Terms & Conditions of Business

By making the important decision to use Settle My Debt you are now on the right path towards regaining control of your financial situation. We make sure that we are completely transparent in all our dealings with you, so make sure you read our Terms of Business, these explain our obligations to you and yours to us.

1. Appointment and Terms

1.1 You appoint Us and We agree to act on your behalf, as debt advisors and debt adjusters and to provide the Services included in the Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan.

1.2 This Agreement will start when You confirm your acceptance of these Terms of Business either by returning the completed Client Authority Form or Letter of Acceptance.

1.3 This Agreement will continue for the Term, unless ended earlier by You as set out in sections 1.4 and 7 or by Us set out in section 8.


2. What We will do

2.1 Based upon information provided by You to Us, We will review your income and outgoings and issue to You a draft Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan in respect of those types of debt which do not fall within the exclusions set out in section 5.2 below. This will indicate a Monthly Payment which We believe You can afford. It will also include an estimate of the total Fees payable by You to Us for the Services which We provide under this Agreement and an estimate of how long it will take You to repay your Creditors.

2.2 Once the Agreement starts We will notify your Creditors of our involvement and will attempt to agree with them revised payment terms on your behalf. We will in particular attempt to persuade your Creditors, where appropriate, to accept reduced monthly repayments from You, not to charge interest and to either suspend or withdraw any recovery, or similar, proceedings, which they may already have taken against You or may have threatened to bring against You. We will prepare and issue a Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan, normally within 28 days. This may vary from the earlier draft depending on the accuracy of the information You originally provided to Us and our discussions with your Creditors.

2.4 If your circumstances change and You are unable to meet the payments set out in the Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan, We shall attempt to re-negotiate with your Creditors and arrange with You a revised Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan.

2.5 We shall provide to You a periodic statement listing your Creditors, the status of any negotiations with them, the Monthly Repayments made to them and the Fees which We have charged You.

3. What You will pay

3.1 You will pay Us your first two monthly payments (or £200 whichever is the greater) as Fees towards the administration cost on setting up your new account.

3.2 If you are purely a DMP client, you will be charged 20% or £20 per month whichever is the greater.

3.3 On all settlements we will charge you 20% of your outstanding debt if our Debt Settlement negotiations result in saving you this amount or more. If we are unable to settle your debts for a reduced amount, there is no charge and the funds in your Client Account will be returned.

3.4 If your monthly payments fall below £100 we are no longer in a position to save enough money for you each month, yet we are keeping our creditors from chasing you, we will charge a monthly fee of £20.

3.5 We are required by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to carry out a yearly financial review of your circumstance.The charge for this is £40.00

4. How We handle your money

4.1 All payments that We receive from You will be paid directly into our Client Account which will be maintained in your name. The only payments which We will take out of our Client Account are, in order of priority (a) payment of our Fees including any arrears; (b) payment of the Monthly Repayments to your Creditors in accordance with the Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan.

4.2 We will distribute the Monthly Repayments amongst your Creditors in accordance with the DSP or DMP normally within five working days of receipt of the Monthly Payment from You in Cleared Funds. If there is a delay in any payment which is not beyond our control, We shall take the appropriate action to put You in the position You would have been in if the payment had been made within five working days in Cleared Funds and shall make good any additional interest which has accrued and any default charges that have been applied to the account as a result of the delay.

5. What We won't do

5.1 We cannot lend You money or offer You any credit facilities.

5.2 We will not usually provide the Services in relation to secured credit (such as certain hire purchase arrangements, secured loans and mortgages), rent (including rent arrears), utility bill payments (including arrears), council tax payments (including arrears) and other similar debts.

5.3 We are not solicitors and cannot give You any legal advice.

5.4 We will not arrange for anybody to attend any court hearing on your behalf unless We expressly agree with You to do so, and if so We will charge an additional fee for such service as agreed with You in advance of the court hearing.

5.5 Whilst We will attempt to agree revised payment terms with your Creditors in accordance with section 2, We cannot stop your Creditors from continuing to charge You interest and other charges, or from continuing any current, or bringing any future, recovery proceedings against You if they want to do this.

6. What You will do

6.1 You must provide Us with full, accurate information on the form We provide to You of your income, outgoings, Creditors and dependants. You must also provide Us with details of any outstanding judgments against You or any actual or threatened court proceedings.

6.2 You must make the agreed Monthly Payments to Us in accordance with the Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan.

6.3 You must allow Us to negotiate on your behalf with your Creditors.

6.4 You must send Us originals or copies of all correspondence You receive from Your Creditors so that We can deal with them on your behalf. Your correspondence will be scanned and stored by Us as an electronic image and the original paperwork destroyed. If originals are provided We can only return them to You if You request this prior to posting.

6.5 During the Term You must not make any payments directly to your Creditors unless You have notified Us in advance that You propose to do so and We have agreed that such payment can be made.

6.6 You must tell Us if your circumstances change so that You are or may become unable to maintain the level of Monthly Payments or if there has been an improvement in your circumstances so that You are able to increase your level of Monthly Payments. We will require two weeks' notice from You to make any amendments to any Standing Order arrangements

6.7 During the Term You must incur no further debts, whether on credit or otherwise, other than those relating to your normal living expenses.

7. How You may end this Agreement

7.1 Should You choose, before 12 months has lapsed to leave the contract, all monies saved in your Client Account will be returned to You, minus one months notice payment. If We succeed in negotiating a reduction in any of your debts, We will be entitled to our Fee of 20% of your outstanding debt up to a maximum of the money of the money we have saved You. After 12 months, if We have settled a debt on your behalf and You wish to leave, there is no charge. You will need to give Us 60 days written notification, this will enable Settle My Debt to complete any outstanding negotiations with creditors, settling our debts at the best rate.

7.2 You may be entitled to a refund if we have demonstrably failed to carry out the services as promised in the contract or without reasonable care and skill.

7.3 You will be given the opportunity to withdraw from the contract if, when you are informed of the total cost of the service, you decide the service is unsuitable.

7.4 You the customer, in the event that you agree to instruct Settle My Debt to act for you over the telephone and make a payment without seeing the contract, you are entitled to a seven day cooling off period from the first payment.

8. How We may end this Agreement

8.1 We may end this Agreement at any time by giving You two weeks’ prior written notice if You fail to make two successive Monthly Payments, You are otherwise in serious breach of this Agreement or have persistently committed a series of minor breaches, You become bankrupt, file a bankruptcy petition, make an arrangement with your Creditors generally. In the event of cancellation under this clause we reserve the right to retain the Initial Fee and Monthly Fees paid to date.

9. Effect of ending this Agreement

9.1 When this Agreement ends, (a)our duties and obligations under this Agreement will come to an end; (b)your liability to your Creditors will continue to the extent that any amounts You owe to your Creditors remain outstanding over and above the repayments made to them under the Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan; and (c)you may within 30 days of the end of this Agreement request Us to send You copies of all paperwork received from You or your Creditors that has been retained by Us as a scanned image.

10. Personal information

10.1 We collect and use your personal information in accordance with our Data Protection Policy (available on request).

10.2 We may also contact You to offer You products and services that We think may be of interest to You, including services offered by other companies. We may share your personal information with these third parties ad they may contact You directly to offer You products and services. If You would like to opt out of this service, You must write to Us informing Us of your decision.

10.3 Please note that We may record and monitor your calls to Us for training and monitoring purposes in order for Us to improve our service.

11. Other terms

11.1 All Fees are exclusive of any applicable value added tax (VAT) or other sales tax. Although the provision of our Services is currently VAT exempt, this position could change in the future. If it does change We will notify You and amend your Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan accordingly.

11.2 We may transfer our rights and obligations under this Agreement by giving You written notice of such transfer.

11.3 All notices sent under this Agreement are valid if sent by post to the address set out in the Agreement or to a valid email address supplied to Us by You and will be deemed received by You 2 days after posting.

11.4 This Agreement sets out the entire agreement and understanding between You and Us and supersedes all prior agreements, understandings or arrangements (whether oral or written) relating to the provision of the Services. This agreement can only be validated if in writing.

11.5 We shall not be deemed in breach of this Agreement or otherwise liable to You if We are prevented or hindered from performing our obligations under this Agreement by reason of any event beyond our reasonable control.

11.6 If any part of these Terms of Business is found to be invalid or unenforceable, that part shall be deemed severed from our Agreement which will otherwise remain in full force and effect.

12. This Agreement is governed by English law

"Agreement" means the agreement between You and Us made mainly on these Terms of Business.

"Client Account" means the account where any monies held on behalf of our clients are kept and which is not used for the purpose of our own business.

"Authority Form" means the form enclosed with these Terms of Business which We ask You to sign to give Us authority to contact your Creditors and to act on your behalf.

"Creditors" means all of the people or businesses You have told Us You owe money to and who are included in your Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan.

"Fees" means any Initial Fees and the Monthly Fee. An estimate of the total Fees payable by You to Us under this Agreement is set out in your draft Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan issued by Us in accordance with section 2.1 below.

"Debt Settlement Plan" also referred to as "DSP" or "Debt Management Plan" also referred to as "DMP" means the plan of Monthly Payments by which You repay your Creditors through Us and pay for our Services, prepared by Us based on the information provided by You, as revised from time to time.

"Initial Fee" means your first Monthly Payment

"Monthly Fee" means the monthly fee payable for our Services.

"Monthly Payment" means the total amount which is paid every month by You to Us throughout the Debt Settlement or Debt Management Plan. This is made up of the Monthly Repayment to be made to your Creditors, our Monthly Fee and any other payments as instructed or agreed with You.

"Monthly Repayment" means the part of the Monthly Payment to be paid by Us on your behalf to your Creditors.

"Services" means the services We agree to provide You with under this Agreement.

"Term" means the period running from the start of this Agreement as explained in section 1.2 until We stop providing You with Services. An estimate of how long the Term will last is set out in your draft Debt Settlement Plan or Debt Management Plan issued by Us in accordance with section 2.1 below.

"Terms of Business" means these terms and conditions of business.

"Us" and "We" means Settle My Debt, whose registered address is 24 Kings Road, Reading, RG1 2HE Company Registration No OC352965, or anyone to whom We transfer our obligations and rights under this Agreement.

"You" means you, the person(s) entering into this Agreement named in the Debt Settlement Plan (DSP) or Debt Management Plan (DMP).