CCA'S and DMP

A question about : CCA'S and DMP

I am hoping someone can help me.

I am currently 4 and a half years into a DMP with step change and I have managed to reduce my debt from Ј 30k to Ј 4,200 and my creditors from 10 to 4. Of these 4 remaining debts, 2 are for HSBC ( now with IDEM ), 1 is for MBNA ( now with Moorcroft ) and 1 is for Halifax ( now with Blair, Oliver and Scott ). All of the agreements are from before 2007 so, after reading some of the advice on here, I was planning on writing to each creditor asking for a copy of the credit agreement in the hope that they won't have it and I can use this as leverage to negotiate full and final settlements of around 50 %.

My question is, do I continue to pay my monthly payments to step change while I wait for a response to the cca requests or should I stop the payments and say the account is in dispute?

Apologies if this has already been covered but I can't see anything that answers my query.

Many thanks in advance.

Best answers:

• Until or unless you are very certain about the standing of the agreements it would be advisable to keep payments going.
  A pending CCA request, or even lack of one, is not a 'dispute' that the FOS and FCA will recognise as one, so if you stop paying on that basis then you will have no comeback against any adverse consequences should an enforceable CCA be produced or not.
• After 4 and a half years, you may well get them to settle for 50% anyway. Have you tried it?
• I would start way lower than 50%
• Thanks for your replies and advice. I haven't offered anything at the moment, i'm not even sure how I go about it. Do I write them a letter with a settlement offer and wait for a reply and do I keep paying the full monthly payments in the meantime? Do I need to advise Step Change about my offers? Sorry for all the questions!
• Yes, yes and no but it wouldnt do any harm
• Hi Downbutnotout
  What sort of a lump sum do you have to play with? I am assuming approx. Ј2K from what you have said? It may indeed be worth going in with a lower offer than this to begin with - especially if the cash is coming from a third party like a friend or relative.
  Stepchange should be able to assist you with making such offers if needs be. In the meantime, you might find our guide useful as it includes some letter templates that can be used:
  https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/...s/Default.aspx
  All the best
  Dennis
  @natdebtline
• have you got your copy of the agreements?