Help with a full and final settlement

tigergambit

I think I would offer £400. That's just under 22% but my view, rightly or wrongly, is that it's easier to argue that someone will gift you £400 than 25%.

If you don't make it clear from the outset that it's a conditional gift they are likely to dig their heels in as they will have no reason to believe that you don't have more cash.

If they won't play ball go back to paying a very small monthly amount and try again later. Above all, decide a figure you can afford at the start and don't go over this. 

SeeTheDoughnut

Thank you so much everyone for all of your advice. I tried logging in to Link when I got the last letter from them and had a few issues, but will try that again as it sounds like a straightforward way to do it. I’m going to go with £400 and see how it goes. I’ll update when I hear back!

SeeTheDoughnut

sourcrates said:

The vast majority of the time legal action is just a threat, but if they think you can pay, but aren't, then its a possibility.

Whatever you do, nothing further will go on your credit file, once the entry has gone, its never coming back.

If you want to, go in with a lowball offer, you can always increase it, going in too high leaves you nowhere to go.

This is very reassuring, thank you!

Rob5342

I offered them 30%.and they came back wanting 90% so I reduced my payments yo £1 a month. I'm just going to keep trying every 6 months or so

bcs7

Rob5342 said:

I offered them 30%.and they came back wanting 90% so I reduced my payments yo £1 a month. I'm just going to keep trying every 6 months or so

This is what I have done with payments too. I just said I could no longer afford the original amounts agreed to and lowered them all prior to making offers in the hope that they may consider lower percentage F&F settlements because they're now getting a lot less monthly, so will be waiting a very long time to clear it.

My first offer to them on one debt was countered immediately with a 90% offer but on a completely separate debt which was actually a few hundred pounds more owed they countered with 55%. It's just going to be a case of bartering for a while to get a better deal. I'm not even going to consider an offer until it's more than 50% discount.

SeeTheDoughnut

Update! So, I loggged into my Link account online and made an offer of £400. I followed up with an email to explain that this was the maximum that I could offer and that my pay changes from month to month, so a payment plan would not work for me just now (this is true)  I have pasted the main parts of their response below: 

Current Balance: £1844.31

Thank you for the recent email.

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept the sum of £ 400.00, however we would be prepared to accept the sum of £ 1291.02 in settlement of this account.

On receipt of cleared funds, we will close your account with no further monies owed and update your credit file as partially settled.

This offer has been reviewed on the basis that priority repayments such as rent, mortgage and utilities are up to date, and your settlement proposal will not impact your ability to make any priority repayments. If this is not the case, please let us know immediately.

Upon payment, the account will be settled, no further money would be owed, as this is not on your credit file anymore, it would not be updated on there. If you are happy to proceed with the settlement please advise so we can update your account to reflect once the payment has been made.

On my online account, it says the offer will expire on 6th June. There is no option to make a different offer.

Hopefully there are some experts on here who can advise whether I should pay what they have suggested or wait for the offer to expire and make a different one.  I could pay what they have suggested, but it would almost wipe out my emergency fund!

Rob5342

You certainly shouldn't pay what they have suggested if that will.wipe out your emergency fund, that would leave you unable to cover anything thst cropped up. 

These things tend.to be a bit protracted. I would pay a minimal amount each month and then try again in 6 months or so
They rejected my offer so.I reduced my payments to. £1 a month and i will keep trying every 6 months or so. 

SeeTheDoughnut

It looks as though I would have to set up a payment plan to pay anything other than an agreed settlement and they would need income/expenditure. My income is variable though.  If I just pay £1 per month using the bank details they gave me, would that stop further action? I don’t want to end up with a ccj. 

RAS

They aren't entitled to an SOA, however much they'd like one. 

Different companies have different attitudes to CCJs so it's impossible to work out. You could make a lowball monthly payment if you can afford it and top up occasionally? 

Save your emergency fund as you need that to cover lean months.

tigergambit

SeeTheDoughnut said:

It looks as though I would have to set up a payment plan to pay anything other than an agreed settlement and they would need income/expenditure. My income is variable though.  If I just pay £1 per month using the bank details they gave me, would that stop further action? I don’t want to end up with a ccj. 

As Rob says, just set up a SO and write to them rejecting their offer for the reason that you can't raise any more money and tell them this is all you can afford at present. Do not supply SOA. Try again in a year or so but start LOWER and have an SOA prepared just in case.