Save ££££ settling your debts

[heavyraisin]

Hi all,

Apologies if anyone has posted anything similar to this. I offer this advice from experience. If you have a debt that has been passed to a debt collection agency, you can offer full and final settlement for a reduced figure and they usually accept. I bought some sofas from DFS and ended up owing around £2,500. In December 2004, I moved house and my mortage advisor informed me that debt collection agencies "buy" the debt from the company (eg, DFS) for a fraction of the amount outstanding - usually around 30%. Therefore, if you offer them from 50% & above in full and final settlement of the debt, they are usually willing to oblige. I offered the debt collection company about £1,600 in full and final settlement and they accepted, saving me around £900. Another one was Lloyds TSB credit card that had gone to debt collection. Around £2,500 was owed but I paid about £1,500 (I think) in full and final settlement, saving another £1,000! Obviously I don't advise waiting until any debts are passed to debt collection agencies but if you are already having dealings with them and are able, at some point, to make a full and final settlement offer, I would begin around the 50% mark.

[Stornoway]

the downside to this is that it doesnt look good on your credit report. Generally if the full and final payment is less than 80% of the amount owed then the creditor will mark your credit file as a "Short Settlement". Thus all future potential lenders will likely think that you are a poor credit risk. At the end of the day your strategy here should depend on whether you are likely to need credit over the next 6 years !

[Vampyra]

On top of which, most people in genuine strife here don't have that sort of spare cash anyway!

[PeteT]

I offered DLC 80% as F&F before I found this site and they refused

[Nickolarge]

I offered DLC 80% as F&F before I found this site and they refused

 

DLC wrote to me asking for 80% to clear the debt.

 

As far as the 'short settlement' thing goes, the advice usually offered here and elsewhere is to insist on the debt being marked as 'full settlement' as a condition of the offer.

 

One other thing. I could be wrong as I am new to this forum but the OP looks a bit trollish to me. I have this vision of someone from a DCA posting that to encourage folk to offer over 50% when they would accept 30% if pushed.

[heavyraisin]

sorry - what does OP and DCA mean?

[shadygiz]

dca = debt collection agency

 

op = original poster??

[Nickolarge]

dca = debt collection agency

 

op = original poster??

 

Correct, OP can also = Original Post.

 

Sorry if I am being over suspicious about the OP but the general consensus I have found from reading this forum for the last 4 hours or so is that offers should start at no more than 20% and some are saying 5% (see my other thread). The word is that the DCA's don't pay more than 15% for the debts so a 20% offer equals a 33% profit for them.

 

I have found only a small number of threads dealing with full and final settlement offers and even less with first hand examples of the percentages that were actually accepted by the creditors.

 

Anyone out there with some more examples?

[jaxads]

Years ago Nationwide said if I paid £400 off a £1400 overdraft they would mark it as satisfied!!

 

I had at that time closed the current account and couldn't clear the full balance . I was delighted with that!!

[PeteT]

Well DLC shot themselves in the foot not taking the 80% (which was several thousands) and running. Now they get nothing for still not even attempting to fulfill a CCA request from Feb 07 and the money is sat in a high interest account until such time that that do produce the goods!