Crazy isn't it?!?

No, I can get rid of it in 4 months, I just want to get rid of it sooner! I could go through the whole farce of stopping the direct debits, letting it go to debt collectors and then negotiating a settlement but I was hopnig to avoid all that! The question is: do you think the bank will play ball?

I posted this in another forum but not sure it's the right place. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/getting-out-debt/251333-negotiating-credit-card-debt.html

Morning all! I'm after a bit of help as to something which may or may not be possible! I have a Lloyds TSB Platinum Mastercard with a £4000 limit which, needless to say, is maxed out and has been for several years, at least 5 as far as I remember. I have a direct debit set up for the minimum monthly payment and have never failed to make this payment, the problem is that the net effect has done bugger all to reduce the debt so I still have £4k sat there and I'm mapying £79 per month to keep it. Anyway, my wife and I are now expecting our first child. Over the past few year I have cleared thousands of pounds of debt from a reckless youth but this card is still lingering. I am now planning to blitz it, paying £1000 a month for the next 4 months however before I do this I wanted to see if anybody had any advice as to whether I could negotiate the balance down and, if so, how I might go about doing so? As I see it I've probably paid as much as, if not more than my actual debt in interest payments over the years so I thought there may be some scope to negotiate with Lloyds. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks

Cool, I shall speak to the organ-grinder and eschew the monkey

No, I was under the impression that if the debt had been sold on then that was that. Plus I wanted to make BCW squirm

Hi All! OK, a bit of background: I owe some money to the Student Loans company. Following a problem last year my direct debit failed (nothing sinister!), I called up and paid off not just the missed payments but an additional £500. At this time I asked if I needed to set up a new direct debit and was told no, the old one could be reactivated. Following this I had a period of work abroad where I wasn't checking my statements, when I came back I had a letter from BCW demanding payment....and here's where the fun starts! First of all, being familiar with these forums, I asked that all contact was done by letter, no phone calls. I then wrote to BCW offerring to pay the debt off over 2 months. They declined and pressed me for full payment. They also carried on phoning me every day. I wrote to them asking why they had declined my offer and reminding them to only contact me by post. The kept on phoning (I ignore their answerphone messages). Next I receive an "Enforcement of Summary Warrant", informing me that I have a COUNCIL TAX DEBT (though the lender's name is given as the Student Loans Company!). Also the amount being claimed is different. I write back to them saying i) producing fake legal documents in order to intimidate people into payment is illegal, ii) even if this document was genuine I don't actually owe a council tax debt so the warrant would be unenforceable....oh and iii) STOP PHONING ME! No Reply. Now I have receieved notice that the council (which council?) has granted them access to seize my bank account. Again, the debt is described as council tax arrears, the lender is the Student Loans Company and the amount is different AGAIN! And they're still phoning me every day. I wrote a rather nasty letter to them calling them inept and asking them to clarify what the actual amount owed is, I've still heard nothing and I am still being phoned every day. I should point out that I'm not stressed about this, just very annoyed! I acknowledge that I owe the Student Loans Company and BCW have now faffed around for so long that I can do this in one lump sum, however I don't want to do this until I have confirmation of the actual amount. Anybody got any suggestions as to what I should do? Thanks!

Thanks!

So could anyone suggest what I send to Capital 1? Presumably there is something to say "actually, the prescribed terms are insufficient as they are on the reverse of the document and not referenced" Ta

Apparently this is with Scotcall now who have given me 7 days to make payment.

Anyone?

Morning all! Cap1 have sent me a letter stating that the precribed terms are present and pointing me to them, however they are on the reverse of the document. As I understand this is not satisfactory, could anyone confirm this and let me know what to do next? Thanks again for your help!

Will do. One more thing (sorry!) I was going through my statements and notice that they've been applying penalty charges at £20 per time, I thought they were capped at £12 for credit cards?

It doesn't. It does say "Credit Agreement" at the top and there is some standard blurb on the back however there is nothing referring to any prescribed terms on the rear of the form. Also, there are several references to this only being valid if I pass the credit check. Would you still recommend sending the letter you suggested?

Good stuff! What do I do next (sorry to sound thick). Also, on a slight tangent, I've recently received a letter from H L Legal, naturally I did a bit of research on them and found out (as you probably know) that they seem to be just an online resource for generating official looking letters. Doesn't this contradict the rule preventing DCAs from producing letters which claim to have legal validity?