Thread: Whats the lowest full & final settlement?

Originally Posted by Winston44

hi all

being nosey here, just wondered who had been on dmp's and offered a Full and final settlement to unsecured creditiors, what is the lowest percentage of the outstanding amount have any of you been able to pay?

I got MBA to accept 35% and Barclaycard to accept 45% F&F - but on reflection the agreements were probably unenforceable. That was before I had read up on this site!

Everyone seems to offer 75% pretty quickly once they accept frozen interest and reduced payments - but they always come down - although some are sticking at around 60% at present - so no deal for them - and they're now getting CCA'd.

Two things I found you need to be aware of:
1. The F&F letter from MBNA said something like "if you don't accept and pay the accept 35% F&F within 4 weeks then you'r eback on to full interest and 2% minimum payments chum!" - so it was lucky I had the 35% available (from a relative) to pay it PDQ.
2. Connaught/1st credit offered 50% F&F then changed it to 69% when I said I might be able to do 50% but I needed a few more weeks to get it organised- so make sure the offer stays valid until you can get the cash together. I have now CCA'd them (Goldfish) and hope I can end up paying 0% by being unenforceable.

Hope this helps

BD

i got one for 10 %


always start low so you can always go up if you have the funds

DCA's tend to accept lower than original creditors

and it always help to reclaim back and unfair charges and PPI to help reduce it

ida x

deleted

[quote=Dotty50;2522579]Hi Bigdebtor,

Who did you get your F & F's agreed with?

I have 35% on 2 MBNA Platinum Cards and on 2 Alliance & leicester Cards - at that time A&L had been taken over by MBNA. The total I paid was around £11k - saving around £21k! I think they may have been concerned by the amount they had let me build up (mainly using 0% MBNA or A&L credit card cheques to fund my business which then hit problems).

I also got 45% on a Barclaycard through a DCA - but the same DCA refused to go under 75% on a 2nd Barclaycard - don't know why - so this is still being paid at £60 per month and I have just CCA'd them.

I suspect these agreements - all taken out around 2000-2001 might well have been lost or be unenforceable if I had known.

I have also paid out a fortune in interest and unfair charges over the years - so probably I could have got down to that figure by claiming back charges etc. in any case.

I have also settled a Lloyds TSB Visa and an Abbey Loan at 50% - both via DCA's.

I still have several debts where with CCCS help they have agreed to freeze interest and take between 0.7 and 1.0% per month - but no decent F&F's yet. ,

The only creditor refusing to take around 1% per month and threatening to sue is RBS/Direct Line on a loan taken out in 2003 where the agreement seems to be water tight. The only F&F they offered was 75% - but they refuse to consider an affordable monthly repayment - so currently stalemate - I am paying nothing but not sure what will happen about interest which might be accruing.

Any advice on how to stop RBS being so intransigent would be welcome.

Hi Dotty

I had been struggling to keep up with the minimum payments to MBNA for quite a while - with a few missed paymnets and then more late and over limit charges imposed. I did get default letters and then agreed to make the usual monthly minimum payment and got the arrears" reset" so the cards seemed to be back in order. The 35% MBNA and A&L letters came without prompting - and I then sent a letter saying I would accept but only on condition this was a F&F settlement and the rest would NOT be chased up by them or passed to any 3rd party. I got this letter from Martin Lewis's web site. At that point MBNA wrote back as "OK - but if you don't pay the 35% by XX/XX/2007 then the deal's off and interest and charges will be started up again. It was therefore important to pay the 35% by the due date. I got a relative to pay, confirm F&F terms by phone and then wrote to confirm deal. I did get an acknowledgement.

However I also settled a £4k Abbey loan at 50% in late 2007 through BCW (who were previously sticking out for 75% and offered 50% at one time without prompting by me). I did the same and got a letter from BCW. However just in July 2009 I got chased by Link Financial for the £2k balance. To be fair to BCW they did promptly e-mail confirmation of the deal and Link backed down by phone. I chased them for 3 months to put this in writing and have just got an apology in writing.

BTW I seem to remember someone telling me that when you are in default all interest and charges are suspended - so if your credit rating is shot in any case then I don't see any downside as everything will come off 6 years after you get totally sorted out. It seems to me the key thing is to get sorted out in total ASAP which is why I am so hacked off by RBS/Direct Line - as this means the 6 years can't even start. I don't recollect them ever sending me a default letter - which is possibly why they may be able to impose further interest and ccharges. Anyone know if this is correct?

BD

The only F&F I've ever made was on an ex-repossession debt of £52K, which was halved to £26K because it was joint liability.. although a creditor doesn't have to do this. It was settled for £500 (five hundred) after paying £5 a month in token payments for 4 years.... and never went to court. The creditor was actually quite decent throughout... yet had they known the full story of my personal circumstances at the time, it probably would have gone to court.

None of my other creditors had any CCAs, let alone enforceable ones.... so they got 0%. A bad credit file was always the least of my worries and I've never cared about it..... defaults drop off after 6 years anyway.

Each situation is very different and some people are more bothered by a bad credit file than others....