negotiating with credit card companies to settle debt

Lots of people have, you generally have to be 90-180 days late and if you are truly insolvent, they will generally settle for 30-50% of the debt you owe. Read some of the blogs - Jen has a very good one about her debt settlement.

Yes, I have, but do your research before you approach them, know what the industry standard is, when I did it about two years ago, the industry standard was between 70 to 80 percent and the ones that I dealt with would not accept anything less than that.

Approach them in a manner that is going to let them open to the negotiating, don't go into it demanding because they don't have to accept anything, they can demand full payment with fees. So be civil when you discuss the settlement terms and conditions with them.

Be ready for them to turn you down, again, bite your tongue, they may come around after a few months and decide that your offer is better than nothing.

Do you research, make a plan that you can afford, and follow up. Get everything in writing, they seem to get amnesia when they decide that they want more money. G

Goodluck with this and please keep us updated on your progress.

It is actually possible to negotiate a pretty good settlement with payments that are broken down into monthly and reasonable payments that you can afford. As erb says, you must have a plan when you call, have a detailed plan ready to go, once you have contacted them, confirm the address and tell them that you will be sending a written proposal, you will need this documentation later to make them follow through with the agreement. Some things that you may want to put in the letter may be:
1. Agreement to a said amount XXXX, with monthly payments of XXXX, paid in # of payments, place monthly payment schedule and final payment information.
2. What results do you want in the end. They agree to remove the negative status and provide the credit reporting agency with updated and improved status of account.
3. Any revision of the agreement will be in writing and approved by both sides of the agreement.
4. Account will be considered paid in full and any remaining balance will be considered satisfied, not to be sold off to another collection agency to start this process all over again.

Goodluck with this, please keep us updated on your progress, It is a long road, went through this with two companies last year, had some pretty satisfactory results. Some of these things I found out the hard way, hope this helps you.

If you have questions you can always come here, those of us that have been through it would be happy to help you out.

Jos - could you share your experience with us. I'm trying to settle my debt myself and am interested in any experiences anyone has had.

I had a few issues, but the one that mostly resembles what you want to do is this one.

I had a capital one card that went into default, capital one then had an attorney office contact me on their behalf, they agreed to settle the account for $1000, it was a $1300 bill, that all originated from a $300 card, that amount earlier stated was with the addition of all the fees that they take on. There was no meeting in the middle on this one, they would only take payments of $250 a month or they were going to take me to court. They were representing the original creditor in this matter so I know they would have. You need to try to handle things before they get out of the hands of the original creditor, this is when it gets crazy. hope this helps you, wish I would have known this site existed then, that happened about a year and a half ago. I got a paid in full from them and filed it away so that they could not come back later for more money.

Yes it is possible, I have settled two cards myself, one for 65% and one for 20%, but usually they won't accept long term payments, they usually want the funds within 90 days. But this can be done, if you have more specifics on your accounts perhaps we can assist more.

Wow, that is a great deal, I did not have that option honestly they would not budge on it for me, maybe it depends on how old the debt is. Mine was a few years old and they were getting pretty upset about it. I was surprised that the original creditor was still involved at that point. But then who knows the lawfirm could have lied to me and been a collection agency for all I know, I am just glad to have it done and over with, got my paid in full letter, It is a pain to have that monkey on your back, I just got so stressed out about it.

Ihave around 30,000 in credit card debt,I'm going through a debt free program,do you think this is a good idea ?

I have several accounts on my credit that are all in good standing. I just have one credit card with $25,000 in debt. I was making payments on it but when my husband was laid off, I couldn't make payments. It's over 90 days due and I want to settle the debt but I am afraid of how it will affect my credit score and what I can do to make sure it is not too negative on my credit. Any advice?

Yes a lot of people have had success with debt settlement with credit cards. I would suggest you first try doing a settlement yourself, and if that does not work then approach a reliable debt settlement company.

I have 50K of credit card debt with minimum payments totalling $1200. If I was able to cut that in half, I might be able to make the payments. Do credit card companies allow you to adjust your minimum's permanently to help pay off credit card debt?

even though they may,(they probably wont though) you would be better off just to stop paying them and save to settle. this is why. If you are only making 1/2 the payment they are compounding all sorts of fees making your balance even higher every month istead of lower getting your futher in debt trouble.

I am in default, 6 months, and owe a balance of $5,800 on a Capital One credit card. $800 of this is interest and penalty fees. Because of financial hardship in the past few months, I am not able to pay this. They want me to defer my car payment and pay $50 until first of the year and then renegotiate. What should I do? Unless there is a big windfall in January, there will be no way to pay then.

I am not behind and have not been late, but do have 24k on an AMEX card. I would love to try to settle with them for 20k. My account is closed. Have you heard of this type of settlement?

Car is more important than a credit card bill. Tell them you don't have it.