Partial Settlements
What is a Partial Settlement?
If you have recently re-mortgaged and released equity, received a windfall, redundancy payment, or have inherited or been gifted a lump sum, you may be able to use this to try and settle some of your debts.
A partial settlement is a repayment which is less than the total amount of debt owing. Sometimes, depending on circumstances – such as how long it will take to pay your debt off and the amount of your current repayment – your creditors may be prepared to write off a chunk of your balance if you can pay them a lump sum.
This is something that you can arrange with your creditors directly and free of charge, however, we do appreciate that the prospect of contacting your creditors may be daunting for you.
We can negotiate with your creditors on your behalf to see if they will accept a partial settlement of your debt. We will also make the payments to them on your behalf and will take a portion of what we save you (compared with the full balance) as our fee.
Please note that if you are subject to a formal debt solution such as bankruptcy or an IVA, you will need to notify the Official Receiver or Insolvency Practitioner of any windfall you receive or which becomes due to you during your arrangement.
Advantages of partial settlement:
During the time that you are on the plan we will ask you not to take out any further credit. ‘Further credit’ includes the continued use of revolving credit facilities such as credit cards, catalogues or store cards. If you do, your creditors are within their rights to refuse a reduced repayment offer and will probably request full contractual payments (i.e. the original amount/rate of payment that you agreed to when you signed the agreement) towards the debt.
Partial Settlement Frequently Asked Questions
We charge a one-off fee for negotiating with your creditors to settle your debts. The fee is calculated as 25% of the saving that we negotiate for you. By using this method it ensures that you only pay us if we manage to agree reduced settlements for you and save you money.
Because we only charge you a % of the saving, this cannot be calculated until we have received settlement figures from all of your creditors and have agreed with you which ones to pay. This means that we cannot agree the specific cost to you at the beginning of the process, so you need to bear this in mind when deciding whether to proceed with the service.
Below are some illustrations of settlements with their associated fees:
| Total non-priority debt amount: | £8,000 |
| Number of creditors | 6 |
| Lump Sum available | £6,000 |
| Total value of agreed settlements: | £5,000 |
| Total saving: | £3,000 |
| Settlement fee: | £750.00 |
| Total Payable by you | £5,750 |
In this example, it was possible to settle all of the debts.
| Total non-priority debt amount: | £6,000 |
| Number of creditors | 3 |
| Lump Sum available | £6,000 |
| Total value of agreed settlements: | £6,000 |
| Total saving: | £0.00 |
| Settlement fee: | £0.00 |
| Total Payable by you | £6,000 |
In this example, it was not possible to negotiate any saving
| Total non-priority debt amount: | £5,500 |
| Number of creditors | 3 |
| Lump Sum available | £2,000 |
| Creditor 1 Balance: | £820.00 |
| Creditor 1 Settlement: | £500.00 |
| Creditor 2 Balance: | £1,550 |
| Creditor 2 Settlement: | £1,200 |
| Creditor 3 Balance: | £3,000 |
| Creditor 3 Settlement: | £3,000 |
| Saving (for those that are possible to settle): | £670.00 |
| Settlement fee: | £167.50 |
| Total Payable by you | £1,867.50 |
In this example, it was only possible to settle Creditor 1 and Creditor 2
By settling your debt, your creditors will need to write off a portion of your debt (the difference between your balance and the partial settlement that we agree). This will show on your credit file, usually alongside a marker that says ‘partial settlement’, so lenders will be able to see that you have not paid the debt in full. This on its own may not prevent you from getting credit, but some lenders may have additional checks in place where this flag is identified.
If the account has already defaulted, settling it will not remove the default. This will stay on your credit file for 6 years from the date that the default was issued.
Once the debt has been settled by mutual agreement with the creditors, they should not pursue you for any remaining sums. The remainder of the debt will usually be written off.
Yes – you can do this on your own and free of charge. You are perfectly entitled to approach your creditors directly to negotiate partial settlement figures. We do appreciate, however, that this can be a daunting prospect which is why we offer this service.
No – they don’t, but there are many reasons why a creditor may consider a lump sum in settlement of a debt. For example, if you’ve fallen behind with your payments, or if you’re making reduced payments and it will take a long time to pay off the debt, the creditors may prefer to have a lump sum now rather than relying on a low return for a very long time.
If your creditors are not prepared to accept a reduced settlement, we can talk you through your options. If you have the money available after settling other debts you may want to pay the debt in full or, alternatively, you may wish to continue paying a monthly instalment directly to the firm. If you can’t get the reduction you need to settle all of your debts and you won’t be able to meet the repayments moving forwards, you may be able to consider a single payment IVA.