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The book is easy to understand and clearly explains the rights
a bailiff has, and also what they cannot do when collecting debts and repossessing goods etc.
A chronology of my dealings with Egg Credit Card so far and any help appreciated on how to deal with all this!
7/10/08 - I wrote offering £190 in Full and final settlement of a balance of £344, and asked that if accepted no other agency pursue me for the balanc and my credit file be marked as satisfied in full.
18/11/08 - i recieved no response to above so i resent it again.
11/12/08 - they wrote asking that i ring them to discuss ( i never)
5 Feb 09 - Letter from Collect Direct Ltd headed 'personal representative' stating that they are now instructing a personal rep to make attendance at my address and to avoid this happening i must phone them.
Does anyone have any experience of making full and final offers to Egg?
Hi
I tried to get a settlement on my BOS card........and they wouldnt budge..so i paid the full amount, a couple of weeks later i sent out my letter to reclaim my charges and within 2 weeks they had repaid them in full........so you get it one way or another lol
have received a further letter from collect direct uk, headed NOTICE OF LEGAL PROCEEDINGS (eek - is this serious or just a scare tactic) it says i have 5 days to pay or they will issue county court proceedings. i have sent this in response:
I write concerning the balance outstanding on the above account and would like to re-iterate my offer made on 18th November 2008 to Egg.
My grandmother , as I previously stated, has offered me the sum of £190.25 to assist with this debt.
However I require that you confirm in writing that this sum will be accepted in Full and finalsettlement of this account.
This offer is made on the understanding that if accepted neither you nor any company associated with you will take any further action to enforce or pursue this debt in any way whatsoever and that I will be released from any liability. I require confirmation that the outstanding balance will not be pursued by any other company now or in the future.
Please can you also confirm in writing that if any offer is accepted you will mark any entry on any credit reference agency regarding this account as ‘satisfied in full’.
Payment can be made within fourteen days of receiving your written agreement to this offer.
I would like to add that if we cannot reach agreement on this, and given the length of time I have been negotiating with you, I will have no choice but to distribute the funds amongst my other creditors. I am also enclosing a letter to your company regarding harassment and requesting that all correspondence in future is conducted in writing only.
Bit personal this question, but what percentage of the total outstanding is the £190? If it is reasonable then let them take you to court-it`s worth knowing that a bailiff cannot attend your premises without appointment-there is a letter about harassment of creditors on the template thread-it`s a scare tactic, but if you have made a reasonable offer of F&F settlement then let them take you to court.
7/10/08 - I wrote offering £190 in Full and final settlement of a balance of £344, and asked that if accepted no other agency pursue me for the balanc and my credit file be marked as satisfied in full.
18/11/08 - i recieved no response to above so i resent it again.
11/12/08 - they wrote asking that i ring them to discuss ( i never)
Egg declined to accept your offer in writing,
Egg were not given the chance to bargain with you,
Egg then voted with their feet, passing the case to hardball CDS.
It is pretty obvious Egg will not accept £190 instead of £344. Hard to see any point in repeating your written offer through the hardline intermediary. If you spoke to Egg direct there conceivably might be room for small movement? What you say to CDS is unlikely to get back to EGG, the two organisations have different agendas.
Egg is hard up now, they want every penny they can get. debt collectors have been asked to escalate -- hard.
Every day 120 people are losing their homes, as repossession cases rocketed by 70% between March and June. And every day Gill Hankey, 61, who runs the Bankruptcy Advisory Service, sees them coming through her doors.
"The lenders are going hell for leather to get repossessions through. The government's told them they have to go softer with a new set of court protocols from November 17. It means that right now they're rushing everything through as soon as they can.
"Yesterday I saw a woman from Tyneside with a Northern Rockmortgage. She'd taken one of those 125% deals, and is now nearly £90,000 in negative equity. The property is valued at only £120,000. The fixed rate has ended and she can't afford the new payments, so they are about to start repossession proceedings.
"All lenders are moving much more rapidly to repossess now that house prices are falling so fast. They think that if they hold on, they're going to be left with a property that's dropped even further in price. But it's the credit card companies which are worst; they shout loudest. They start hounding you after you've missed one or two payments. They ring morning, noon and night, and all weekend."
£190 for £340 owed sounds low to me. If Egg have ever been lenient about accepting partial payment as full and final settlement, which I doubt, they are not lenient now. Their owners Citigroup the biggest bank in the world are headed towards 40% ownership by the US government. No doubt relentless pressure is being put on at all levels to generate Egg income for them to stay alive. Basically institutions such as Citigroup and RBS cannot pay their bills. A Treasury minister owned up that one day last winter RBS was within hours of locking their doors and stopping ATM withdrawals, before Gordon Brown stepped in to offer whatever they needed. If it is any consolation to you, any Eggployee you speak to over the phone may not have a job much longer.
If you really want one last try to settle on a partial offer, I suggest you make the most convincing Incomes and Expenditure list available to Egg together with evidence, then speak to them on the phone, holding nothing back, and owning up to all your other debts. And a convincing explanation that if Egg will not accept less than 100% they may finish up with 0%. You may have to offer more. If anybody is going to give ground it will be Egg not the hard men of CDS who have nothing to lose. As for whether CDS will go to court to recover £340 rather than accept £190, hard to tell. Once they go to court they will add legal expenses to the £340. Men like that believe, the harder they press, the more they will get. If you think Eggployees are rude, they are boy scouts compared to CDS.
Littlebea V Egg Full and Final
Credit Card so far and any help appreciated on how to deal with all this!
settlement of a balance of £344, and asked that if accepted no other agency pursue me for the balanc and my credit file be marked as satisfied in full.
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Originally Posted by littlebea
