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For the last couple of years I have had the most hellish financial problems mostly rooted in the fact that someone I did a LOT of work for (over five years) only paid about 1/3 of what was owed. Yesterday, we finally reached a settlement with their solicitors to pay about another third in "Full and final settlement" (we know its probably all there is).
To keep going I foolishly took on a lot of credit card debt which eventually became overwhelming and I faced the same type of problems as most people on this site - phone calls, letters, threats, harassment to pay up when you cant etc.
As well as psychological support I have learned a great deal from this site about reclaiming charges - which I am still in the middle of doing - but also about CCAs. I had about 14 credit cards and I have CCAd all of them To date all I have had back is a copy of the Application for a BOS card, and an unsigned copy of T&Cs from Barclaycard (which they might be able to get away with as the card goes back to before 1983). Apart from that there has been a quite deafening silence, other than the few that have owned up to being unable to find my CCA with them. For most that is so long now that it seems pretty inconceivable they will ever find them.
It seems to me that at this point I have a number of options
pocket the money coming to me and put it somewhere safe, but pay them nought as they cant pursure the debt, and see what happens
make them an offer in "full and final settlement" as long as they clean up my credit file. If I go this way, I am inclined to start at 5% and see what they say, with a willingness to go up to 15% if it proves necessary (they cant enforce the debt, most of them have screwed me royally with interest and charges - I have one card with a credit limit of £600 which had £1600 of charges on it! - so I dont have any conscience about this. More importantly what I am being paid wouldnt pay 100% anyway, and I am pretty determined to come out of this with something for me). If they wont take that, see option 1.
I would appreciate advice on either course of action - or indeed if anyone can suggest something else
If you are not being chased for these ex cards I assume you are interested in getting adverse info from your credit files ?
It can be very overwhelming to do more than one or two at the same time.
You need to work out a strat and stagger action which will give you more controls.
How many of the ex card accounts have been sold ?
How many are being actively chased ?
If you are trying to negotiate partial Full and final settlement,then it is far easier to do this as the default reaches its shelf life-this is the time that many accounts are sold on-and of course as time goes on then so does its value to buyers and sellers.
These days most are sold in bulk to the highest bidders.
The default remoals themselves are considerably harder to deal with,in that its not something DCAs or Banks like to do.
You would need to know who has registered the defaults since its those who you need to be asking.
Insofar as trying to agree a one off full and final settlement,you have to be very careful that you dont leae the door open for them to say you have acknowledged the debt.
An agreement is fairly straightforward and can be done by you setting out proposals with a deadline and inviting a response both can be done by email OR by surface mail,but DCAs do not like to correspond by email unless it favours them.
But its certainly worth a try.
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Thanks for this. Sorry not to have replied earlier. To answer your questions: 1. being chased for some - Egg are quite aggressive; holding M&S, barclaycard and RBS back with CCA and SAR requests. On the other hand, I have CCAd practically everyone to whom I owe on a credit card and NO ONE has come up with the goods (some interesting stuff though - an Application form, and an assertion that a signed document isnt actually necessary). Some have practically disappeared - Beneficial, Citibank (1st credit), Goldfish (Cabot), HBOS 2. Yes, I would like a clean credit file, though the likelihood of me looking for credit in the future is probably pretty small so in a practical sense its probably vanity more than anything else 3. Take your point about not doing them all at once - and there are 19 of them, afraid to say. 4. As I said, not one has come up with a CCA agreement - some have owned up (eg 1st Credit, Cabot), while others continue to spout nonsense (dont need a signed agreement, current t&cs ok etc). Some have defaulted to DCAs (eg two with Citicard to 1st Credit, who then found out that Citicard couldnt produce a CCA - likewise Cabot who had bought from Goldfish. Got to be about two or three months since I have heard from them. 5. Strategy could be to start with the lenders who are clearly in most bother with the CCA and offer them 5%. If they dont accept then go up to 10%. Start with Beneficial, Capital One, Egg, M&S, then go on to Cabot, 1st Credit, Coop, RBS, then MBNA, then HBOS. The thing with these two is that I have more than one card with each of them (five with MBNA - two that they "manage" for Alliance and Leicester and three of their own - have CCAd them twice now - have proof of posting and delivery and they have done nothing at all. HBOS are three - all CCAd and nothing more than an application form for one of them. The other two nothing at all). Then lastly Barclaycard which could be difficult as this is a very old card (1975?) and there seems to be some regulation that they dont need to produce the original agreement if it precedes 1983. 6. Not sure what you mean by "when default reaches its shelf life"? Shelf life with who? OC or DCA? How long is a shelf life? 7. some have been sold off - Citicard to 1st Credit; Goldfish to Cabot; one each by HBOS and MBNA to Apex - but mostly they are still with the OC though they are using DCAs now to try to collect (without success - DLC have just left the scene with Egg to be replaced by ARC, Robinson Way sent the debt back to Beneficial) 8. If I offer say 5-10% in full and final settlement, how can I avoid acknowledging the debt? Why woudl I offer them this if there was no debt?
"If I offer say 5-10% in Full and final settlement, how can I avoid acknowledging the debt? Why woudl I offer them this if there was no debt?"
I dont want be be seen to be advocating debt avoidance because thats not what CAG is about,but that said,if the creditors/lenders/DCAs are unable to provide you with proof that you owe these,then its not unreasonable for you to want to establish some closure.
In any event,you will very often see DCAs offering to discount the figures you are alleged to owe-they are in this business to make some money and if they can make something rather than nothing then thats usual business sense.
So lets not forget that they will be open to listening.
However the stakes will change significantly if they are aware that your motivations are to clear your credit files-that is worth more to you than the money-and they will know this.
They are quite likely to take a look at your credit files once you make it clear that you want to offer a full and final.
When the banks make refunds on charges-they usually do so on the understanding that it is no admission of liability,and quite often that the details of any settlement remain confidential from third parties.
Thats not to say that a claimant has to agree to confidentiality-but it does mean that the bank cannot be held liable-because they have already stated that their offer of settlement is not an admission of liability.
Given that there are so many differences in dealing with those cardholders and DCAs that you mention,it would be of some benefit I think to post in those forums or certainly see what you are up against-because there is no universal strat that will deal with all of these in the same light.
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A Strategy Question
settlement" (we know its probably all there is).
, letters, threats, harassment to pay up when you cant etc.
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