Help With A&L 25% Offer

[Jim Pike]

Hi All

I wonder if you good people can give your views on this please. I was given the offer to clear my debt of appx £8000 with A & L by paying 25% of it over 3 months which I thought would be a full and final thingy. This letter arrived and I am not sure if it means the same as full and final, could you give me your views please as I am due to make the second payment towards it soon.

Cheers

Jim

 

a&l Offer this one.pdf

[dx100uk]

yep i think you are right to question it.

i would be more happy that they change the line to add 'and any of our agents'

 

BTW: have you CCA'ed this? it puzzles me why they are being so nice?

almost as if they know its unenforceable.

 

dx

[Jim Pike]

Hi dx100uk,

Thanks for your reply, Yes I did cca them in Feb + follow up letters but heard nothing from them until begining of June thanking me for my request, saying that my copy will be sent under separate cover, and goes on to say they are not required to send a copy which contains signatures. Which is strange as I cca'd them for my loan and they sent a copy of the signed agreement back pretty Quickly.

I am just unsure about the "Partial settlement" wording in the letter. The account has never been sent to a collection agency, just dealt with inhouse at mbna/A&L this is not the first offer they have made to me they started at appx 50% then 40ish then 33% then this is the final one before they send to collection agency. I thought 25% was a good thing, but not if they can come back at me later?

Jim Pike

[avarose]

Hi Jim, congratulations on the 25%! I am wondering how long it was before A&L started to make offers to you? I owe them and am currently getting letters from them charging me £25 a month for the letters and that's it! I want to offer them a F&F but scared they will not accept the low amount i can offer - but if they are now accepting 25% from you then i may have hope yet! Best of luck

[andie_303]

I would ask for written clarification that this is a full and final settlement and that that their will be no further liability to yourself to make further payments after these 3.

 

I would also ask for a written receipt for each payment and final discharge after the last payment

[Hadders86]

Crikey Jim that is a fantastic offer if as andie says you can get the wording of their letter tightened up. I have a loan with them at the moment so am curious to know how long it took to get them to offer 25%.

Good luck, I'm jealous !

[avarose]

I am wondering if the difference here is that Jim is talking about a credit card with A&L via MBNA? Is that right Jim? And that you have a loan also? To be honest i am having more luck sorting out my MBNA card ( not an A&L one) than i am with A&L loan... How are you doing with the loan side of things? That is if i am talking any sense at all!!

[Jim Pike]

Hi

avarose,

It was appx 4 months when I started getting offers from them, I suppose it depends on a lot of different things

i.e Your age, amount owed, prospects of eventually paying it off

in my case it would take appx a zillion years to pay it off.

This is only my credit card account, the loan is something else.

I would imagine that yours is a loan? that's why they charged you £25 for letters, thinking back they were pretty fair and stopped the interest going onto my CC quite soon after I fell into difficulties, as did most of the others with the exception of HSBC and Lloyds (another story)

Jim Pike

[Jim Pike]

Hi andie_303

Thanks for your advice, I have already tried but as it's not a full payment I am making they will not class it as full and final only partial settlement. But I am sure other people have settled in a similar manner and i have not heard of A & L going back on the arrangement and chasing for the remainder so fingers crossed.

 

Hadders86

I think that you may find it won't happen with loans, mine is a CC debt that I will now never be able to pay off due to no work, age and level of debt.

Cheers

Jim

[havinastella]

should you take them up on this offer, you should get it paid via a 3rd person.

 

Then they cannot come after you for the rest.

 

Jogs

[Jim Pike]

Hi Jogs

Can you explain, by third person do you mean someone else to pay it on my behalf and I pay them back, or someone like the cccs.

Cheers

Jim

[havinastella]

Someone pay it on your behalf!

 

This really screws them up

 

JOgs

[steven4064]

Jim

 

I think the advice you have been given on this thread is perfect. Gat them to confirm that by 'no further action' they mean that the remainder will not be passed on to another party for collection - in other words, although the debt is only partially settled, the arrangement constitutes a full and final settlement between you and them.

[underdog13]

Hi Jogs

Can you explain, by third person do you mean someone else to pay it on my behalf and I pay them back, or someone like the cccs.

Cheers

Jim

 

Your local CAB may be able to help you with this.

[Jim Pike]

Hi all

 

Update

 

I did as havinastella suggested and paid the amount through a third person.

 

True to their word (so far) I have not heard anything else from MBNA A&L regarding the remainder, so I think by now that they intend to keep their word and not send anyone else after me for the balance.

 

I will of course keep all correspondence and tapes of calls, for many years (just in case)

 

Jim

 

 

Did anyone else from this thread go forward and offer F&F successfully ??

[steven4064]

Hi Jim

 

I haven't heard that anyone else took this route sucessfully. Wise to keet the correspondence, etc. Probably 7 years is enough though.

[Jim Pike]

Hi steven4064

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I see only too often that there is no follow ups to threads, it leaves the reader wondering what has happened next (after reading hundreds of posts sometimes). I just thought that folks should know not to be too shy of doing F&F with creditors as some are OKish.

 

Yes totally agree I will keep paperwork etc probably much longer than 7 years.

 

Hope someone else sees this and reports similar results.

 

Cheers

Jim

[minmoo]

Hi Jim, quick question. Was this originally an A&L credit card that was taken over by MBNA? Thanks

[Jim Pike]

Hi Jim, quick question. Was this originally an A&L credit card that was taken over by MBNA? Thanks

Hi minmoo

 

Yes it was a credit card, and yes mbna were the creditors. If you are thinking of trying Full & Final with them make sure if sending payment that it is through a third person. In my case they took the 3 payments from a third persons credit card. Yea I know that credit should not be paid with credit but I suppose they didn't care.

Cheers

Jim