Debt Settlement offer advice

cricket_lord

Hi, I would like some advice on settlement offers. A relative has been using edited 'without prejudice' letters from the National Debt Line to offer final payments on various debts but is getting replies back refusing and offering very small discounts on large sums instead.

Another relative is offering to pay these if they can be reduced as had been indicated they can be in the past. He could not afford it at the time, but one of the debts of £2400 was offered at a special rate out of the blue of £600, less than two years ago but that company will not entertain that offer now even though they are getting less than £8 a month from the management company.

He is already with a debt management scheme for many years, is it better to try to arrange this through them (Money Plus) as they'd have more weight or continue negotiating with the debt owners directly.

Thanks

fatbelly

Continue negotiations

And ditch Money Plus

sourcrates

Money plus have no weight whatsoever, think of them as akin to PayPal, a 3rd party payment processor that takes 35% of everything they pay them, that`s all they do, take your relatives money, and pass the rest to your creditors.

The advice above to ditch them is good, and don`t ever pay them any lump sums to do a deal with, because yes, you guessed it, they will take 35% of that as well, you might as well just burn it.

What they should do next.....


Step (1) Ditch money plus
step (2) Stop paying the creditors, send CCA requests to all relevant accounts
step (3) See what comes back as enforceable (or not).
step (4) Resume making offers on the enforceable debts, ignore the rest for time being.

fatbelly

'relevant accounts' means any debt covered by the Consumer Credit Act, i.e. loans, credit cards, catalogues, not utilities, mobile phones, overdrafts

cricket_lord

Hi thanks all for the replies - it is a mix I think of credit cards and overdrafts. He's been on this scheme for over 10 years so thought they might welcome to want to wrap it all up but apparently not.

Is it worth trying a settlement offer with all of the debts for before I ask for the CCA info and then resubmit my offer letters? He's tried one so far. Also asking for CCA info - It's not going to cause them to ask for more money per month or anything like that. Thanks

sourcrates

They really need to take charge of their own affairs here, what they have paid in fee`s to Money plus over 10 years would likely have cleared there debts by now.

Asking for information under sec77/79 CCA is a statutory right we all have.

The creditor must respond or the debt becomes unenforceable, they should not look to what the creditors might do, focus on the goal of ridding themselves of a parasite company like Money plus, and use every means available to obtain a generous settlement.

RAS

Ditch Money Plus.
Get the relative to come on here themselves and explain the background and current circumstances.
Get a list of the creditors and plot into consumer credit (loans, cards, catalogues) and other debt. If in doubt ask here.


Depending on the relatives circumstances, it may be possible to get some debts written off.
If not, CCA requests for the consumer credit debts.

fatbelly

10 years of fees is a lot of money. Not sure it would work but there's no downside to making a complaint and escalating it to FOS.

You could pinch some wording from this article about Gregory Pennington, who continued charging their customers fees even after the government gave them 30 million to provide free ones(and they changed their name to Money Wellness)

https://debtcamel.co.uk/gregory-pennington-fwg-dmp-fees/

Edit: only the debtor has the right to request a copy of the agreement under CCA. It would probably be ok if you have Power of Attorney

Rob5342

They definitely need to ditch Money Plus, they can take nearly half of the debt repayments for themselves which is obscene. Their minimum fee is £46 a month which is £5500 over ten years, simply for setting up a few standing orders!

sourcrates

The fee`s Moneyplus charge are just obscene, they set out to deliberately profit from their clients misery.

"As the setup and initial period of your Debt Management Plan are the busiest, we charge an Arrangement Fee of £399 to cover this initial cost". 

Debt charity or "do it yourself" - FREE

"Our Monthly Management Fee for new customers will be £46 or 49% of your monthly payment".

Again, Debt charity or "do it yourself" - FREE

49% that`s almost half of your monthly payment gone before your creditors even get a sniff of it !!

This angers me so much, this has cost your relative over 10k in fee`s, its despicable.

fatbelly

There's an argument that this doesn't relate to the work being done. It would be interesting to get the FOS to reflect on this and, if necessary, a court.

Decision Reference DRN6180183

22 Dec 2016

Moneyplus Group Limited

Upheld

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN6180183.pdf

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN5045708.pdf

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN5611660.pdf

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN4710833.pdf