Settlement Newbie Question

We were convinced we were going to file bankruptcy before we studied and decided that debt settlement might be a better option for us. We have access to about $13,000 in cash currently (owe $43,000 total).
Anyway, my question is: we used one of our cards (we have 10 total!) for monthly bills as we had been doing for a long time until January 1st we stopped using everything cold turkey. We are totally current on everything. I read somewhere that a card may not settle with you if you have used the card recently. Should we keep paying for awhile longer? If so how much longer?? 90 days? 6 months? I'm scared to quit paying--but I know I will have to to keep my mortgage current.
My husband found out that from now on he will no longer receive bonus income and that comprised $35,000 of our annual income so very soon we will be unable to make all of the monthly bill which is why we are here

hey -- and welcome to the world of settlements --

I actually had 92,000 in credit card debt on my own as of last year at this time. I just updated a spreadsheet which tracked all my settlements and card balances over 2011 and I settled 51,000 last year for 14,500. average was around 28 to 30 percent. my husband also has debt but not like mine. I now owe 41,000 and still have 4 to 5 cards to go. I started with 14. So you may think you were bad but I guess I was worse. I also had a very large mortgage payment. 5100 monthly. my taxes were 1600 monthly of that. yes, I live in new york.

We stopped paying the mortgage and the credit cards at the same time. The mortgage is a whole diff story, but worked out ok --- I can tell you I feel better about having less debt myself. This has been a tough year. I've had to sell almost everything. My dad passed away a couple years ago and I had to sell jewelry he had given me (gold at an all time high as well as silver) -- but. I am moving towards being debt free.

I also stopped paying my cards in the beginning in stages. Eventually I stopped paying all. I did live off some cards, but eventually when they run your credit they will see you are delinquent and lower your limits. I can't tell you its easy, its not by any chance, but I have a house to live in and food and that's all that matters to me.

The first set of calls have stopped since I settled, eventually they all will.

This forum is amazing -- search the cards you have and you will get valuable info -- feel free to private message anytime and good luck with your new future

I haven't heard of any such rule which states that credit card company won't settle the debts with you if you have used the card recently. In order to settle a debt with your credit card company, you will have to be delinquent in your payments. This will make it easier for you to negotiate with your creditors.

As far as your mortgage is concerned, you can apply for a loan modification if you're facing problems in paying it off. It will not only help you in getting a repayment plan but will also help you in saving your property from an imminent foreclosure.

do you read posts salvion?i'm guessing not as the OP only stated that they heard a cc might not settle if the card is used recently.now that doesn't mean the card isn't current as recently can mean one month ago and they missed that payment.i will agree with chriss on the fact that maintaining one card out of ten while trying to settle will be very difficult.you see you must be behind by 90 days at least before a cc will talk settlement.then it will be a 75-80% of the balance at the time.you must be behind by 120 days before a reasonable offer is made.if the OP is worried about their credit they should know that as chriss stated their credit will take a hit either with settlement,or BK.again know your credit will take a hit,and it won't be easy.just know that.

Right, I'm just wondering if I need to keep on paying on the cards that I have used within the past 90 days. It's not like I went out an bought a Rolex or anything! We were just charging regular bills and stuff but I don't want it to interfere with my settlement later if I stop paying them after having used a couple of my cards for household expenses and Christmas stuff and then suddenly quit paying them. I have quit using everything as of Jan 1st, when I made the choice to do debt settlement.

The only reason I could see continuing to pay a few cards is to stagger your settlements. Perhaps pay a few of yours and let your husbands go delinquent or vice versa.

Thats what I had to do with mine. I have an 18k BOA card which was used for essentials up to the time I stopped paying, it i only at 120 days late and I hope to be able to settle between 150-180 days.

We have settled 3 of my wifes 6 cards and are still paying one of the 6 for a few reasons, 1-the interest is only 3.99 percent, 2- the other is even though they dropped her credit limit on the card, there is still around 1500 avail on the card and finally we wont have the money to settle this card at this time.

Good luck