I just got reduced by discover to 9% for 6 months and they say afterwards if all is good and you're still having a hard time they can reduce to 3%. discover and capital one are hardballs on settling so if you can get a lower percentage, i say go with it.

mentioning lost overtime at work and got hardship program with discovercard. lowered montly pmt from 127 to 64 dollars but had to sign up for auto withdrawl, which is ok, it will help. i mentioned to the agent that what i really needed was a bailout and she chuckled a little. she also mentioned if this plan isn't working out they might be able to do something else, hope it won't come to that. feels like it will take forever to pay it off..

I have successfully gotten my mortgage company to lower my payments by 50% and I have worked out payment plans with 3 credit card companies and total balances above $50,000. Basically, just explain what happened. For me it was a loss of rental income and overtime at work. Then all my credit cards decided in the bad economy is when it would be a good time to increase interest rates so I could no longer afford the payments. Just call them up, tell them you are seeking legal advice on declaring bankruptcy but your attorney told you to call them and try to work out payment programs first before you declare bankruptcy. You will have to detail all of your income vs. expenses in an interview process. Make sure to have all of that detailed and ready before you call in. It will make it easier. If they decline your request, go online and look for the info on the higher-ups like the VP or the President of the company. Send a letter to them explaining why you feel you shouldn't have been declined (if you are in a genuine hardship ONLY) and they will get back to you. Those people are much more helpful than the regular customer service people.

vee,

I have 30K deb on BOA (17% interest). today I called them and told that I am having hardship paying payments. I told my wife lost job and given expenses and net income. You should qualify if net income is slightly higher than all expenses.

They agreed that tehy will close the account and reduced 5% I have to pay - 586 for 60 months for 31,000

Thats not bad..


I have two cards with Citi .. totaling 21,000 .

I enrolled in PA .. which lower my minimum payments for 12 months with zero percent rate.




yu

key words is hardships and employer cut backs my cards went from 16.9% to 0% citi 7.9% to 0% BOA and 12.9% to 6% chase so keep trying. dont consider bankruptcey if you dont have kids. no kids you keep 7500 of personal property 50000 with kids what a joke thats discrimination aginst people without kids we want them and cant have any its kinda like rubbing it in our face

I have about $25k in debt to Citi. After missing one payment, they started calling. With one phone call, they lowered my rate to 0% for 12mos, my min monthly reduced by half.

GM card (HSBC) not so accomodating. They actually tried to draft the entire balance directly from my bank account without my auth.

I hope you all realize that going into a hardship program CLOSES YOUR ACCOUNT, because I didn't. Yet a few weeks later I pulled my credit report and the credit cards that I was enrolled in hardship programs for, now all say closed. I called the companies and they confirmed that that's part of the deal. So while you're all saying how great it is to have reduced payments, if you think after you've made all your payments you'll have a credit card with a 0 balance and all this credit to use later, you're sorely mistaken.

"if you think after you've made all your payments you'll have a credit card with a 0 balance and all this credit to use later, you're sorely mistaken."

The point is to get out of debt not just to pay it off and start using it again.

try naca.com to gereat your mortgage lowered. great company

naca.com, sorry bout the previous posting. i meant to post, great company.

Does it affect your credit score if you do get approved for a hardship loan by discovery

I think most people are just concerned with getting out from underneath of a huge debt load. Having access to credit once you pay off the debt is a nice to have, but not a need to have... so probably not important if the accounts are closed.

I had a balance of over $13,000 - not only did they settle for a lump sum of $10,000 but they let me keep the card and my credit score didn't drop or did my credit amount on the card drop a $1.

That is why I love Discover Card.

American Express though ... oh my god, what a nightmare. My father was helping me out when I lost my job. He took over the payments. For some damn reason I was signed up for electronic statement online and didn't receive the bill and missed a billing cycle. They kicked me off the hardship program immediately and I am on the phone with them right now trying to get back into it. They are charging me over $150 in finance charges every month and won't budge on anything!

NEVER WILL I GET AN AMEX AGAIN!

Well, I guess that's fine and dandy but I think most people here are unable to afford to settle their creditors at 75%+ regardless if the account remains open or not. I know I cannot.

I just talked to a bank about hardship programs.I have been contemplating bankruptcy, but I don't really want to go this route.

Problem is, my work situation is unstable now.They want to extract $34/month from my checking account. I can't guarantee that the amount will be there because I am struggling to keep up with my mortgage, utilities, taxes, telephone and gas (so I can go to work when called).

If I don't participate in their program,I will be stuck at 28.99% interest, if I go with them , it can be reduced to 7%?

I'm not number savvy at all, but I smell a rat...I explained to this creditor that when I received the card, it wasn't my intent to lose 32 hours a week of work or sit and figure out how to screw them intentionally.

I'm looking for a new full-time job, but enough said, we all know how that is right now.

Any ideas?

I just signed up for a BOA hardship program after missing a payment and being late on the current one. I owe about 10,000 and they lowered my interest rate from 24 to 7.5 percent, and lowered my minimum monthly payment from 370 to 220. They closed the account and signed me up for a five-year program with no increase in interest rate. I can more than the 220 per month and pay off the balance faster without any penalties. They asked about my monthly income and expenses, and when I said I had hardship when my roommate moved out and my rent doubled, I qualified.