Settled with BoA!

Well...my biggest worry about the remaining cc debt is gone. Bank of America settled with me at 35%. Maybe I could have gotten lower, maybe not, but I'm glad to be done with that one. They were really firm on not settling until now and it came through. After this, it's only Discover and they have begun settlement discussions as opposed to brushing me off as they had originally done.

So far about $95K in cc debt settled for somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35% overall (have to put in all of the numbers in my spreadsheet to see). NOW I have to worry about the next tax season and the 1099C's that will come spilling in. Oh, well...still getting off cheaper than paying everything off. It's frightening to consider how much interest I've actually paid over the years on this debt as it's built up. No more!

Congrats! Hope to settle with them in the next couple weeks, as I'm at about 155 days.

Great job on your settlement. Glad to hear Discover is finally talking settlement. We were able to get them to 50% in the last few days of 2010.

Good luck

Way to go on your journey! How far are you along with Discover? I am at 210 days past due tomorrow and told that the account will charge off at the end of the month. They have said all along that there would be no settlement although I was offered 30% off my total bill a few times. Around 180 days a few reps mentioned a written settlement offer would be coming in the mail around the first of April but nothing yet. Talked with a supervisor that said I was not going to get a settlement offer due to the fact there were purchases made in the last year. All my cards had purchases within the last year and I was able to still get a settlement offer. I told the supervisor that I had purchases on the card for the past 15 years and asked her if I made payments while making purchases and she said that didn't make a difference. Well, I charged 2000.00 in purchases last year and made payments of 1700.00. But with an interest rate of 25% the amounts still increased. I would be happy at this point with a 50-60 reduction in my balance but its not up to me. Seems like the hardest for last, but like you, I will be done after this and will NEVER give Discover another dime in my lifetime. Let me know how you make out and I will do the same. Best of Luck!!!!!

Congrats hadama

When it comes to settlement offers, as long as you have to offer, and you pay within the dates specified on the offer, they must accept the payment.

When I was a collector, we would have to send out these offer letters which were based on the collection score of the debtor. Those with low collection scores would get offers like 50%, or 75% in three pays. This was a lawfirm, so a collection agency is going to have much lower offers than that, especially since they dont have to pay the lawyers 24-35% commission on the collections.
But back to the letters themselves, if we sent out a letter, we had to honor it. Even if it was in error, we had to honor it and eat the difference if they client wouldnt accept it. Typically what we would do is submit a request to settle below guidelines with some story about the debtor having cancer, wife left them, dog got run over, ect, and the client would approve the settlement. That way we could trick the client into taking a payment that only happened because we screwed up and sent out the wrong letter, and they would have no idea it ever happened.

So, if they sent you an offer letter, if you pay within the dates on the letter, then you not only can send the letter and proof of payment to the CBs, if they continue to try to collect, you can sue them for collecting on a debt you already paid. This is at least one violation of the FDCPA, but the judge often counts every single call and additional letter as a violation as well.

I saw someone get fired because they contacted someone who had already paid, the person sent in a certified letter stating they would sue unless they were given $10,000. The lawyers freaked out and paid him.

The last lawsuit I saw when working as a collector involved a client being sued for $75,000, because the collector forgot to write in his logs that he read the debtor the mini Miranda. They had him on recording giving the debtor the MM, but the judge still awarded the debtor $75,000.

CAs are terrified of lawsuits, they lose almost every case. I saw somewhere around 8-10 cases in 9 months, and the CA and lawyers lost every one of them. I once saw a case where an entire department of a CA got a judgment against them. The judge ordered that the client was in violation of the FDCPA and 100% of the particular client files were deemed illegal. It didnt even matter if the people actually owed the debt, they all got off completely scotch free.

So, as you can see, your position is actually pretty positive. Take the next offer, or if the offer letter doesnt state a date, then pay it. They cant take back an offer, its legally binding if they send it to you in writing.