Hi, I want to share a success story. I used a lot of information from this forum to settle several credit cards as follows:
Chase: 12/18/09, 35% around 120 days past due (two different accounts)
Citibank: 2/11/10, 40% around 150 days past due
HSBC: 3/10/10, 42% at 180 days past due
Every month HSBC would mail out another offer to settle at reduced percentages. First 70%, then 60%, then 50%, and finally 42%. I could not get them lower than 42% and decided to settle before getting sued since I have real estate in my name and in Indiana judgments attach to real estate.
I also found a book called "Negotiate and Settle your Debts" by Mandy Akridge helpful. It organizes a lot of info also found in these forums in one handy place. The book is 93 pages of large text so is quite short, but has what you need. These forums are great for getting up to date info on which companies are settling for which amounts and specific strategies to use for each.
Anyway, it takes several months to get everything settled, but you can do it yourself for a lot less than the settlement companies can. This stuff really works and I am now debt free!
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