mess of debt to sort out and would never be able to get credit or rent /mortgage.
I have tried applying for our credit reports but it is proving impossible without any UK address or phone no. Even If I put our old ones in- the form just won't go and says there was a problem!!!!

fatbelly

I suspect that you would feel better to arrive at a settlement deal.

What Sourcrates and W2L are saying is correct, and that means that you can put a very strong case to your creditors that they should accept pretty much anything you could offer.

To strengthen your position you should do those cca requests, stop paying so that the statute barred clock starts ticking, get defaults from all creditors (I accept that you can't check that but if you're not paying then they cannot put an 'arrangement' tag on the file and should default you within 3-6 months) and make it clear that you are permanently resident in Spain.

How much money could you make available as a percentage of your total debt?

rattters

fatbelly wrote: »

I suspect that you would feel better to arrive at a settlement deal.

What Sourcrates and W2L are saying is correct, and that means that you can put a very strong case to your creditors that they should accept pretty much anything you could offer.

To strengthen your position you should do those cca requests, stop paying so that the statute barred clock starts ticking, get defaults from all creditors (I accept that you can't check that but if you're not paying then they cannot put an 'arrangement' tag on the file and should default you within 3-6 months) and make it clear that you are permanently resident in Spain.

How much money could you make available as a percentage of your total debt?

Thanks for that, ok- will get the CCA's requested. We are in a position to offer them 20% of each debt- assuming that is the fairest way to do it.

fatbelly

Cabot, PRA, Intrum and Capquest are all debt buyers, so they all stand to make a small profit from that deal. We reckon they buy debts for an average of 10% of the balance figure. Wescot may just be collecting.

When you do get to the point of making an offer start low - maybe 10% of the balance.