CCS Collect - 50% write off

[Poster]

Hello,

I am new here so apologies if this has been answered in other threads.

I have an £8000 loan from Goldfish (Lloyds). After a year or so, I couldn't afford the repayments anymore and it was passed onto CCS Collect. For the past 3 years, I have been paying them an agreed repayment amount and every 6 months or so, they write to me saying that if I can pay for half of the outstanding balance in one go, they will write the rest of the debt off. It stands at £4000 so I would only need to pay £2000 to clear the debt.

I am in the position now where I would be able to raise that money if I needed to but I wondered what it actually means to have debt written off in an agreement like this. Will having debt written off affect my credit history more than continuing the agreed repayments until it's all paid back? This is the only bad debt I have so I am eager to see the back of it now and start getting my credit back in shape!

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

[dx100uk]

urm..

 

i'm always VERY wary of 'discounts'

 

it typically means that either they know the paperwork is unenforceable or the bal is made of mainly unlawful fees and/or Mis-sold PPI.

as for the 'write-off'

thats basically a 'myth'

they typically mark the debt as a partial settlement' [which helps you none - and is a WASTE of the money]

then fwd it on to another leecher.

 

can you give us the history of the debt with dates etc

 

dx

siteteam

[Poster]

I think I took the loan out about 6 years ago (I could be wrong) and my repayments were (I think) £180-£200 a month. When I told my friend who is an accountant that I couldn't afford it any more, he told me to stop making repayments as I was talking about making myself bankrupt (I had £28k of debt at the time!). CCS collect was passed the debt about 3-4 years ago and I agreed to repay £60 a month and have made that payment every month since. The debt now stands at £4200 and they have told me that if I can pay £2100, Lloyds (or CCS) will write the rest of the debt off.

 

I'm just looking at ways to get rid of this and start getting my credit in order again but I'm pretty clueless as to what a write off will actually achieve.

[brokebutnotbeatn]

There is a F&F letter in the templates. look at that and check the working out. You need to get something in writing from them AND that includes making a note to your credit file. The wording will be in the template letter. Don't pay anything until you have what you need in writing.

[dx100uk]

i would CCA the CCS

 

and SAR the OC

 

as i bet NONE of you payments has ever gone off the balance an LLoyds wrote it off against tax years ago and sold it on.

 

sounds VERY much like you've been a cash cow.

 

dx

[Poster]

i would CCA the CCS

 

and SAR the OC

 

as i bet NONE of you payments has ever gone off the balance an LLoyds wrote it off against tax years ago and sold it on.

 

sounds VERY much like you've been a cash cow.

 

dx

 

That doesn't sound too good! So basically, regardless of what I do, my credit rating is be affected either way.

 

And contacting Lloyds won't help will it? If they have sold the debt on, it's out of their hands.

 

What does SAR stand for? Sorry...I'm not up with the jargon yet.

[Poster]

Come to think of it, I received a letter from Lloyds a month ago showing all of the payments I had made to the agency so they must be getting the money.

[dx100uk]

ah.. thats a shame, or not a case be.

 

so we know the debt is live.

 

did you take out PPI ?

 

and do you know if lloyds or anyone has leveid any 'fees' or charges on you since taking it out.

 

there is something wrong ..they just dont offer you a discount when they can smoke the full cigar

 

dx

[Poster]

Should I contact Lloyds and ask them in the offer is from them or from the agency. I would rather make sure I don't give CCS £2k and it not do anything at all.

 

I don't think I took out PPI. I know I don't get charged fees or charges either. I will dig the letter out tonight and have a closer look.

[Poster]

I found my letter from Lloyds but the ref number of the letter refers back to CCS Collect and the phone number on the letter belongs to CCS as well.

 

I have read that some people have been offered 35% offers but they don't mark the account as settled on your credit file, just "partially settled". I was wondering if a larger offer of 50% would make them mark the account as settled so that it's all sorted once and for all.

 

Should I contact Lloyds directly and ask them for the offer or is the debt with CCS now?

 

thanks for all your help.

[dx100uk]

as in post 5

i would not offer any one anything without checking they are legally entitlted to it.

CCA the CCS

and SAR the OC.

 

use the search top right or look in the library tab.

 

something is not right here, dont pay it off we need to sniff around first.

 

dx

[lop]

I am in the position now where I would be able to raise that money if I needed to but I wondered what it actually means to have debt written off in an agreement like this. Will having debt written off affect my credit history more than continuing the agreed repayments until it's all paid back? This is the only bad debt I have so I am eager to see the back of it now and start getting my credit back in shape!

If you pay back less than the outstanding balance as a settlement then it will mark your credit file as 'settled' if you pay it all back, it will mark as 'satisfied' - well thats for Experian anyway. They both reflect much better than nothing however 'satisfied' will carry more weight when making a lending decision towards you.

I hope that has answered your question.

As per DX though, I would make steops to see if they are entitled to your hard earned cash and you could do a CCA request

[dx100uk]

no..........

 

partial settlement

setlled

satisfied [after a CCJ)

 

dx

[lop]

DX

 

Are you sure? I think that is equifax, I was sure Experian was as as I stated.

 

maybe I am going mad

[harrassed senior]

Whatever they mark it will make very little difference as anything showing there is (was) a problem will mean in almost all circumstances an instant 'no' for any credit applied for. The only response you would require from a settlement would be complete removal from your Credit files as a term of settlement and all will argue that the Credit Files are there to show the historical position of your approach to credit and must therefore stand. There have, obviously been some successful complete removals but you would have to have a strong and provable reason.

[Poster]

I have checked my Experian and it is not shown on there. I then checked Equifax...

 

Lloyds (who the debt is originally for) marked this debt as "Settled" a few years ago but added a note to show that it was passed onto a DCA. There is no record of the payments I have been making to the DCA on my credit file against the Lloyds entry which I assume is correct as it is marked "settled". I would have assumed the DCA would have a record on my credit file though for this.

 

The way I see it, the original debt shows as "Settled" so it's not actually affecting any of my debt apart from the note saying it is with a DCA. If I come to an agreement with the DCA and pay them an amount to settle the debt with them (and make sure that is the end of it and dont sell the debt on), I assume all they would do is remove or update the note on the Lloyds entry but thats about it.

 

Does this sound correct?

[Poster]

I am going to CCA them tomorrow.

 

On most templates I have seen, the CCA states that I am not aware of the debt but I am and they know I am as I have been making payments towards it for years. Is the purpose of the CCA to try and see what documents they have on file. To me, it sounds like they don't have anything to enforce the debt which is why they keep offering me this "great deal".

 

My question is (sorry for all the questions), even if the debt it not enforcable, it is still debt that needs to be repaid is it not? I want to CCA them to see what documents they have, if I discover it is not enforcable, I want to counter-offer their 50% offer because they don't really have a leg to stand on. I think the offer meant I would pay them back £2200 (50%) but I want to go in at £1500 (which I now have in an account waiting to go).

[dx100uk]

looks like you've been a cash cow for years on a debt you had no need to pay off

 

pers i'd totally ignore the debt now and stop payments.

 

as post 5

 

dx

[Poster]

I am not going to stop repayments until I know for certain if it's enforcable or not. I very much doubt it is though otherwise they would have taken me to court years ago.

 

If it is unenforcable and I stop repayments, can they take further action with bailiff, sell that debt on or make a record of it on my credit history? From my understanding, there can only be 1 entry regarding a debt and as the original entry shows as "settled" because it was sold to a debt collectors, I just want to make sure I'm not going to mess up anything else by stopping payments. In October next year, the original entry on my credit history should drop off as it would have been 6 years since the account was "settled".

[dx100uk]

they are a DCA, bailiffs only come after court - failure to pay the ccj - etc etc

it wont show as 'settled' because it was sold to a dca....

 

if there are no markers in almost 6yrs, they cant just dump a marker on now.

 

your comment in post 7 confuses me

how can lloydshave a list of payments - if the debt repayments do not show on your cra?

 

something is very fishy here.....

 

dx

[stunned_monkey]

 

If it is unenforcable and I stop repayments, can they take further action with bailiff, sell that debt on or make a record of it on my credit history?

 

They can not take any baliff action without a court order, and they won't get one without a CCA.

 

They can technically make a record on your credit file and sell the debt on. I say technically because this was the ruling in the McGuffick case. HOWEVER I've taken the angle that the McGuffick case revolved around an unenforceable CCA, where many of these leeches don't have a CCA at all, which is the situation I found myself in with written acknowledgement of this fact.

 

I wrote to my lot and served them notice under the data protection act to stop processing my data in any form (including making marks on my credit file). This approach worked and (to date) nothing has come of it.

 

BUT I know when the debt is due to drop off the bottom of my credit file, 6 years after the original default, so I'm happy to sit tight until then.

[Poster]

they are a DCA, bailiffs only come after court - failure to pay the ccj - etc etc

it wont show as 'settled' because it was sold to a dca....

 

if there are no markers in almost 6yrs, they cant just dump a marker on now.

 

your comment in post 7 confuses me

how can lloydshave a list of payments - if the debt repayments do not show on your cra?

 

something is very fishy here.....

 

dx

 

The letter actually came from the DCA on Lloyds headed paper. My Equifax entry for this debt is below which shows as settled.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]26764[/ATTACH]

[Poster]

BUT I know when the debt is due to drop off the bottom of my credit file, 6 years after the original default, so I'm happy to sit tight until then.

 

The credit entry on my Equifax should drop off (see above) in November this year but haven't I acknowledged the debt by paying the DCA the money all these years? Or does Statute Barred only apply to payments/acknowledgement to the OC?

[dx100uk]

listen

 

the dca has been fleecing you for years

 

its typical for them to 'write' letters on the OC's letterhead too, another tactic used to give them apparent legitimate cause to fleece you.

 

as there was never a debt to acknowledge then i cant see it harming your CRA

they cant mark it 6yrs later after 'settled' that its not!

 

dx

[Poster]

Ok, I CCA'd the DLC and SAR'd the OC. Still waiting on the SAR but I got a reply from the CCA from the DLC on a slip saying "We do not have the facility to obtain your CCA, therefore we enclose your postal order of £1". Now, I already know they have been milking me for years (after reading some threads in this forum) but what's the next step? I assume stopping any repayments but I still want to get this done and dusted. Do I offer them a really small amount as an F&F? I will wait until I get a response from the SAR first.

 

The original entry should drop off my credit file in november this year as the OC marked it as satisfied when they sold it to the DLC in 2005.