Advice required: on a DMP with Payplan but thinking of making settlement offers

[BlueEarner]

Hi there

 

I am seeking advice about approaching creditors for a settlement offer, and wondered if this was wise, and what is the best way to do it.

 

I have been on a DMP with Payplan for over 10 years, drip feeding my debts - no IVA or bankruptcy. Originally over 25K, now looking at just over 5K.

 

One of my creditors last year offered me a settlement of 60% write off (mbna), and I was lucky enough to have a family member to help out in that respect. This drastically reduced my overall debt.

 

Still chipping away, I wondered if there was any merit in approaching other creditors on my DMP to see if similar settlement figures could be offered.

 

Has anyone done this?

 

Many thanks

[dx100uk]

urm..discount letter eh..prob PPI or PENALTY charges to reclaim on that debt then.

 

pers i'd be going through ALL your debts

and CHECKING everyone you are currently PAYING

 

has the LEGAL paperwork to demand money from you.

 

the sad thing about all [paid or otherwise] DMP providers

is they NEVER check if those demanding money from a client

have the LEGAL RIGHT to do so.

 

it might be an idea to list your debt here

and

whom you currently pay them off to.

 

ok the choice is yours

cag is about contesting & questioning things

if you don't want to go down that route

 

i'd still never settle a debt before investigating if you have PI etc though

and make sure it get marked as settled not partial settlement as well

 

dx

[BlueEarner]

Thanks for that. Just to clarify - I settled one creditor debt, mbna, by choice - they didn't demand it. There was no PPI on any of my debts. I figured it was a good deal to cut the debt by 60% given that I had the capital as a gift from a family member.

 

So now I am left with around 5K of debt being managed by PAYPLAN, not including old student loan company debt which for some reason is not on the DMP.

 

My query was about enquiring with the existing creditors on the DMP if they would offer a discounted settlement figure. None of them have demanded payment other than the agreed amount based on my I & E on the DMP.

[BlueEarner]

For what its worth, my current list of creditors:

 

Barclays Bank

HBOS

HSBC

Lewis group

Link financial

Lloydstsb

Lowell financial

 

All of the above continually agree to be on the DMP, and have frozen interest. They rarely contact me, luckily.

 

Plus student loans company not on the DMP

Edited August 17, 2013 by BlueEarner
Forgotten info

[Wintry]

Hi BlueEarner

 

It is difficult to say with Full & Finals and would really depend on your full circumstances.

 

With DMPs creditors should all be treated the same as no doubt you will be aware.

 

As a result of the settlement with MBNA has your disposable income for your remaining DMP creditors increased?

 

Will any of this unsettle the current DMP arrangement you may be thinking, hard to really say as with a DMP we are talking about an informal arrangement but it should not if you are doing your best and you play it fair so to speak.

 

Basically creditors are after the money and common sense should prevail with them (you would hope:)

 

You have probably already seen this but I will put up the link just in case as it might help -

 

National Debtline Fact Sheet on Full & Final Settlements

 

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=24_full_and_final_settlement_offers -

 

Also have you spoken to Payplan about this and the Student Loan?

 

Best Wishes and hope this helps some

Edited August 17, 2013 by Wintry

[dx100uk]

be VERY careful of LINK and that SLC debt

9/10 link are spoofing people

go read about them in the SLC forum

 

lewis group debt - is that a welcome finance loan?

 

if so again 90% of those debts are littered with £12+ PENALTY charges and compulsory insurances

all can be reclaimed.

 

what is the debt with lowells?

 

dx

[BlueEarner]

Thanks Wintry & Dx100uk,

 

I will check that link.

 

Yes you are right the DMP is informal. MBNA - or whoever was 'collecting' for them wrote to me with the offer. Pay plan seemed ok with it, and yes everything else adjusted so the other creditors are now being paid more.

 

I havent spoken to Payplan about the SLC, but will do. Do you know if they generally accept DMP's or does it vary?

 

I'll check up on Link - they handle my other MBNA debt. Link were the ones who held the majority of my percentage of debt at the time I applied for an IVA (way back when) and they voted against it, 3 times! Hence I never got an IVA in the end.

 

Lewis Group is CL Finance / GE Capital - if I remember rightly, it was the Mothercare Creditcard.

 

Lowell Financial is collecting for Littlewoods.

 

Lewis and Lowell are very small debts thankfully; both under 100 pounds.

[dx100uk]

ok please don't get me wrong

 

i'm not trying to 'fault' or 'criticise' you but

nearly all of those names are well known for cash cowing people

 

urm link and the IVA

 

well i'll guess they didn't want the IVA because that would have meant the debt being checked over

so I guess they were somewhat 'bogus'. hence the refusal!

 

if ANYONE offers a discount , its nar on 100% that thers PENALTY charges or PPI etc involved

so what you are getting is not a discount, but a small portion of

what you could be reclaiming.

 

that catalogue debt will be £12 penalty charges I bet too.

 

lets put it this way:

 

not Original Crfeditor wil sell a debt to a debt purchaser

unless they know full well theyhave no chance in court

or

its not worth the bother.

 

i'm concerned about your SLC debt

 

it might be an idea to start a thread on this in the SLC forum

and lets get it sorted.

 

i'm sorry to say,but few if any SLC debt sold to link are

actually 100% 'legit'

 

link normally spoof people by threat-o-grams

or scary phonecalls

and people start coughing.

 

this is where your money goes you pay them:

 

http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property_news/news/millionairedebtcollectordigsdeepinsouthkensington.html

 

another good tool is to get a copy of your CRA file.

see below - noddle is free

 

that's how the industry see you.

 

if a debt you are paying does not SHOW

the i'd start digging to find out WHY!!

and question why you are paying it

 

there couldbe a perfectly legit reason or it could be cash cowing.

 

lots to digest

 

i'll let you have a good read now.

 

dx

[BlueEarner]

Thanks again for the advice.

 

I checked my records and it was Equidebt (on behalf of MBNA) that offered the settlement. It was a 60% discount on the overall debt which, to the best of my knowledge did not include any penalty charges etc - because the debt was the actual money I borrowed at the time.

 

And the same goes for all of my debts - I dont see how there can be any charges added because the debt hasnt gone up, its gone down. e.g. If I borrowed 10 pounds from a creditor, and its decreased over time, then how can there be any bogus charges PPI et al involved?

 

 

My Student Loans Company debt is exactly what I borrowed way back when, plus interest when it was charged. They havent sold it on to a collector as yet.

 

Link hasnt spoofed me so far - though they seem dodgy - but so far all is silent from nearly all of my creditors, who have been drip fed a DMP payment for years.

 

anyway,it would be interesting to see my credit file as you suggest, but i tried using noddle and found that I cant because Im living outside of the UK now. IP addresses and all that - I dont think its for anyone who isnt a resident of the UK.

[dx100uk]

ever coming back?

 

dx

[BlueEarner]

Good point - I'm visiting soon, so can log in then. Despite not being officially resident.

[dx100uk]

it might be an idea to start sep threads for each debt in the named forum for the original creditor.

 

if anyone offers a discount

 

odds on theres something wrong

 

you need to find it

 

CCa requests & SAr's are the way to go.

 

I VERY much doubt the SLC loan with link is correct.

 

I suggest you go have a read in the SLC forum.

 

PENALTY charges on the other debts would have been levied BEFORE it was sold to the DCA's

 

so there will be charges I bet.

 

pers i'd be firing off everyone a CCA

 

dx

[BlueEarner]

Thanks - this is very interesting!

 

From my limited understanding, CCA:

 

I ask my creditors for proof of a signed agreement, that would make the debt legal. If they can't produce, then I can stop paying the debt?!

 

So the letter needs to begin ' I do not acknowledge any set with your company....etc'

 

....and this is ok if I've paid them on a DMP ?

 

Lastly, is there anything to lose or risk by requesting cca's?

 

Many Thanks.

[dx100uk]

adapt the following text to YOUR details.

DO NOT SIGN THE LETTER!

get a £1 BLANK Postal order

write on the back

for statutory £1 CCA FEE ONLY.

leave the payee BLANK

post the two off by 1st class post, get proof of posting from PO counter

they have 12+2 WORKING days to comply.

 

nothing to lose

 

though just be aware that in general bank account [OD's] are not covered by the cca

so no point]

 

dx

[BlueEarner]

Ok dx thanks that's great.

 

Guess I'll have to wait to be in the UK in a couple of months, as doing it from where I am will incur postal delays and postal orders are not possible.

 

Only one is an OD, so ill leave that one. The others are all credit and loan, or catalogue.

 

Is there any point in informing PAYPLAN about this? Can they also advise? Or is it best to leave them out of it?

 

Thanks!

[dx100uk]

the issues with many if not all dmp's

is they don't ever look at these aspects

 

they just assume the debts are legit.

 

if/if not that's good or bad is for the individual to decide

.

 

some are juat 'blindly' happy do get the overall situation 'resolved'

 

later in many instances, what is actually owed, sometimes comes as a surprise...

 

once the surface is scratched.

 

dx

[BlueEarner]

Hi there!

Just spoke to a good friend of mine who is studying law.

 

Interesting what he had to say, in a nutshell:

Debt collection agencies are perpetrating fraud because they purchase your debt from the original creditor (thereby extinguishing all debt), and do not have legal right to claim any payments on this 'new' debt.

 

He said it is like a parent coming along and paying off your debts and then asking you to pay them back.

 

Meaning to say Debt Collectors pay your debt off, and then hope to get some back from you.

 

I take it that is what you mean by requesting current (updated) CCA's. If there are none, there is no legal obligation?

 

Finally got through to STudent loans Company, who said they actually don't mind being put on a DMP.

This is despite charging me £80 plus in 'charges' for being overdue. Truth of it is I have been out of touch with them for 2 years, having changed addresses.

[sequenci]

Hi there!

Just spoke to a good friend of mine who is studying law.

 

Interesting what he had to say, in a nutshell:

Debt collection agencies are perpetrating fraud because they purchase your debt from the original creditor (thereby extinguishing all debt), and do not have legal right to claim any payments on this 'new' debt.

 

Tell your friend to quit his course, it's clearly a very bad one. Or at least look at how 'things in action' can be assigned from one person (or organisation) to another. Perhaps draw his attention specifically to Section 136 of the Law of Property Act 1925.

[renegadeimp]

Is he studying law at the scholl for freemen of the land?

 

As sequenci said, if he is studying law, then hes going to the wrong school.

[dx100uk]

 

dx

[BlueEarner]

 

dx

 

Haha no it's not law course or anything like that. Just a hobby. He later agreed it 'didn't sound right'. He lives near David Icke....maybe it's going to his head slightly.

 

Onto more serious matters, I am about to send off some letters to my creditors for proof of CCA etc, as advised earlier on this thread.

 

One of the debt collectors is Metropolitan Collection Services Ltd, who are "a member of the HSBC Group..."

 

Does this make them more of a 'legit' creditor? Maybe it's not worth requesting such info if they are still part if the original bank (this debt was a first direct overdraft)?

 

The others in writing to are Blair Oliver Scott, link financial, Lowell and Lewis.

 

I also caught up with my paperwork with the Student Loans. They lost contact with me, passed the debt to Rossendales for a while whose aim was to recover the arrears, then Roasendales passed it back to SLC who are now accepting the terms of my DMP. Oh, and they charged me £70 which included monthly interest and an 'auto trace charge'!

 

My other debts - Lloyd's tsb and Barclaycard (eversheds at some point) - I suppose no point in writing to them as the debts haven't been passed on to a collector?

 

Thanks again!

[odetter]

Don't waste your time with Payplan they are sponsored by the Banks and their only concern is to recover debt on their behalf.

There's no magic bullet you're better off sorting it out for yourself..

Speaking from bitter experience their settlement team is a joke.

[dx100uk]

I would send a cca request to all of them regardless.

 

90% of the names you've used ring alarm bells.

 

as for any penalty charges

 

get reclaiming.

 

dx

[BlueEarner]

Cheers guys.

 

I've sorted 4 of the creditors, just left out the bank account ones as they wouldn't have a CCA anyways...

 

Just thought this 12-14 working day time limit they have : presumably it's from the date that they put on the reply letter, not the date I receive their letter. I love out of the EU and mail will take its time to get to me...maybe I'll give them a month!

[BlueEarner]

Hi there,

 

any advice on this one?

 

CCA requests sent Dec23rd.

 

Received replies 7th Feb, though dated 5th Jan (I live abroad in a country with a bad postal record)

 

Lowell say they are still looking for the CCA

and have contacted the original creditor.

In the meantime they said to keep paying, as this debt will not be wiped.

 

Lewis Group said they are still looking, and will be in touch

 

Bank of Scotland (credit card) didn't acknowledge my CCA request

- only stated that I had missed payments.

 

I sent the CCA request to Blair Oliver Scott who collect on their behalf - so the message has got through it seems.

 

Link financial have not replied.

 

My thoughts are to carry on with my DMP

(I have other creditors on there as well as the above ones),

but 'suspend' the creditors I wrote to until I hear otherwise?

 

Its gone well over the 14 working days now, even with giving them extra time for postal delays

 

Any advice on what to do next gratefully received!

 

Many thanks