Making an offer of settlement

np1v08

Rob5342 said:

np1v08 said:

ManyWays said:

Payplan and StepChange will remove debts from a DMP if they are unenforceable because the CCA cant be produced. You can also make settlement offers to an individual debt, the DMP firm may huff a bit, but if its paid off, its paid off. 

I didn't know they would actually do that; good to know! 

I was going to say 'I wonder why they don't ask new clients to request all their CCAs so they can eliminate the unenforceable debts right away,' but of course it's because they are funded by the lenders, and it wouldn't help their funding model! I am grateful to PayPlan, I should add; they've been very kind and non-judgemental. However, if I can reduce what I eventually pay back, that would help me too. 

They are stuck in a tricky position really, if they help people too much then they threaten their own funding and might not be able to help anyone.

I've done my dmp both ways. What i found was that people like Payplan can be useful and save admin when you are doing things their way with proportional payments, but when you want to start doing things your way and stop some of then it's more work to keep contacting then to change things than it is to simply adjust the payments yourself. 

Yes, exactly! That makes sense. I'm sure organisations like PayPlan do feel a tad conflicted at times; they want to help people get back on their feet as quickly as possible, but as you say, they also need to maintain their funding streams so they can help more people. 

Personally, I'm leaning towards self-management starting in December; I'm trying to get things in order as much as I can before then. So far this week I've managed to get M&S Bank to review the default date on my account, and today they've agreed in writing to change it from October 2020 to March 2020, which is great. I also found a mistake with the default date for my Next account; it's correctly recorded as August 2019 by Experian, but Equifax has recorded it as July 2021. Next agreed that it was August 2019, but at first they tried to fob me off, saying I should take it up with Equifax. Only when I insisted that Equifax would need to be instructed by them directly did they put me through to someone who could look into it for me, 

Rob5342

It's very easy to manage yourself, you just decide what you are paying, tell them what you'll be paying and the set up the payment. Debt collectors usually have a website where you can set it all up. Make sure you pay by standing order and not direct debit or debit card, that keeps you in control and you can just change the payment in your banking app instead of having to contact the collector and go through their script. 

np1v08

Rob5342 said:

It's very easy to manage yourself, you just decide what you are paying, tell them what you'll be paying and the set up the payment. Debt collectors usually have a website where you can set it all up. Make sure you pay by standing order and not direct debit or debit card, that keeps you in control and you can just change the payment in your banking app instead of having to contact the collector and go through their script. 

That doesn't sound too bad at all. Thank you for the advice to set up payments as a standing order