Urgent advice. DMP now or default first. Please help on a plan

HolyLad

ManyWays said:

FOS has said what should happen and it looks like a common decision for credit cards:

Very should arrange an affordable repayment plan for the remaining amount of the full £1800. Once has cleared the outstanding balance, any adverse information recorded after 15 September 2025 in relation to the account should be removed from their credit file.

You arent going to get a default on this, you will get a payment arrnagement. The normal problem with these is that they stay for 6 years after the balance has been cleared, but this wont happen as the negative marks will be removed when the debt is cleared.  

So I may have ruined any chances of paying back less than the balance by waiting out years to come?

HolyLad

What im trying to say is. I wanted to default and get a discount in years to come to pay less than the outstanding balance. However, now that ombudsman has ruled no negative markers. Should I just get going with a payment plan now with them or carry on waiting it out? Will the debt still be sold?

This is more confusing now 

sourcrates

I understand perfectly what you are asking, but we can`t possibly know what a creditor will or will not do, with your account.

You have gone down one path and got a result with a payment plan, and then the removal of the entry from your credit file.

If the intention all along was to wait for a default and settle the debt partially at a later date, why did you go down the complaints route?

You are the one who will have to decide how to proceed with this now.

ManyWays

Hoping for low settlements is uncertain, some debt collectors are much less prepared to accept low offers than others and it seems that fewer debts are now being sold on from debt collector to debt collector than used to happen. And hoping that CCAs cant be produced will probably not work in a few years as the law is likely to change.

So you have sensibly got the base level of debt reduced. You can either aim to clear than to get the credit record cleaned faster or offer a low level of payments at the moment with an income & expenditure form to back that up and also save and hope to be offered or have accepted a low settlement offer later. This isnt guaranteed to work but then it never was. 

HolyLad

Hey All. Hope you are well. I have had my first few defaults come through now showing on my credit report. Should I engage now with the original owners of the debt or wait to see if it gets sold? I assume now i can set up payment arrangements with each one? Should I do this?

My aim is to pay back less. If you can provide me some tips on what to do now that would be great. I appreciate things move slowly in this type of world but just want to be prepared. Certainly trying to avoid a CCJ which i know is rare but taking precautions. Would debt still be sold if I set up a payment arrangement with the original owner?

sourcrates

I would not rush into things, wait and see what your lenders do first.

When you default on a debt, it means the financial relationship you had with that lender is over, so the owner will not expect payment from you, and in most cases will be looking to either sell the debt or assign it to a collector.

Whatever they choose to do, you will be written too by either them, or whoever they appoint to collect it.