Full and final settlement help thread

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Hi, Mr &Mrs Terman, and welcome to DMP land:beer:

Just my two penn'orth , for what it's worth, to add to the advice given by fatbelly (below).







1. Accounts don't necessarily get defaulted in a timely manner. They should do but some creditors don't always play ball. One of mine took 2 years, although I subsequently challenged this and got it backdated. 2 others defaulted after 9 months. One never defaulted at all, always marked my file as AP (arrangement to pay) and no amount of arguing persuaded them to default. the AP marker will be on my credit file for 6 years after that debt (my smallest incidentally} was settled in full 2 years ago:mad:. The earliest defaulted one should drop off my credit file next month:j


2. When I sent off my CCA requests it cost £1 for each one which I sent by Postal Order. I have been reliably informed that it is now a FREE service. I'll try to find some reference to the change and post a link.


3. Save your F&F fund wherever you like so long as, as fatbelly advised you, it isn't connected to any financial institution where you have debts. Creditors have the Right of Offset' and could(although I don't know of any case where they have) use your savings against the debt owed to them:eek:. When I started my DMP, one of the few banks I didn't owe anything to:o was Nationwide and I opened a Basic Account with them which was the only type of account I could get with such a rubbish credit history:o. I do all my transactions online and opened a couple of Online Saver accounts with them which make it simplicity itself to sweep money back and forth from one account to another. Make sure when opening accounts for yourself that the financial institution you use isn't connected in any way to your creditors. Lots of banks are part of banking groups and under the same 'umbrella' as several others.


4. With F&F payments, it would be eye-wateringly expensive for you to use Postal Orders once the 'poundage' is added, that's if the creditor would accept them (which I doubt they would) for what would still be a relatively large amount of money:eek:. I have a Basic bank account since opening my DMP and it does not offer a chequebook. When I negotiated my F&Fs recently, for several thousands of pounds in some cases I did the final stage by phone once it was all agreed. I just gave them my debit card number and it was all done and dusted instantly at no extra cost:j. The confirmation letter of their acceptance of your F&F offer should detail the different ways they will accept payment from you, I assume you are paying your monthly DMP payments by Standing Order from your Bank Account (most DMPers advise NOT to set up DDs for this;)) so the creditor will already be aware that you have banking facilities. I can't see a good reason not to do a direct payment from your Bank Account for the F&F, either by a single electronic payment that you'd set up yourself from your bank account, or over the phone using your Debit Card. The only thing you'd need to do is make sure the sum to cover it had been transferred to your Current Account before you do it. I don't think Savings Accounts have facilities for paying someone else other than yourself but I've never tried and really don't know:o


Incidentally, debts still with original creditors don't stand as good a chance of being accepted for F&Fs as those with DCAs who buy them for pennies in the pound. If you haven't been paying on a DMP for all that long the chance is remote anyway. Creditors need to think that you are never going to be able to repay by regular means, either because you have had some life-changing event like redundancy etc which means your available income has dropped massively or, heaven forbid, that you've become seriously ill or divorced or something equally life-shattering. Paying token payments of £1 a month per creditor would possibly hasten the day, although I've been paying £1 to one of my creditors for nearly 2 years and they still won't accept a F&F less than 65% payable:mad:. You need to have a good reason;) as all my creditors wanted to know why I was dropping to £1 and insisted on an updated I&E from me to reflect the changes in my circumstances.


I'm sorry this post is very doom and gloom but I'm speaking from my own recent experiences and thought you should have a warts-and-all account. All creditors have their own idiosyncracies, you may find some of yours do things slightly differently so it's obviously not a definitive version of what definitely will happen in your case.


Good luck and please keep us posted on your progress. Anything that puzzles or worries you, just ask:beer:

fatbelly wrote: »

1. You won't get anywhere till they default - that should take 3-6 months

2. You can do cca requests at any time - may not have much effect with recent high street lenders but all you lose is £1

3Don't do any banking (certainly not a savings pot) in an account in the same banking group as your debts.

4. You can make the final payment any way you like. I suspect postal orders would carry a large fee.