Hi,

My daughter has gotten herself into financial difficulty.

She currently has 4 credit cards and has defaulted on 2 of them.

One has a balance of £600 that's she's managed to pay on time every month.

One is £2500 which she fell behind with but I gave her the money to get it up to date before they defaulted her.

The other 2 have balances of approx £3000 and £6000 and both were defaulted last year.

I've said I'd help her try and sort everything out and am able to give her money to pay some of these but not the full amounts.

I'm thinking of paying off the 2 up to date ones and offering a reduced settlement figure for the other 2 just to get them out of the way.

She suffers quite badly from depression and the stress of all this is not helping her at all.

For settlement figures what percentage is most likely to be affected by the companies?

(Barclaycard & Capital One)

Would they even entertain the idea?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

waste of money

it will not improve her credit rating

nor remove any defaults

they are there for 6yrs regardless of payments.

possibly pay the ones off that are not defaulted [yet]

but ofcourse as you spot

I doubt any original creditor would ever accept an F&F.

I've not seen it.

it might pay her to stop all payments

get them all defaulted

then once they are sold on to fleecing debt buyers try F&F again.

I know that sounds mad as such

but her file is shot for 6yrs anyway now

so a couple more defaults wont hurt.

there are letters in the debt collection section of our library.

Thanks for the reply.

I know her credit rating is shot but would it not look a tiny bit better if they were shown as part paid?

The 2 that have defaulted are already with debt collection agencies so I wouldn't be going to the original company with an offer because I know they wouldn't accept it.

It's not an option to get them all defaulted, it's bad enough with the letters she's getting now,

I don't think she (or I) cope with anymore.

I just want this sorted as quickly as possible for her.

sadly you've got to look at the greater picture here

even if you do F&F the letters wont stop or change

the balance will be sold on.

might not be now, but in a few years time

and it will all start again.

you've a good and wide thread reading background.

so you should know already that DCA's are not bailiffs.

when were these cards taken out

all post 2007 I would guess?

They were, she's only had them for 2/3 years. I'll talk to her and I'll take over dealing with everything for her. Thanks for your advice, I know where to start now.

sure ask here if you need help

but please don't go paying anyone blindly without going through everything from CCA to reclaiming with a fine toothed comb.

might be better to give them a holiday than waste your money on deals.

One last thing, is it worth trying to get the charges on the balances refunded because I know 1 of them took the card over the credit limit before they defaulted her and has charges totalling nearly £350?

yes as I said and don't forget at their int rate too CISHEET