I have recently been using the letter templates on the National Debtline website in order to contact my creditors to try and arrange a DMP as i am struggling with the current mimimum payments.
I have included an income / expenditure sheet and then pro-rotaed my excess income to make an offer to each of my 7 creditors. I have also asked that interest / charges be frozen.
2 of the 'creditors' are family members and dont have any issues (theyve just said to pay what i can afford), while another 4 of them have accepted my offer (for periods varying between 3 and 6 months). However i am having problems with the final creditor Shop Direct Finance (Very).
They responded to my first letter by saying they couldnt accept my offer and to contact them by phone - i did this and was told they couldnt accept my offer nor freeze interest unless i went through CCCS and obtained a reference number. I explained i didnt see the point in getting a 3rd part to re-send the letters i had sent and that i was attempting to sort out a DMP myself. Again they wouldnt budge and said the least they could accept was £87.00 per month (£34 more than my offer) - APR would also still be added at a high rate.
I then sent a 2nd letter (from National Debtline site) explaining that my other creditors had accepted my offer, and how i had calculated the offer to my creditors and asked them to reconsider. I also said i would still make the payment of £53 i had proposed on the 22/04/11 as a sign of goodwill.
However this morning in reply to my 2nd letter i have recieved the exact same letter i got in reply to my first letter (ive no intention of phoning them this time) - and was just wondering where to go from here, and would appreciate advice on the following points
- Looking on the National debtline website the next letter would appear to be one saying im stopping all payments and inviting them to take me to court. Is this what you guys would recommend?
- Should i still make the 'goodwill' payment of £53 on 22/04/11 i said i was going to make in my 2nd letter? (if ive said i am going to make it and dont would it look bad should it get to court?)
- Are they likely to actually take me to court or would they pass the debt on to a collection agency? and if they did this would i need to start the letter process again with the collection agency? Do collection agencys add interest?
Sorry about the long winded post and thanks in advance.
NottinghamRed