Robinson Way - too good to be true??

penguin83

OH pays Robinson Way £30.00 a month for a debt of £1700.00 and has been doing this for the last 12 months. He phoned them today to make his payment and they said that if he increased his monthly payments by 10% (so £3.00) they would reduce the outstanding debt to £1200.00.

It seems too good to be true - we could easily increase the payment and he asked them to send confirmation of the offer in writing - he hasnt yet agreed to anything or given them any indication that he could afford this.

We could actually afford to double the payment (I am currently overpaying on some high interest debts) so wondered whether to get him to try and negotiate further?

Has anyone heard of them doing this before?

Thanks in advance. x x x

GeorgeUK

Never heard of this, but if it's true that's great. I'd make sure you get it in writing though. Not sure how it works with regards partial settlement compared to "full and final" settlement value. If they confirm that this would be the final value then i would do it.

Anyone else know the pros and cons to this?

Edit: woopsy!! me pratt. Totally misread that and thought they were getting rid of 1200. If only...

LilacPixie

I haven't heard of this before but as with everything get it in writting.

Was the £1700 the original balance before making 12 x £30 payments?? In my experiance DCA never make offers like this unless there is a reason. Either theere is something dodgy and they want to keep him sweet so he doesn't start the whole digging about cca notice of assignment thing. or they are looking for an excuse to restart interest and charges etc and they can use renegotiating payments as an excuse.

Get it in writting.

Ames

is the 1700 now or before you started? If it's before, you've paid off 360, leaving a balance of 1340, so they're only knocking off 140. better than nothing, but maybe not as great as it sounds.

Cleosmum

Is interest still being charged on the debt?

penguin83

Sorry just to clarify the debt was originally 2081.84. He has made 12 payments of £30.00 and an initial payment of 28.16 so a total paid so far of £388.16. They have periodically offered a reduced settlement when he phones but we just dont have a lump sum at the minute to take them up (the idea is to pay off the 3 debts that are still accumulating interest and then save for settlements). The outstanding balance is currently £1711.84.

There is no interest accruing on the debt - will wait and see what the exact wording of the letter is they send! They did quote that they were offering this because of the 'credit crunch' which is a very vague statement to make as I dont know why this would affect things but we will see. x x x