Settle my credit cards and keep my FICO score?

I am new to the forum. I have a few questions, but first here is the situation.

- We are current on everything. We have never missed a payment or had a late payment a day in our lives. We have some nice credit scores as a result, and I'd prefer not to scar them too much if we can help it.

- We have 4 credit cards totaling $19,500 with Chase and Citibank.

- We cannot pay our bills any longer. This appears to be a permanent situation. HOWEVER, if we can settle all our debts with our tax return (that would be about 35% of each of the 4 cards' balances), then we can stop going deeper each month and actually live on what we make.

So my questions are this:

-How likely is it that I can get Chase and Citibank to let me settle and report it in a positive light so we don't get our credit trashed? Any keywords, special negotiating tactics, or techniques to reduce the damage?

-Is it even possible to get Chase and Citibank to entertain a settlement request when we are current on our payments? I plan on mentioning bankruptcy as our alternative, which, if we don't get settlements, we will have to stop paying in the next month, so we will probably arrive at bankruptcy soon enough.

-Should I ask for them to validate those debts? I don't understand what that is exactly, but from what I read it seems that that action is best taken while we are still current on our payments.

-I read something about a "Pay for Delete" letter?? What is that and where do I find it and how effective is it? Is that even something I would like to do in my situation?

-Can I just ask them nicely while I am paid in full to settle or we will have to stop making payments? We did this with our CU credit card and they were easy to work with. Only offered us 75%, but I bet we can do better.

-I also read this:
1.) You'll pay if they agree to sign an no disclosure agreement
2.) They agree and you pay
3.) You dispute the account through the credit reporting agency
4.) The bank doesn't reply to the CRAs' investigation because of the NDA
5.) the CRAs delete the account because they never hear back from the CA and can't verify the information is correct.
How effective is that? Are these all things I have to be delinquent on to even be able to do?

Any help would be fantastic!!

Welcome Flohubbs…
You will have to wait for sometime. This is because our forum expert will come here for short time. They will answer your all questions after coming in this forum.

Aint going to happen.

Nope....mention bankruptcy and they will shut your account down now.
This is only for collection agencies...

Neither will do this.

Credit Unions are harder to settle with because they are usually non profit and member owned.
Neither the banks or a CA if it gets to that point will sign this. You want to settle but you are setting too many conditions. Citiank is very agressive and would rather sue than jump thru these types of hoops.
If you are going to consider settleing, your score is going to drop significantly. You cannot hold onto your good credit score if you are not paying as agreed.

Soaplady is correct on all points.

In order to settle, your accounts have to be delinquent. That alone will affect your credit scores. Citibank is very aggressive and it was hard for me to negotiate with them. They really played hardball.

If you cannot maintain your current payments, you could enter into a debt management plan whereby your interest rates are lowered as well as your payments. That too will affect your credit scores.

I did both. I was in DMP for 2 years, and then had to settle. It took over a year for my credit scores to reach 600, and I'm still working on getting them higher.

If you have stellar credit scores, have you considered a home equity loan to pay off the credit card debt?

By the way, telling a creditor that you want to try to keep your FICO score but you're also willing to file bankruptcy might come off as disingenuous.

soaplady is correct !! you can not have your cake and eat it at the same time..

have you considered asking the creditors about their "hardship" programs ?? some are short term arrangements and some are long term.. but they can reduce you interest, and lower your payment, some will give you 0 interest for a year, or longer.....