I am planning to settle all my debts with various creditors, but want to be sure that I go about it the right way, to ensure that my credit file shows the most accurate (if not the best) picture of my situation. Is there anything I need to obtain from various creditors apart from a letter confirming that the account has been settled? How long does it take before my credit file reflects these changes? Thanks, M P.S. Need advice on more thing, please: I have a CCJ entered against my name for school fees that weren't paid from many years ago. The CCJ was entered in 2013or 14 in my absence. I understand that the CCJ would be removed from my file after 6 years, but does it help my credit file if I make a full payment now? Or shall i just leave it as it is.

I'm new to this and not experienced with dealing with the courts and the big lawyers, in fact it is quite scary.. Below is an outline of what has happened to date but now I really need some help to guide me best way through this mess. Background: I had a credit card debt with barclays of £9k and this has gone up to £11k with court fees, Legal and with interest charged from 04/2014 making a total of £11k (All figures have been rounded up.) I missed payment in 2014 which shows up in 2014 on my credit file as a default and not made any payments since, I had the card for 35 years during which it was faultless. In May 2016 ,i got a claim form from County Court Business centre and sent in a acknowledgment of service: Claimants are: Hoist Portfilio Holdings 2 Ltd and Howard Cohen are their acting Solicitors. Next:24 June 2106 I emailed the following to hmcts.gsi as a defence statement: Stating the following: This claim is for the sum of £9000 in respect of monies owing under an Agreement with the Account No. XXXXXXXX pursuant to the The Consumer Credit ACT 1974 (CCA). The debt was legally assigned by MKDP LLP (Ex Barclaycard) to the claimant and notice has been served. The Defendant has failed to make contractual payments under the terms of the Agreement. A default notice has been served upon the Defendant pursuant to s.87(1) CCA. The Claimant claims The sum of 9000 Interest pursuant to s69 of the Count Court Act 1984 at a rate of 8.00 percent from 01/04/14 to the date hereof xxx is the sum £1500 Future interest accruing at the daily rate of 1.96 4. Costs Defence: With reference to the defence i would like to mention the following points and request the information to assist in my defence: Information of the original debt with Barclaycard of £9000 and any copies of a default notice served by Barclaycard. It is my understanding that through Lovell Portfolio Ltd in 28/01/2014 that a default notice was served on my account without my consent or my authority or signature to them as a third party. Claimants to supply a copy of the executed deed of assignment from Barclaycard to Lovell Porffolio, MKDPP LLP and to Claimant Hoist Portfolio Holdings Ltd a for the above referenced agreement An issue of confusion has been created in this case and seek clarification in having this matter properly resolved. As this has been done without my knowledge, consent or my authority and that the claimant as a third party may have wrongly taken this matter to County Court Business Centre. I would like to put this matter into mediation to have it resolved and establish how best this cane satisfied without going to court. In my defence it should be noted that i have with assistance cleared a majority of my debts and have had stated Barclaycard for 35 years, during which the account has traded without any problems and without any defaults being issued. it was in fact a surprise to me that a default notice has been served by Lowell Portfolio Ltd who had not informed me of this and not had any correspondence from Barclaycard on this matter. In terms of the cost please note this is refuted and will be discussed or best resolved through Mediation, any documentation regarding this and supporting documentation from claimants on this case should be sent to me for the my attention. To Note: I have had problems going through the website in filing this defence and proof copy is attached of that information, I subsequently rang the County Court Business Centre to seek how I could best file this defence claim. After speaking to XXXX who was very helpful i was informed that it was satisfactory to file it via email and the deadline was Saturday 25th June 2016 and gave me the email address to which it can be sent. Before this I have also sought advice from CAB and XXXXX from Legal firm XXXXXX who are based in XXXXX who kindly assisted me on the phone. It is with regret that this matter has been taken to Court and would urge a resolution that is satisfactory to all parties. Thank you for your attention to the above and request confirmation of this defence as i am experiencing difficulty with the internet whilst away. Please confirm that this has been received and will wait response Yours Faithfully XXXXXXXX .. Next: 31st August 2106 I received a Letter from Howard Cohen And Co on 31st August with details of Draft Directions. 1) Pursuant to CPR 26.7(2) Claim to be allocated to Small Claims Court 2) A stay or proceedings for 1 month to allow both parties to negotiate settlement of claim by way of Small Claims Mediation 3) Both parties to inform the court by 30th September 2106 if a settlement has been agreed or if an extension of stay is required. 4) If a settlement has not been agreed, then the claim be transferred to the Defendants local Court to be allocated to the Small Claims Track and listed for a hearing on a date to be fixed by the court with a time estimated of 1 hour 5) Claimant pay the hearing fee on a date to be fixed by the Court 6) No experts evidence being necessary, no party has permission to call or reply on experts evidence 7) Each party shall deliver to every party and to the Court Office, copies of all documents on which they intend to rely upon no later that 14 days before the hearing along with signed statements of truth ... Next: 01/09/16 to the Courts. I submitted a Directions Questionnaire (Fast Track and Multi Track) Stating that I wished to settle the claim and I wanted a month stay, required assist of mediation, acknowledged request for local court, NO witness and it would be less than a day in court. ... Next:10 September 2106 I received a Order of Stay which now runs out on 24th October and not received any communication or information from the Claimants to try and resolve this matter out of court. I have heard nothing from the claimants to try and get this matter resolved. I need HELP now to try and sort this out the best way, I am getting mixed messages that I should try and speak to their Solicitors 'Howard Cohen And Co' find out whats going on but I am scared of that and also try speak to MKDDP or Barclays ??? Sorry for the late action but it was becoming quite embarrassing to handle this.. Hope someone can help. I can try ask for some money from family and friends but not anywhere near the amount requested I also need to know if it will help resolve all this first and how much, before approaching outsiders to help.. as I have little left over after the bills and food. I am in full time work but do not have that kinda money to settle. Please Help if you can.

I had a £3,000 overdraft facility on my RBS current account which I used to the full (!) but was unable to maintain repayments on following illness and ending up on long term sickness benefit (ESA). In January 2012 I reached an agreement with RBS to freeze the interest on the account and to pay £1/month by SO. This has been reviewed and renewed each year, most recently in April 2015 for a further 12 months. I've maintained payments throughout that period and maintained good relations with the bank. Last month I returned to full time employment. I'm willing to re-pay RBS's overdraft but want to be careful about how I go about it – agreeing no more than is necessary. So: 1) How soon should I notify RBS of my change of circumstances? 2) Is there any point in offering a full & final settlement? If so, at what %age? 3) Should I expect interest to be applied to the overdraft in future and, if so, how much would be reasonable? 4) If I make a repayment arrangement what is likely to be seen as reasonable? (I also have about £25,000 owed to various credit cards or DCAs, mostly with similar arrangements in place.) I have two other unblemished and unconnected bank accounts into one of which my salary will be paid so would continue to pay RBS by SO. FWIW my RBS account is in Edinburgh (I transferred it there from England to avoid a threatened takeover by Santander) but is now managed by their collections department in Birmingham.

So myself and my wife have been on a DMP with Stepchange since 2009. Before I go onto the specific topic id like to say how helpful they have been over the years and completely free unlike euro debt who I stupidly went with to begin with. Anyway back on topic, we are in the fortunate situation that we have some money coming our way soon which we want to use to pay the debt off but we also are aware the creditors might accept a lower percentage to settle the debt. In total we owe around 10 different creditors between us, all credit cards and student overdrafts. We lived beyond our means which got us into the debt and learnt a valuable lesson. We have paid off just under 10k at £185 a month for the last 6 years (never missed a payment but that doesn't seem to count for much). We have 9k left to pay off. Our query is that we want to buy a house once the debt is clear and built up our credit score again. If we offer for full and final settlement say at 60% of each debt will this be recorded on our credit file as only partially settled and would it affect a mortgage application further down the line? Or would it be better to settle in full in terms of our future credit score and mortgage application? I hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance for all your help.

Hi, I had an account a number of years ago with Halifax. It was a 'cash card' account with Visa Electron. Originally this was my main account but then I got a standard current account also from Halifax. I moved to France for a year and when i was away the Electron account went overdrawn by approx £80. there was no interest or charges associated with this and I left it with the intention of returning the account to 0 and closing it. By time I moved back to the UK and went into the Branch to close the account I was informed that it had been closed. The assistant in the branch told me the debt was written off. As I was a 21yo student i did not understand the implications of this, but now i am encountering problems. The Halifax account appeared on my credit file in June 2011, and in July 2011 was closed showing as 3 months in arrears and partially settled. I would like to fully settle this account as it is the only blemish on my credit history, but as this is 4 years ago and I know that it will be removed in 2 years I am unsure of whether to do so. If I fully settle now will the account still be removed from my credit file in 2 years or will it 'reset' the 6 year 'life cycle?' Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi, I have done some research and have previously reclaimed charges and PPI i just wanted to confirm with others the process should follow. I wanted to avoid admitting tyne debt as 2 are just 12 months from being statute barred, so can i address letters "without predjudice"??? so as to not restart the period for the debts becoming statute barred? And any tips anyone may have for settling debts at a reduced rate. So my process i am think i should follow: 1 write to CRA(experian, equiFax) to find any company claiming debt 2 write to companies asking for true original of credit agreement 3 if provided Agreement, make offer of 10p per pound for Full and final settlement including marking debt as settled in full. 4 await letter confirming settlement 5 pay debts. I do worry about making these debts enforceable for the next 6 years by doing this so is there anything i can do to mitigate this risk? thank you in advance nak

I was caught on the London Tube using a Freedom Pass in the name of my Mum and cautioned. I have an interview under caution lined up and prior to this, speaking to the Travel Investigations Unit dealing with my case that there may be a chance to settle this out of court as they recognize the damage a criminal conviction could do to my future. I am willing to take responsibility for this but if possible ofcourse avoid a criminal conviction. I know I should have thought of this before I began using it but at the time my lack of means to pay for transport was enough for me to disregard this. Does anyone have any experience with this? I have looked over several threads on this forum and can see that it is a rare occurrence for them to agree to settle but when does it happen? Will they take into account my age (just past 19) who has only recently gained his much sought first employment? Is it cheeky of me to try to go this route? If I do decide to try this who should I send my letter to? I also couldn't answer for how long I had been using the Freedom Pass and didn't want to guess and lie. Will they scold me for this? I genuinely couldn't say. Will they be privvy to this information from their database? Even if my friend has voided the one that was confiscated from me so that he could get a new one to use. How far back on the history of the card are they able to see? I would like to begin my defense and cross reference situations in my life that have had some affect on my lapse of judgement in this matter. Thank you for any help you may offer me

I have contacted Lee, the Vodafone Web Rep about a default of 68 GBP registered against me in April 2013, 2 months after I paid my bills in full. I called Vodafone in July 2012 to cancel my account while in Switzerland (after moving). Months later Vodafone called my parents and I found out the account was not closed. In the meanwhile, I have not used the phone. After some confusion about why I owe money, I just gave Vodafone the money they wanted (68 GBP). I did not want my credit score screwed up by this. 2 months after paying them what they wanted, Vodafone registered a default against me! Thinking my credit rating was fine, I made an offer on a house, which was accepted. Because of the Vodafone default, I have trouble getting a mortgage. If the offer falls through, I will have lost a great deal of money on legal fees and structural reports. House prices are going up, so I shall lose money there too. Lee has kindly contacted me and I now have high hopes the default issue will be resolved swiftly. I have also contacted my MP and will ask her to write a letter to Vodafone's CEO. I shall also be writing a letter to him.

A year ago someone reversed into me as I was waiting to pull out onto a main road from a car park and turn left. Traffic on the main road was stationary and the car reversed so that it could get into a parking bay, they did not check their mirrors, I started to reverse out of the way but was hit before i could completely get out of the way. The other driver claims they were stationary and I just pulled out into them. I maintain that the photos show that the position of the vehicles after the bump, back up my version based on the points of impact. It was only the front left corner of my car that touched the rear left corner of their car. Based on the photos if I had pulled out into a stationary car the front of my car would have hit the rear side of their car. After a year of this going nowhere due to the other insurance co dragging their feet and my insurance co not actively chasing them I have been told that they are going to settle 50/50 - I will loose out on £125 of my excess and suffer the extra cost of cover. They do not seem interested in trying to match up the two versions and using an analytical approach to the points of damage, and positions of vehicles I have pushed this as far as I can with the company, spent hours on the phone, and have also raised a complaint about the delays and the fact that no one ever calls back when they say they will. I feel they just want this out the way as it has dragged on too long. They keep telling me that unless they have a completely water tight case they will not go to court for fear of loosing. I feel completely let down by privilege Any help on how to proceed would be really appreciated:-x

My husband has been engaged in an ET case with a former employer for several years. The hearing has been rescheduled many times and now ACAS has contacted us saying that the employer is interested in settling. What is the best way to negotiate a fair settlement and is it best to document the amount we are seeking using the original schedule of loss? Can we include the costs we incurred for traveling to the original hearing which was rescheduled the morning of by ET? This has been an incredibly trying situation and we want to make sure we get what we are owed, but don't want to come across as greedy or ridiculous. Any advise is appreciated.