How to Create Settlement Offers

Cat_lady101

Hi everyone,

I ended up in around £30,000 worth of debt after falling out with a friend who was renting my property (never, ever mix business with friendship). Due to this, it put me in severe financial difficulty and my creditors were extremely unsympathetic and piled on interest and charges.

I didn't initially know about the MSE way of doing a DMP so I have been in a DMP with PayPlan since Sep 24 and have since gotten the total amount of debt down to around £19,000 (some of it was written off and I have overpaid on some months).

I have just had a significant windfall which would clear my debts and then some and I recognise that I am in a very fortunate position compared to a lot of people on this forum. I haven't yet told PayPlan about this lump sum as I suspect that the expectation is that I will pay off all of my creditors in full. Two of my largest debts (£7000 & £5000) were with Santander and PayPal and have since been sold on to Moorcroft debt recovery so I know that they will have paid a small amount to buy these debts.

Is it worth me asking PayPlan to negotiate the settlement offers or should I cancel the DMP and do this myself? Any advice greatly received.

RAS

You need to negotiate any settlements yourself.

You also need to think through the situation with PayPal. If you do get a reduced settlement you will probably still effectively be prevented from using their facilities long term. That may or may not bother you.

Santander may or may not be bothered once the default drops off your credit record.

sourcrates

Stop your DMP payments, and cancel it, as you no longer need it.

In the months ahead whoever gets to chase these debts will write to you, my suggestion then would be to CCA all relevant accounts, see if they have compliant paperwork or not.

Dependant on what they provide, you can then start negotiations, start low, you can always increase your offer.

Expect it to be more of a marathon than a sprint, these things take time.

Never allow your DMP provider to do this for you, their standard terms and conditions would require you to send them the full lump sum, and they would settle your debts out of that, remember they are creditor funded, so will look to get the best deal for your creditors, not so much for you, its a good way to lose the lot for no good reason.

ManyWays

Moorcroft do not buy debts, they are almost certainly collecting for the original lenders

Cat_lady101

Thanks everyone for your input so far. It is much appreciated. @RAS - thank you for the information on PayPal - that's interesting to know. I would like to use that facility in the future so that one is probably worth worth paying in full. I've already been through the CCA process and all are enforceable. The Santander one has defaulted and been sold on and is the only one I really have an issue with as they rejected my affordability complaint and their staff were awful when I spoke with them.

I will look to go self managed. I need to update my address with each creditor (as Pay Plan don't do that so I will also look to tell them I will be going self managed at the same time).

RAS

It's pretty standard for affordability claims to be rejected by creditors.

Did you read the debt camel advice before you claimed?

If not, read it before you appeal.