Help with F & F settlement

[greengirl]

Hi

I could do with some advice and guidance please;
I have a ccj from a HFC credit card and they also have a charging order on my property, I am only making token payments of £10 per month,and at this rate it will take forever to pay off, the DCA/Sol dealing with this is Restons they are requesting me to increase payments,a relative has offered to settle this debt for me, I spoke to them last week asking them if they could give me an amount for a F&F settlement, they said how much have I got? the debt is for £13,000.originally it was £9.000 when I put the account in dispute,so my question is how much do I offer them,and what is the best way to go about this as they have the charging order on property.I don't want them to take the amount offered as a part payment.

Thanks any help will be much appreciated.

[WendyB]

Re: Help with F & F settlement

wjy has the debt increased by 4k? Don't tell them how much you've got, start with a low amount and negotiate. Get any agreement in writing and get a written agreement that the f & f will be in consideration of removal of the charging order etcetc and that this will discharge you debt completely etc etcc. Post up on here any offers, letters from them etc before you finally agree to anything.

[debtisbad]

Re: Help with F & F settlement

wjy has the debt increased by 4k? Don't tell them how much you've got, start with a low amount and negotiate. Get any agreement in writing and get a written agreement that the f & f will be in consideration of removal of the charging order etcetc and that this will discharge you debt completely etc etcc. Post up on here any offers, letters from them etc before you finally agree to anything.

Hi Wendy. A technical question here. I often notice that when people default on credit, and the DCA gets hold of the debt for collection, they often add interest and charges on to the amount. In this case 4000 pounds. It seems common trick, as they can then make a "50% off" offer or other similar large discount and appear to be offering a limited time offer to the debtor to trick them into making a payment, which in actual fact, is probably the full amount of the debt at the time it was defaulted.

Are DCAs allowed to put whatever charges and interest that they want on debts that they have purchased?

[WendyB]

Re: Help with F & F settlement

No they aren't. Youneed to get a breakdown of exactly how the debt is made up, then you can challenge any charges, interest etc which shouldn't be there. Don't offer any f and f until you are agreed on the amount outstanding.

[greengirl]

Re: Help with F & F settlement

Thanks for reply,the extra £4000 is made up of interest,added fees for not paying minimum monthly payments, going over limit, and court charges, they have already got a ccj & charging order on my home for this debt, when I first sent them a CCA request in Dec 2008 the balance was £9000approx, they didnt come up with an agreement until almost 9 months later,and that was an application form signed by me,which the judge accepted as the agreement,so then got the ccj and now CO.
How do I claim back unlawful charges now that its gone this far?
How do I go about offering them a Full & Final settlement?

Any help is much appreciated