I've recently reached an agreement with all my creditors for a full and final settlement of my debts, including NatWest who owe me several thousand in PPI. During the complaints process I went through in order to get this agreement, it has transpired that my PPI claim from last year still hasn't been paid out. NatWest said they were going to use the money to pay down my existing debts but I refused to sign the acceptance form because they had previously informed me they would at least pay the interest to me directly. Since my complaint, they have agreed to pay the interest directly to me, but are still saying they will be paying the premiums towards my debts. What I want to know is, if I make the lump sum payment, and my accounts are marked as partially settled (as per my agreement with the bank), can the bank still keep my PPI premiums after that, or do they then have to pay them directly to me? I've put in a complaint, and demanded that, in light of my F&F agreement, they pay the premiums directly to me, otherwise I will pay a reduced settlement amount. However, it's still all slightly up in the air because I haven't made my F&F settlement payments yet, and am a little reluctant to do so until I have sorted out the PPI matter because I don't want to pay the F&F amount and then effectively have my PPI premiums used to pay the bank back more than was agreed. Hopefully that makes sense? What I'd like to know is, does anyone know whether banks can use PPI premiums to further pay down debts after a F&F settlement, or if they have to be returned to me in full once my accounts are closed and marked as partially settled? Thanks

All of them are still with the original creditor except for Capital One for about £800 which is now with Frederickson. They've written back saying they'll accept 50% if I pay within 7 days. Two of the NatWest loans totalling about £27k are being dealt with by Dryden's Fairfax but Dryden's Fairfax and NatWest have both said that the debt hasn't been sold, and is still with NatWest. The two NatWest credit card debts are still being dealt with by NatWest directly. The Tesco credit card debt is still being dealt with by Tesco.

None of them are from before 2007 so I guess that rules out the CCA option anyway. I don't care about my credit file, I'm happy to wait the 6 years it will take for things to drop off. I just want closure with the lump sum I can afford. Can you give me a bit more detail about how they sell debts on? My understanding was (from National Debtline and StepChange) that once you agree a settlement, so long as you get it in writing that they will not pursue the remainder, and you get a 3rd party to make the payment, they can no longer chase you for the debt. Is that not the case? Can't remember my other username - that's part of the reason I can't login as I don't have access to the email account it was linked to and can't remember the correct username. If I manage to remember I'll try to login or share. Thanks

Thanks for the replies. Regarding PPI, I have already done that and that reduced the debts down by a few thousand. Regarding the CCA thing, I'm a little confused. When I was asking for help with my PPI (in another account for which I've been unable to retrieve my password) I was told the CCA thing is no longer an option after a court ruled companies can just put together an assumed agreement based on information they have on file. Obviously if this is incorrect then I'd be keen to read up on this if somebody could point me in the right direction because I know NatWest have lost several of my CCAs and they are my largest creditor. My offer wasn't a case of blindly offering money for the sake of it - I offered somewhere near 40% because a) it's what I can afford and b) it's roughly what I had understood to be considered an acceptable offer from a number of sources. I wanted to do a partial settlement, and have it accepted, so that I could move on with my life without having to worry about it any more. Whilst theoretically I would love to have the remainder of my debts written off, what I don't want to have to do is spend the next couple of years toing and froing and having it hanging over my head because being in this much debt for so long has affected my wellbeing. So I'd rather take an option that may require me to part with some money but that will put the matter to bed so I can wake up each morning knowing I'm not going to have to deal with the doom of having £36k of debts I know I can't afford to pay hanging over me.

Hi there, I hope this is the right place to post. I'm currently trying to negotiate a full and final settlement for my debts. I currently owe £35k to NatWest (2 credit cards and 2 loans), Tesco Bank (credit card) and Capital One (credit card). I had a substantial drop in income around 2010, and spent 3 years making reduced payments, interest frozen, after negotiating an agreement directly myself with the organisations I owed money to. I've been making token payments of £1 for over a year now because I didn't have any money to pay. I've since sold the property I owned, and having paid out taxes and other costs, have £22k left over. I'm hoping to use some of that to live on as I have no fixed income (as I'm back in full-time education), and therefore have made an offer of around £13,500 in total to my creditors (about 38%). My Capital One credit card debt is with Frederickson Capital One told me they didn't want to know - even though Frederickson told me that they couldn't negotiate any settlement without Capital One's agreement. Frederickson then wrote to me to tell me that the minimum they'll accept is 50% off the total debt. Tesco wrote back and told me they'll only accept a minimum of 100%! NatWest credit cards wrote back and told me that I didn't sign the letter, and so they needed me to sign a blank piece of paper before they actioned my letter - which makes me very suspicious - I know NatWest are missing some of my credit agreements as they told me as much when I requested my data file to do a PPI claim. NatWest loans wrote to me and told me it was time to do a review of my monthly income and expenditure, but made absolutely no mention whatsoever of my settlement offer. I tried speaking to StepChange, in the hope that they might help me the first guy I spoke to seemed confident they could help. The second guy I spoke to was really condescending and told me that because I have no income, they can't help me because it would be irresponsible for them to recommend I use a lump sum of money I ought to be living on to pay off debts - instead suggesting I should just spend the rest of my life paying it off. I'm absolutely at my wits end. I just want to get it sorted, ideally with a partial settlement but failing that, I'll just go bankrupt as this has been like a noose around my neck for the last 5 years. So what I'm asking is where to go from here - NatWest are ignoring my offer, or skirting the issue. Frederickson are playing hardball although at least have indicated they might be willing to negotiate, and Tesco are insisting I pay the whole debt in full within 7 days even though they a) know I have no income and b) have previously been happy to accept token payments. Should I write a letter saying 'here's my final offer, if you don't accept I will be filing for bankruptcy' or is there a better way? Thanks