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Hi all
We have been in a DMP since March last year. We started with £94k debt and that is currently down to about £84k. About £11k is potentially UE (I have a thread on another part of the forum about this).
So.....potential debt balance is £73k.
By September this year we will have about £35k coming to us. Windfalls like this don't happen to us (if they did perhaps we wouldn't be in so much debt) - but for some reason luck is shining on us for 2016. My hubby had an old pension he just took out under the pension reform rules (£20k) and I have a small pension and small inheritance which will come to about £15k and both should be through by end September. We both have really good pensions in our current jobs so releasing the small pension pots from long ago previous employment was a no brainer (we did seek advice though).
In my dreams I would love to clear that £73k with this money and be debt free this year (we will still have a mortgage so perhaps I should have said 'unsecured debt' free).
We are currently paying just under £800 per month to our DMP. I was originally looking at 2024 before we would be debt free so if we could be debt free this year that would be like winning the lottery for us. Amazing!
Given that we are making regular payments to creditors, what is the likelihood of creditors accepting full and final offers? They are getting money now, so why should/would they accept a reduced offer. 7 of our 11 debts are with debt collection agencies (although some of those are 'in-house' I think, e.g. Blair, Oliver, Scott for Halifax). 4 of the debts are with the original creditors. Interest stopped on all but 2 of the debts. Those 2 are with original creditor (both barclarycard) and although interest charged, it is reduced to 3%. We are currently paying BC £1 per month in an effort to get defaulted and have interested stopped completely but this strategy has only been just been started.
I did wonder about cutting payments on the DMP to token payments for several months and saving the DMP money towards settlement offers but don't want to rock the boat with phone calls, legal threats etc etc. If I did this what reason would I give - because our income and expenditure statement identifies we can afford more than token payments? Logic tells me if I pay token payments for 6 months I could save the £800 per month towards settlement offers as well. 6 months @ £800 = £4,800. Add that to the £35k we know we will have and we will have just shy of £40k to make offers with. That would mean offers of approximately 54% on our debts (although it would nice to be able to offer less and have it accepted if that was possible).
As we have the first £20k of this windfall in hand (aka in the savings account) I was about to write off with full and final settlement offers starting at 30% of the balance on our larger debts, but wondered if now we know we will be getting more money shortly we would be better waiting and offering all creditors equally, reducing to token payments - or anything else I haven't thought of!
Advice on the best way in which to get the most benefit from these wonderful windfalls would be very much appreciated.
We have been in a DMP since March last year. We started with £94k debt and that is currently down to about £84k. About £11k is potentially UE (I have a thread on another part of the forum about this).
So.....potential debt balance is £73k.
By September this year we will have about £35k coming to us. Windfalls like this don't happen to us (if they did perhaps we wouldn't be in so much debt) - but for some reason luck is shining on us for 2016. My hubby had an old pension he just took out under the pension reform rules (£20k) and I have a small pension and small inheritance which will come to about £15k and both should be through by end September. We both have really good pensions in our current jobs so releasing the small pension pots from long ago previous employment was a no brainer (we did seek advice though).
In my dreams I would love to clear that £73k with this money and be debt free this year (we will still have a mortgage so perhaps I should have said 'unsecured debt' free).
We are currently paying just under £800 per month to our DMP. I was originally looking at 2024 before we would be debt free so if we could be debt free this year that would be like winning the lottery for us. Amazing!
Given that we are making regular payments to creditors, what is the likelihood of creditors accepting full and final offers? They are getting money now, so why should/would they accept a reduced offer. 7 of our 11 debts are with debt collection agencies (although some of those are 'in-house' I think, e.g. Blair, Oliver, Scott for Halifax). 4 of the debts are with the original creditors. Interest stopped on all but 2 of the debts. Those 2 are with original creditor (both barclarycard) and although interest charged, it is reduced to 3%. We are currently paying BC £1 per month in an effort to get defaulted and have interested stopped completely but this strategy has only been just been started.
I did wonder about cutting payments on the DMP to token payments for several months and saving the DMP money towards settlement offers but don't want to rock the boat with phone calls, legal threats etc etc. If I did this what reason would I give - because our income and expenditure statement identifies we can afford more than token payments? Logic tells me if I pay token payments for 6 months I could save the £800 per month towards settlement offers as well. 6 months @ £800 = £4,800. Add that to the £35k we know we will have and we will have just shy of £40k to make offers with. That would mean offers of approximately 54% on our debts (although it would nice to be able to offer less and have it accepted if that was possible).
As we have the first £20k of this windfall in hand (aka in the savings account) I was about to write off with full and final settlement offers starting at 30% of the balance on our larger debts, but wondered if now we know we will be getting more money shortly we would be better waiting and offering all creditors equally, reducing to token payments - or anything else I haven't thought of!
Advice on the best way in which to get the most benefit from these wonderful windfalls would be very much appreciated.
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