Further to my post, perhaps offer £4000, stress this is your maximum, see what the reply is, then you have some room to negotiate, maybe eventually meet in the middle, or they may say they will accept £5000. Don't waste your time phoning, you will not be able to think on the spot, and the muppet you are talking to has no authority regarding settlements, writing a letter is always best. Send it recorded though.

Hi there, I had a car loan for a similar amount, got settlement from them. I had never missed or reduced a payment. I wrote a nice letter, offering to pay a substantially lower figure. They wrote back, declining, but saying they would accept another figure, which equated to £1500 off the original settlement figure. I raced to the postbox! Then sold the car once I was able to, and got a cheaper one. Some agreements have a halfway mark hand car back clause which I have used before when I ended up owing more than what the car was worth, but Blackhorse are crafty and don't include this on their agreements. Anyone reading this who does have this option and considering using it, do it, it doesn't affect your credit rating at all, its your right, even though they try to tell you it does! They know they won't make as much money, and that hurts them! I am fairly sure if you write to them, stressing how dire your position is and how bleak the future looks, they will accept your available sum. I got a letter from them, thanking me for my valued custom, and to not forget them next time I needed finance! Not really an option as I am on my backside with my finances, but I will get there eventually.... If you manage to settle, you will avoid ruining your credit history completely for when things improve for you. I personally would not get involved with dodgy agreement tactics and trying to avoid paying at all....Good luck!

Its me again, Some bits I missed....I haven't got an option of consolidation, that's what got us here in the first place really. Almost certain no loan would be available anywhere. 2 loans are at in-house collections agencys, one at a dca. 2 cc at in-house, 3cc still with original lenders collection departments. No interest being added which is why we have stayed on the DMP, if interest was still going on would have looked at other options. All of the full and final idea is still just an idea, it might not even happen, depends on how my relative's affairs work out. I just want to get out of debt as soon as possible. Have I missed any other possible solutions other than to continue to bear it out for the full 5yrs? I don't own my house so thats a no go... Have read about snowballing but this is nigh on impossible as you can't save any money up on a DMP as every penny is always spoken for. So frustrating. Thanks

Hello Jax and TBC, Thanks for your quick responses. TBC in response to your comment, the reasoning behind my thoughts regarding borrowing the money would be 1) to pay off the debts quicker, 2) peace of mind knowing there will be no hassle from creditors 3) pay back less money in total. I am thinking that the creditors have had a fair deal from us, and indeed they often have mentioned reduced settlements in the past. The thing that worries me about cca'ing them is that it seems to leave the debt exposed to the possibility of more interest being added. Our creditors though pretty unpleasant in the early days have since been ok to deal with, and it has taken some real work to get this far, so I don't want to mess it up. I am a bit uneasy naming the credit card co's at this stage, caution is something I learned long ago through all this. Thanks for your comments

Hello all, We have been on a DMP with CCCS for 8yrs. I am appalled to admit our debts had reached nearly £90,000. This was through utter stupidity on our part (several refinances paying interest on interest, and paying bills on credit cards), and the lenders' irresponsibility and poor and misleading advice. We went to the bank before we had missed any payments as we realised that we were in serious trouble, whos solution was to try and lend more! We then discovered CCCS, who put us on a DMP still before there were any missed payments. These are all unsecured debts taken out in 2001 or before, and now currently stand at £34,000. This is through a combination of regular substantial payments from us and refunds of PPI, and interest following long drawn out successful complaints. We are lucky in as much that we are paying no interest on any of the balances. We are on track at our current rate of repayment to be debt free in just under 5 years, providing there are no problems with creditors of course. It has been such a long struggle. We have 3 loans, all with balances of approx £7500, the rest of the debt made up of credit cards. Most are still with the original lenders, some with in house dca's and collections, and one with an outside dca. After a lot of calls at first, things have settled down, and we managed to get the incessent calls stopped and nowadays we rarely receive any letters even, as we have managed to make our agreed payments. This may affect the outcome of what we are thinking about doing. I have a relative who may be prepared to lend us £15000, to offer full and final settlements with. Would this be a sensible idea and amount considering the length of our problems? This won't be happening for a while but I thought I would see what people think. I am aware of the partial settlements issue and 3rd party payment. There is no intention of applying for credit once this is all over, if at all ever again. So therefore I am not reallly concerned what is entered on the credit file regarding partial settlement. Would I be right to think this would all be gone after 6yrs? I imagine I may be advised to start CCA ing them but I don't really understand where that will get me. I tend to worry, and I may be wrong but I get the feeling it is really just a way of trying to deny your debts, and that they still may come back to haunt you at a later time. As I have entered into previous correspondence with the complaints, I have surely admitted the debt anyway? I have learned a lot of valuable experience through the last 8 years, but I am getting so fed up of 'do we want it or do we need it?' watching every penny, and dreaming of the time we can have a holiday again. Not dreading that the car will break down etc....We are so lucky our relationship has been strong enough to last through it all too. It defies belief that the government is happily bailing out the banks with our taxes, oblivious to the likes of us who the banks have greedily ruined. Oh but then they moan we are not spending....! I feel I must state that our debt was made up mostly of PPI and interest and was not a result of buying luxury goods or holidays. My car is 20yrs old. The bank loaned us over 17000 to release just £2000 cash in one of their reviews, and we were silly enough to trust them. Sorry to have rambled on so much and feeling sorry for myself, but any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated please. Thanks for reading this far!

Hi Belville, Feel free to contact me, though I'm no expert by any means but I 'll do my best!

Yes....do it! And stick with it... I don't mean to be intrusive or presume anything, but is your Mother still working at 69? If not, I would have thought this and the medical history are grounds alone for mis-selling the PPI. Especially the dreadful lump sum type. LTSB are pretty shameless how they treat older people. They let my friends 73yo Aunt have 2 credit cards, she was on basic state pension, poorly, and got in a right mess. You could investigate whether the bank has acted in your Mother's best interests at all, by lending in the first place i.e. "irresponsible lending". I have battled since 2005 and finally got 3 PPI policies refunded from LTSB. I very nearly gave up several times. When I first tried to cancel when our accounts were on track I was told no, you can't cancel...its a non cancellable policy. Then later when things went wrong and we fell behind, I wrote a letter of complaint in desperation (long before I discovered this site or MSE). I got completely ignored. I had phoned and was given the run around. "try this department/this office/another call centre etc. I researched the Banking Code, and phoned them. The very kind lady told me they had broken the rules, and to contact the Ombudsman service. The ombudsman got involved, and they upheld my complaint on other issues but not the PPI as I had signed and it said optional... As the compensation was a very significant figure I accepted it. A couple of years on, I still brooded on this damned PPI, and by then I had discovered the consumer sites. I eventually got fired up enough to write a letter, a template from MSE, to LTSB. They wrote back, quoting the Consumer Credit Act, "you signed blah blah" and rejecting my complaint. Not in the mood for giving up I wrote back again, this time in my own words, a strongly worded letter (though not abusive). I had nothing to lose. I sent all these recorded of course. To my surprise and delight, they wrote back, offering "goodwill" full refunds, and interest on top. The interest is a substantial amount too... I'm sorry if I have gone on, but I thought it might help to let you know you can win.... When you win, they will refund the money direct to the loan account....happy days! Good luck!

Update I have spoken to the FOS and the DCA, and it seems best to just let the bank pay the premium and interest straight to the DCA. I will keep an eye on it just to make sure. Still a great result, I have also managed to get our 2 LTSB PPIs refunded. The interest was an nice bonus, at approx £650 per loan. This has resulted in their two balances being halved. Happy days.. Many thanks to all the people's threads I have gained info from on here and MSE. And for giving me determination to not get beaten, even when they ignore you, then eventually say no, just keep on at it! A rejected complaint letter is only the beginning of the process. My bit of advice would be show them you are seriously determined. Be firm but also polite. How can anyone expect a good result if they are abusive and cocky...?:-?

Thanks for the replies. I see your point about sharing the refund with other creditors Goldlady, but it also does add weight to the bank and DCA being linked theory. I don't think it will be enough to full and final it, because I asked for the CCA a while back, and I believe the FOS has just recently had a copy of it. Thus the DCA will, I imagine, stick it out for more money. Like PGH has said, at least it is a reduction in the overall balance whatever happens...

Thanks for your reply Rhia. I am now beginning to wonder if indeed the bank and DCA are linked as thinking about PGH's comment, I don't think I had an assignment letter, just one out of the blue from the DCA demanding payment in full. This came through 2 days after my third complaint letter arrived there. It is hard to not be suspicious when dealing with these people but it struck me as well timed. I am reluctant to name the bank and DCA at this stage because matters are still ongoing, I'm not being evasive but just do not want to say too much until the money is banked! I was only trying to make the result work more in my favour for a change. On reading and re-reading the FOS letter it seems very complicated, taking into account interest, loan reconfiguration etc. I think I am going to talk to the Adjudicator on Monday to try to clarify things. It seems there is some quite complex maths to do here, not just "heres your PPI", taking into account what we borrowed, have paid back so far, to put us in the position where we would be in if we hadn't taken the PPI. I perhaps have taken a too simplistic view on this so far. I do tend to get carried away, trying to reduce my debt as much as I can!

Thanks for your reply PGH, I haven't got that far yet, I have to let the FOS know that I accept the bank's offer. I thought I would seek others advice before responding. When I said linked I meant that the DCA doesn't seem to be a subsidiary company of the bank, like BLS is LloydsTSB. I have some comfort in the fact the FOS is overseeing matters, so the bank cannot do just what it likes:)

Hello all, a newbie here, I have at last managed with the help of the FOS to get the PPI to be refunded on a loan . This is a fantastic result, as the PPI is about a third of the total loan amount outstanding. The bank are going to pay the money into the loan account, which is in arrears (I've been on a DMP for 5yrs). The account was transferred to a DCA some time ago. From looking on here I don't think the bank and DCA are linked. I would value anyone's opinion please on the following: As the DCA have bought the debt for a reduced amount, would there be any way of striking a deal in full and final settlement, or will they just happily take the money from the bank? My reasoning is that if I hadn't persisted with my complaint which has taken about 18mths, they would not be getting a third of the debt cleared in one go. Obviously it means I have a third less to pay back whatever happens. Should I contact the DCA, or just be grateful and carry on paying back the remainder through the DMP? Last time the DCA phoned the guy did say they would accept a reduced amount though he didn't say how much.My instinct tells me they will just bank the payment and not be open to negotiation. I think this one is going to be beyond my control, sadly. What do you think? Comments please?! Thanks....