Hi,

I have been on a DMP since 2011 with a number of credit card debts, which all defaulted at the time. All are with external DCA’s now. I’m paying £80 per month, on an outstanding total debt of £20k.

I have recently been offered some money to clear them (not enough for the full balance), so have been investigating how I could best achieve this. I understand if a debt is deemed unenforceable, then I’ve got a better chance of a lower F&F settlement. I’ve submitted CCA requests (I did not do this prior to going into the DMP) recently and have begun to get the replies back.

I have had a reply from American Express (directly, rather than through the DCA, Allied International, which is who I wrote to). They have provided me with the data from the online application form, which was completed in 2005. This included an “e-signature”, which amounted to a “Y” that I agreed to the T&C’s. I understand that the absence of a ink signature after 2004 is not cause for making the agreement unenforceable.

They also sent a series of credit agreement text’s through to the point at which the default occurred. However, the first one is dated after when the card was taken out in 2005, so wasn’t the set of text that I would have agreed to at the time the application was taken out. Is this an issue?

Also, this text has a set of different interest rates for the various different card types. There was no indication within the online application data which card I had been offered and which interest rate I was on. Later versions of the agreements do have a single APR, although it isn’t consistently the same. Do these issues make the debt unenforceable? Should I SAR them as well so I can check the actual interest rates applied?

In terms of the offer for the F&F, do DCA's take into account the amount paid off the debt already through a DMP? I've paid between 35-50% off most of the original debts already - so I'm not minded to offer a great deal.

Finally, I also want to claim for the fees applied to the account when I was in financial difficulty - would it be better to do this before the F&F, or after?

Thanks,

Badger