Santander settlement

[pedrohassie]

Hi all,

After few personal letters to Drydens and Santander regarding the settlement discount on defaulted loan from 2009, my partner has received a letter from Drydens stating
'We write to confirm that we can accept your partial settlement of £X,XXX and the remaining balance of your account will be closed on our system. Neither we nor our client or any other third party will make further contact with you to recover the unpaid balance' ..... 'Upon receipt of your payment we will inform our client of this settlement so that they can update the various CRA and mark the account as satisfied by partial settlement'

The loan amount was nearly £5,000 and since 2010 she's been paying around £10 per month. Settlement received would allow her to move on however we're not sure whether Drydens has an authority as it's a DCA not the creditor.
What are your thoughts? Is it safe to pay it?

many thanks

[R0b]

Re: Santander settlement

First thing would be to ask them direct. Do they have authority to accept payment of X as full and final settlement, and if so then you could always send over to them a short and simple settlement agreement which would include the agreement to remove any default mark against your credit report and mark as satisfied which si to be signed by the bank no Drydens.

I would think they have authority to accept the payment but always double check.

[pedrohassie]

Re: Santander settlement

Thanks,
The default should come off from her report in few months anyway. Better to have it off from credit report than risk being part settled for the next 6yrs!
We have asked following by email to them:
'could you please confirm that by making this payment I will be released from any further liability and Santander, the legal owner of the account will close the account without any further action or reassignment of the remaining balance to another debt collection agency?'

This should be sufficient we hope?

[R0b]

Re: Santander settlement

Well, it could be sufficient i guess but what if the bank does not close the account or remove the default? I'm always a bit wary of DCA's if thats what Drydens are - better safe than sorry.
See what they say and can always give you a basic settlement agreement for the bank to sign confirming they will remove the default, or you could just risk it and pay them.

Could you not just contact the bank confirm payment in full and final settlement and pay them direct?

[pedrohassie]

Re: Santander settlement

The only problem is who to contact at Santander? It's unlikely (correct me if i'm wrong) that the general collections assintant person would have the figure at hand or an authority? The original request was sent to Santander so i imagine they used drydens to communicate the offer.
Regarding default - would this cause the account to stay for 6 yrs on the credit file. it will i think cause we negotiated settlement with next and this will stay on the file till 2019