Full and final settlement help thread

Weakmoments · 28 April 2017 at 7:42AM

Hi January that's fabulous news. I've received the cca from PRA group and they've said the debt is unenforceable. Did you offer them 10% straight away or did you have to negotiate.

Twins · 28 April 2017 at 11:54AM

Hello everyone,

Just wondering, how long does it normally take for creditors to respond to F&F offers? I've sent of 3 and out of them only heard back from 1 which was declined. The letters were sent around 3 weeks ago. Is it normal for them to take their time to reply?

Thank you!

January2015 · 28 April 2017 at 12:01PM

Twins wrote: »

Hello everyone,

Just wondering, how long does it normally take for creditors to respond to F&F offers? I've sent of 3 and out of them only heard back from 1 which was declined. The letters were sent around 3 weeks ago. Is it normal for them to take their time to reply?

Thank you!

If you are writing to debt collection agencies who are managing the debt for the original creditor then they have to contact the original creditor with your offer. This can take up to 6 weeks (in my experience). Even getting a response directly from an original creditor can take up to a month - I think your offer gets passed around the department until it reaches someone who can make a decision;) I can't think why else they take so long to respond to letters but they do.

It is frustrating, but you just need to sit and wait, you will get a response.

January2015 · 28 April 2017 at 12:03PM

Weakmoments wrote: »

Hi January that's fabulous news. I've received the cca from PRA group and they've said the debt is unenforceable. Did you offer them 10% straight away or did you have to negotiate.

They offered me the 10% - however, if you are happy to settle at 10% then I would write and offer them that and ask the account be marked as settled in full on your credit reference file.:beer:

Of course - you could completely ignore them and not pay anything. The debt is unenforceable - you still owe it, but they cannot make you pay it :rotfl: We chose to settle and get the matter over and done with, but we could have just ignored them and kept our money.

Learning2Budget · 30 April 2017 at 9:17AM

Hi Twins. Took between 4 and 8 weeks for mine to be sorted. 8 weeks is excessive but we complained and they finally accepted. L2B.x

[Deleted User] · 1 May 2017 at 8:56PM

Max_and_sasha wrote: »

Hi everyone

I am on a dmp with baines and ernst and I have finally plucked up the courage to dump them, my wife and I are going to do our own dmp saving us £50 per month that baines and ernst were charging us,

1, How do I go about ditching them, is there anything specific we should state in the letter?

2, What should we expect back from them and what reaction do you think we'll get from them?

3, What should we expect from our creditors, there are 7 of them?

Thank you and I look forward to any advice we recieve

Welcome, Max and sasha:)

I'm not a regular on this thread, I've just wandered over from the DMP Mutual Support thread as I was looking for some specific F&F information.

There are lots of very helpful and wise people who post on both threads but as your queries are more DMP-related it might be worth your while to repost it on the DMP support thread. Possibly more chance of getting a quick response there.

There are already about 41 pages of posts on the current DMP Mutual Support thread but this links to the first page. Read it through it all if you have the time, you may find a lot of your worries have been talked about by others who are at a similar stage as you.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5623951

Incidentally, although a lot of us are now self-managing our DMPs (thanks to the confidence and strength to do so after the great advice given by other posters:T) it's not always right for everyone. If you feel you'd still like to still have the help of a company through your DMP journey you could always ditch Baines and Ernst (our advice is NEVER to pay for DMP management) and go with Stepchange or Payplan, both of which are totally FREE:j.

I'll maybe see you over on the DMP support thread:beer:

Learning2Budget · 2 May 2017 at 3:56PM

Hurrah. Dmp completed today. I still have 5k of debt but that is owed to a friend. After nearly 10 years i have completed my dmp!
Now to crack on and pay my last 5k.
Feeling very happy.
L2B.x

gemmacrew · 6 May 2017 at 2:07PM

Hi.
First post so apologies if I'm not following protocol but I have a question re a settlement offer:

In 2013 I lost a well paid job having credit card balances of 15k (amex) and 12k (mbna) which I'd been servicing for several years. I got another job paying half the money and arranged payment plans with the 2 card companies of £300pm each. Amex continued to add interest at £180pm and did not record a default. MBNA froze the interest and recorded a default.

In 2016 after 3 years of payments I again became unable to make the payments so just stopped. MBNA was down to about 4.5k. Amex was still at 11k.

MBNA occasionally contact me asking if I'm interested in settling. Amex have been making settlement offers of 4,5k and now 3.3k.

If I take up the Amex offer and pay over 2 years then after 2 years they will record the debt as partially settled and this will then remain on my file for another 6 years. So, 8 years from now my file will be clear.

My question is: is there any advantage to me agreeing to the settlement offer and locking in 8 years of bad credit - or do I just tell them I'm not paying and lock in 6 years? I don't imagine nor should I be attempting to get credit for the foreseeable future as I'm clearly not capable of managing it!

I realise morally I should be making the settlement but for the best part of 20 years I ploughed thousands into the Amex coffers on a 30% interest rate and kinda feel a bit pee'd off that they didn't offer to freeze the interest and suspend the account when I initially got into trouble - which would have meant just another 3 years before the defaults leave the credit file.

Any advice greatly appreciate - and yes I know - it's my fault and I should be paying the debt.

sourcrates · 6 May 2017 at 3:20PM

gemmacrew wrote: »

My question is: is there any advantage to me agreeing to the settlement offer and locking in 8 years of bad credit - or do I just tell them I'm not paying and lock in 6 years? I don't imagine nor should I be attempting to get credit for the foreseeable future as I'm clearly not capable of managing it!
.

Your only problem would be if the card companies take legal action action against you, which if you stop paying altogether and ignore them, is quite likely.

January2015 · 6 May 2017 at 6:10PM

gemmacrew wrote: »

Hi.
First post so apologies if I'm not following protocol but I have a question re a settlement offer:

In 2013 I lost a well paid job having credit card balances of 15k (amex) and 12k (mbna) which I'd been servicing for several years. I got another job paying half the money and arranged payment plans with the 2 card companies of £300pm each. Amex continued to add interest at £180pm and did not record a default. MBNA froze the interest and recorded a default.

In 2016 after 3 years of payments I again became unable to make the payments so just stopped. MBNA was down to about 4.5k. Amex was still at 11k.

MBNA occasionally contact me asking if I'm interested in settling. Amex have been making settlement offers of 4,5k and now 3.3k.

If I take up the Amex offer and pay over 2 years then after 2 years they will record the debt as partially settled and this will then remain on my file for another 6 years. So, 8 years from now my file will be clear.

My question is: is there any advantage to me agreeing to the settlement offer and locking in 8 years of bad credit - or do I just tell them I'm not paying and lock in 6 years? I don't imagine nor should I be attempting to get credit for the foreseeable future as I'm clearly not capable of managing it!

I realise morally I should be making the settlement but for the best part of 20 years I ploughed thousands into the Amex coffers on a 30% interest rate and kinda feel a bit pee'd off that they didn't offer to freeze the interest and suspend the account when I initially got into trouble - which would have meant just another 3 years before the defaults leave the credit file.

Any advice greatly appreciate - and yes I know - it's my fault and I should be paying the debt.

Have you sent CCA requests to check whether these debts are unenforceable ? Debts that old are more likely to be unenforceable than more recent (post 2008 debts)

Full and final settlement help thread

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