Settlement strategy

Pearcyovmidd

I am in a fortunate position to be able to settle my remaining debts, i am still in my StepChange DMP but through an amended budget only start the payments again in July giving me time to negotiate with the creditors.  

StepChange sent me an email confirming they can negotiate on my behalf and that if i come off the DMP creditors may start charging interest etc, 1st question should i just cancel my DMP to maybe give me more leverage with the creditors or let StepChange help me negotiate?

I've tried Intrum (8.5k) who only offered 5% as currently my DMP runs until October 25 and PRA (1k) said 10%.

I'm going to try Tesco Loans which is £11.6k this is my biggest debt.

Any advice on StepChange in or out, and if this would then help the creditors negotiate appreciated 

stu12345_2

imo step change don't negotiate the discount price on settling early with creditors.

if you tell them you have a lump sum which is enough to clear all your debts they simply use that and send it to your creditors.

if it's not enough they simply use what lump sum you give them to reduce the balances on the debts you owe.

and you continue paying off the now smaller balances

if you decide to contact a creditor or two on your own accord and negotiate a discount price whilst on their dmp and settle these one or two creditors, stepchange will not be happy saying you did preferential treatment on your list of creditors

but as you said you have enough for them all. you may be best stopping your dmp and negotiating and settling it by yourself 

step change always say if you stop a dmp creditors may restart interest.. but if the debts have defaulted anyway, then no interest can restart

Tesco offering me no discount, pra offering me 25%
keep haggling imo, start with your  lowest price offee then ask for a counter offer on what they will accept.

if your dmp doesn't have long to run, then you can understand why discounts are low, as the creditors would be wiser to get all their money back via a short dmp

Pearcyovmidd

So should i stop my DMP Stu? It's deferred now to July i expect the creditors know about it trying to focus on my biggest debt first 

Brie

Surely if you write to all your creditors at the same time no one is being dealt with preferentially?

stu12345_2

preferential treatment is if you actually only pay off a certain amount of creditors but keep the rest on a dmp cos you didn't like or accept their discount offers, which step change frown upon

your offers should have came in very fast, but if you won't accept, then negotiations will take longer.
if negotiations are still going on in July then remember to work out and include  the new payments your making into the discount prices they offer

like I said never heard of step change haggling on your behalf, only that they will give the full lump sum you have and split it amongst your creditors , which you can  do yourself anyway BUT with full and final discounts 
I would contact stepchange again and ask are they actually going to haggle on my behalf and get full written confirmation that they are

fatbelly

Preference doesn't matter unless you are going for insolvency.

If you're not making payments through a dmp at the moment you don't have to make a decision on it. Cancel in July if you want to.

For now, do CCA requests on all relevant debts and see what comes back.

stu12345_2

yes double check the debts are enforceable via cca request letters, these requests put your debt account on hold whilst they search for agreements.

but again step change have no interest in cca letters or the replies you get back, they just want you to keep paying 

based on the step change website it seems that if you have a lump sum they will advise you how to write letters for discounts, but they won't do this for you 
https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/settlement-offers-to-creditors.aspx

Pearcyovmidd

Thanks Stu 

stu12345_2

as you have enough to pay the debts off in full, i don't think stepchange would advise you to go for reduced settlement offers

if you told them your lump sum was not enough, then I can see them advising you to make reduced full and final offers and see what happens. but if the creditors know that already, that you have more than enough,that's if stepchange have told them you have enough ?
that leaves the question then why would step change say they are negotiating , when they don't negotiate, that is what you do by yourself 

imo I would think stepchange ask you how big is your lump sum, then advise you what to do with it 

again reading your first post you stated step change can negotiate,( which I think isn't true by stepchange). but it means they haven't done anything yet, cos they only said they can, they didn't state they have.( which means the ball is still in your court to keep negotiating after you have done your cca letters and got responses back)

can you confirm the step change email about negotiating was about lump sums it was it about a debt management plan, cos they can put the  monthly money offer to creditors and class it as negotiated 

sourcrates

Implying that your creditors may start adding interest again suggests the debts have not yet defaulted, can you clarify that for us OP?

It may be just a generic email they send out.

Forget preferential treatment, as fatbelly says, that`s only applicable with insolvency, these things are best done yourself, I would not involve stepchange in this, its not a quick process through, and some of your creditors are not the most flexible in terms of deals.

gwynlas

There is nothing wrong with writing to your creditors and asking if they could offer settlement figures whether on a DMP or not. Stepchange is funded by the industry so whilst good at stopping interest they are scrupolously fair in distribution of payments so you could end up paying your debts in total through them,