Advanta Bank is not willing for debt settlement - what to do?

I got a settlement after nine months, and a good one at 10%. And our amounts are very similar, so I hope you get the same kind of deal. But who knows, they don't seem to follow any kind of set plan. I think the best thing we can ALL do, is eventually pay off all these crappy credit cards, through management, settlement, etc., AND STOP USING THEM ALTOGETHER. Use bank debit cards for business purchases, etc. IF WE DON'T USE THE CARDS, THEY CAN'T GET ANY INTEREST AT ALL. Many experts seem to feel we are on our way back to a cash-based society once again, which hopefully will put some of these greedy credit giants in the crapper where they belong. I was really hoping for Citibank to fall HARD. Sure, they might've been bought out and we still would've owed money to somone, but it would've felt good to see them fail. Let them experience what small businesses all over the country have been for the past few years.

We are not going to pay any of these jacked up interest rate cards. Got a call today from Citibank they offered us 0 percent interest for 6 months then it goes back to the default rate. Think not, need to offer a better deal than that. Next off B/A called their deal 12 months at 6 percent. Pressure is on these guys right now, consumers need to stick together and not pay them until they drop their rates. Pressure is going to come from the Feds. People are starting to get angy...........there is speculation something might pass with some regulations and make them do something which is why they are now raising fees and rates or trying to make deals because they know they might just get forced to do something, as they should. And yes I agree, get rid of the cards.............SusieQ you are totally right. As for Advanta going to wait them out, they are the worse ever.............

Anybody know how to work with Discover Card?

I assume Discover Card is the same as the rest of the ripoff banks. Nasty interest rates and unreasonable payments. Google Credit Card Reform there is some legislation coming and "they" know it.

Going to back to the Advanta discussion. I too have a failed business and outstanding debt on an Advanta business card. My balance is 11,500 and I am now two days behind my payment. Prior to my delinquency I called Advanta and told them I would not be able to make any more future payments especially at the 30%+ interest rate they were charging me. I mean come on monthly payments at $500/mo - paying only interest. That would kill anyone. Regardless, Advanta would not deal with my case until I became delinquent - Ah the irony! I have to apparently wait until the 6th of the month to plead my case yet again. When I called the first time they suggested the National Foundation of credit counseling (NFCC) mentioning a 0% Advanta interest. Has anyone taken Advanta up on this offer?? I thought dealing with them directly in the best method? But from what I am seeing through this thread, is that everyone wants a lower interest rate but is having to wait through months of delinquency, ruined credit and bothersome collection calls. Calling the NFCC doesn't seem to be that bad of an idea. Thoughts?

Britton, they do not make it easy, I was offered the 0% with the NFCC, then after 90 days they offered 9.9% 5 year payoff and the monthly would be 722.00 a month, I almost bit on it, but 1 dollar short, 1 day late, it turns into a nightmare. I am just going to hold out for a settlement, yes your credit score will go down, but if you look at it long term, you get out of the credit card debt, and eventually your debt to ratio is much better once all the cards are setlled, so with less debt your credit score will increase. I thought about BK but that ruins the credit much longer. So yes you have to take a hit on credit, but if the dept is big, like in my case, I think it is worth the trade off. I am still waiting to hear from anybody that has had WELLS FARGO BUSINESSS LINES OF CREDIT CARDS, I am going to deal with them last. I picked Advanta first because I heard they were a challenge, and I am always up for one. The only thing is, you have to be careful, and stay in contact with them, do not avoid them. If you try to avoid, you may noy know when they finally send it to collection, or file a lawsuit, just keep talking to them until you get the right settlement offer, from what I can see here, it does happen, but it takes time. Again, any help with wels fargo cards would be appreciated.


Thanks!

I would be interested in some help with Wells Fargo as well for my Business Card and Line of Credit.

I am about 70 days late right now. This is the first time I have ever been late on any kind of bill. I am astonished by the number of calls I get from Advanta - yesteday I received 9!! I'm a realtor and right now I can't pay anything and I doubt I'll be able to anytime soon. Can anyone tell me what happens as this goes on?? I'm a little scared about what could happen to me. BTW Do not post personal info on the forum - ND

1) All credit cards will report you as 30 days past due as soon as you miss your second payment. If you miss a payment, miss a payment, and then make a payment each month but don't make up the past due - you'll sit reporting 30 days past due to the credit bureau until you catch it up. No company will report you until you miss that second payment. If they reported any earlier, they'd be dealing with the nightmare of removing all those reports they made when they misposted a payment or the payment was only one day late. That is the typical reporting practice of most cards. Most cards will also charge off on the last business day of the month that the account hits 210 days past due. Now the thing to remember with that is that this is the number of days since your last statement printed that you were current, not the number of days since you missed the first payment.

2) Yes, as far as Advanta is concerned if your personal credit doesn't suck, they aren't going to offer you anything. They have in fine print that the account is personally guaranteed by you and so they will not accept you paying your personal bills but not them. They want the best of both worlds - the personal guarantee along with the ridiculous % due to it being a business card. I have seen accounts that never have an offer for an interest rate reduction no matter how far past due they went because the FICO score of the cardholder was too high. They will tell you your only option is the non profit CCCS, but if you have good credit - you may be hesitant to go the CCCS route.

3) Yes, there is a possibility that a better settlement amount will come available to you. The worse your credit gets and the further your account gets, the more options that you will have. However, if your personal credit is in good shape - again it won't matter how far behind you get, they won't offer you a low settlement.

4) Is it better to wait or pay? Well honestly - I can't tell you the right answer for that one. When I left, the highest apr I personally saw on an account was 41%. So if you are sitting at 27% APR wondering how it can get any worse - well it can get worse. If you pay a full minimum payment but don't get yourself completely current and under your limit, they can still increase your APR just for the heck of it. Actually, I hear lots of creditors are doing that to everyone nowadays.

If you cannot afford to make a full minimum payment, there is really no point in paying anything other than it might end up giving you an extra month to avoid charging off. If you pay half of the minimum payment one month, then the other half the next month, those 2 payments together will drop you 30 days in delinquency. Does that make sense? So if you pay half your minimum every other month, you might end up with an extra 3 months to try to figure something out before you end up charging off.

If you know that you just want to settle than you probably shouldn't make a payment for a few months to get the account far enough behind so you can negotiate - but don't tell them that is what you are doing. Individual people review things and even though no one acknowledges it, egos can get involved and like any situation - someone who says "I'm not paying you until you do what I want" is going to trigger resistance from the collector who may be able to help them. It's better to just say you can't pay. The hard thing with Advanta is that they call way beyond the amounts that any other company calls and so many times the collector will be able to talk you into paying something you really can't afford and telling you the calls will stop -- well they will until 2 days after the payment posts. It now dropped into another team that is responsible for it and no matter what the last person told you, that team is not going to not call you - they need to handle that money.

I hope I sort of answered what everyone was asking. I will check in here every now and again to try and help anyone out. The best thing I can ever tell anyone though is to check out Dave Ramsey's books from the library, listen to his radio program, call him and ask him about your situation, watch him on TV. He is really great and I highly recommend him.

Sorry - I didn't realize there was a whole other page of stuff so I will try to go through this page now.

If you accept the 9.9% program and your account goes past due OR over the limit (even current and over the limit) you will lose that 9.9% - so you have to stay current or you lose it. Now keep in mind if you stay current, they are never going to settle with you for anything less than maybe 90% and honestly, probably not even that. So just know that.

Even if you get to the charge off stage, there is no guarantee that your settlement offer will be as low as 10%. Every account will be different and a lot goes into it. It depends on how old the account is, your FICO, your total balance, sometimes the reason you're behind, etc. etc. You could very well get that far behind and still get nothing better than 30-40% offer.

No, it is not true that Advanta never sells their accounts. Everything is on a case by case basis and some accounts will be kept in Advanta's recovery department after they charge off and some may go to different attorneys, etc. Advanta usually keeps the most collectible accounts in their recovery department and will forward the other ones elsewhere - it can go either way.

You are hugely incorrect to say that a charge off team will not legal an account unless the balance is over $50,000. I personally sent an account to legal and it was approved when it was only like 60-90 days past due. The customer had charged up the entire thing and had no intention of paying. The account was brand new and he owned tons of property, etc. An account can be sent to legal at any delinquency if it meets the approval. There are things to keep in mind though, each state has a different matrix that applies to them. In certain states, I think Mass, FL, TX -- not positive though - you pretty much cannot legal anyone, no matter what. Every other state has different requirements. To do a wage or bank garnishment legal, the account typically has to be above $1500 or $2000. To do any type of lien, like on property, the account must be over $5000, sometimes even higher depending on the state. Some states only allow wage legal but not property liens and some allow it all. A bank garnishment can only be done if you've given the company access to your checking account before - like you've done a payment by phone. What happens with those is after approval the company only has one shot and they will try to research to pick the best day - they will wipe out whatever is in your account that day and my understanding is that they can't go back after that. Bank garnishments are rarely done because it is rare that someone who can't pay their bills has money sitting in their account. It would be kind of pointless.

So my point - your accounts are big enough to legal and depending on what they are saying to you, you can usually make out if they are just trying to freak you out or if it is really about to happen. If they say this account is going to be legaled then it's going to happen - it's illegal to say that if it isn't already in process.... however if they say something sort of round about like "well when this account leaves my office, I just don't know what will happen, it could be reviewed for legal action" they are just trying to get you to pay. Listen to the wording and you should be able to decide what is really up.

JenG: I would just tell them exactly what you posted and not pay a thing. The $20 isn't going to do a thing - you'll still get your $39 late fee, your $39 over limit fee every month - plus the interest. Keep the $20 and get gas. Maybe down the road you will be able to afford more on the account and they will work with you. The law says that your minimum payment has to be at least all your fees plus $1 every month. So if you are over limit and late, be aware that you are looking at nearly $100 a month even though the balance is that small.

TeamTRAV: Actually NFCC is a good way to go.... as long as you choose a fully non profit group to sign up with. It does go on your credit and I've been told it is damaging - but so is being delinquent. An NFCC agency will negotiate with every single one of your creditors to try to reduce the apr and payment. Some companies - typically store cards, etc - won't change anything but you still have to pay through NFCC. Many places like Discover, Chase, etc will change your APR to 9.9% or 12% at the most. Advanta will go to 0% I believe - with a credit counseling company you have to close every single one of your credit cards. You can't keep some out - the point is getting completely out of debt - not to mention that even if you keep a secret card open, as soon as that company does their annual review - they'll see it on your credit and close the card anyway. I've heard some people say that credit counseling is just like a ch 13 bky. I'm not sure though. My personal opinion is that a loan officer at the local credit union can usually answer those questions and will be helpful to tell you honestly the impact of each choice.

The thing you want to do yourself is settle. You NEVER want to have a company settle for you. It's pointless. They seriously do nothing for you that you can't do yourself. I see a lot of posts here on this site pumping the settlement companies up but it is pretty obvious that people working for those companies must be typing the posts because I will swear to all of you without a bit of guilt that they DO NOTHING for you.

mehuljoshi: the best leverage you have to reduce your apr is to have our account open. If it is open, they can run it through the retention wizard after you've kept it current for a while and then there is a very small change you can get something lower because they want to retain you as a customer. Once you close the account, the APR is not getting lowered unless you go to a non profit CCCS company or get far enough past due and you happen to be one of the accounts that fits into the matrix criteria and gets the 16.99, 21.99 or 9.9 offers on their accounts. Not every account qualifies or ever gets that offer.

I also did collections for many years for Discover Card. My personal opinion is that they have always been one of the best to work with. They were one of the first card companies to start offering hardship programs themselves. My advice is to tell the rep you speak to that you want to request a hardship or a settlement and see what they say. It was many years ago that I was there but they used to try to get everyone that would commit to payments on a reduced amount with 9.9% APR. It could have changed by now though - back when I was there, Discover also moved your account into a special queue if you were on a plan so you didn't get called all the time - only the specialty group called you and those people knew exactly what was up with your account - that makes it much better when you don't have to explain your program to the rep calling you.

Again, NFCC - IF you pick a FULLY NON-PROFIT agency and ASK them if they have 501(c)3 status - if they don't, don't go with that agency. If you pick one that is a 501(c)3 you are good. You WANT to work with Advanta as far as settlements go, as far as just reducing the interest, you want a 501(c)3 company.

I owe about $3200 and have missed the last 2 payments. They have been calling me repeatedly ever since I was 5 days late. I decided to start sending them am email (through AdvantaHelps) every time they call. I have spoken to their callers on a few occassions but I don't any more. I got tired of repeating myself. I don't like my situation, I never had any intention of being here. It really sucks. I'm afraid of what will happen to me - I'm afraid of being served with a lawsuit. I'm really embarrassed by the entire situation. ANd it pisses me off that the banks are getting "bailed out".

if you read my entire post.....I never said Advanta would never send to legal under $50....i said they wouldn't as long as you call and tell them about your situation.....avoidance and arrogance does not work and most likely will get you to a creditors legal team/outside collection agency.

Former Advanta Collector,

I need some advice from you. Ironically, Advanta Bank called me today. I gentleman by the name of Justin Holmes - Sr. Manager called me. I am over 80 days past due.

He offered me 9.99% interest rate and said he would wave $525 worth of fees. I have about a $8,000 balance. Basically, he would enroll me in a 4 year hardship plan that would allow me to pay $203.85 a month. I would have to initiate the plan by making a one time payment of $378.

What do you think? I don't mind doing a long term plan like this. I realize that I accumulated the debt and that it is my fault. The $203.85 payment a month is honestly a little higher than I can do, but I honestly don't know if the offers will get any better.

Of coarse, a settlement sounds good, but so far they have only offered me $875 off my balance to settle. I am not sure if I feel completely right about a settlement either. But at the end of the day, I guess you have to do what you have to do. I am just worried about not being able to hit that $203.85 per month. I could do closer to $100.

What are your thoughts? By the way, thank you for taking time to give us all advice. I really, really appreciate it.

Happy Holidays!

As I read these post I guess I got a sweet deal. I have been in business for 5 years. I had a business credit card with Advanta for 2 years. Because of the economy, things got slow for me and I fell behind in payments. One day I got a call from someone there. They offer me in Aug. what you may call the forgiveness program. I currently have a balance of $12,000.00. I am paying 280.00 per Month for 5 years at a rate of 9.9%. With no pay off penalty. I guess you can't beat that.

I also must add even though I have been making my payments on time, They still call me all day every day.

I discovered my hubby has an Advanta account. It started with 7.99 apr. Well suddenly the APR jumped to 36.33% !!!! Monthly payment jumped from $300+ to $1000+ a month!!!

He is just 12+ days past due and we just received this threatening letter:

"Please make the minimum payment of $1050.00. If no payment is made within the next 8 days the Collections Enforcement Division will begin taking actions against you and your business as outlined in Section 11 of your cardholder agreement. Chances are, sitting here today, you have no idea what Section 11 states, but trust us, you don't want them going there."

Section 11 is Loss, Theft or Unauthorized Use. ?? These guys sound like thugs. In Section 11 they state: "You understand that your Card is not a credit card and is not protected by laws covering credit cards, such as the Federal Truth in Lending Act."

Anyone have experiences with these creeps or can shed any light?

I had an Advanta business account, and they told me also that they did not have to abide by the Fair Debt Protection Act. They could do whatever they wanted to collect the debt (including constant calls to my elderly parents, who I haven't lived with for over 30 years). After nine months, they sued me, but offered me an alternative 10% settlement, which I took. My account passed through one collector within their organization to another to another. Some were really rude. Some were nice, one in particular was just plain odd. But in reading all the posts I could about them, they don't seem to have any set plan and appear to treat everyone differently with different types of settlements, deals, etc. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to what they offer. I have to admit though, that paragraph above is really strange.

I guess there are 2 ways to look at it. It sounds like a pretty good plan, better than anything they had when I was there but if you can't afford to keep up with the amount they are going to require, it's pointless. If you can pay the amount, or juggle a few things around - maybe downgrade the cable or whatever, to eek out that extra amount - take the deal... if you are going to go behind again in 90 days, there is really no point - all the fees they adjust will quickly add back up and the apr will go back up too.... also the further past due you get, the better your settlement chances are --

however - if you can't pay the minimum amount, are you really ever going to be able to pay a settlement when it is offered? The best offer you may see might still end up being 40% -- and this will be 3 or more months from now when the balance has gone up by probably $1000 just in fees... so that 40% will be of an entirely different amount than the balance is right now....

so if you can get on the program and pay it - you are going to pay more than if you did a settlement... but you never know what settlement amount you might get and when it will be... you might end up saving only $2000 in the end and have to come up with that large amount all at once...

the best thing to do is to realistically look at what you can do... if there is no way you are going to be able to keep up with the payment amount they offered - for example when gas heads back up again or summer comes and you have a giant water bill or whatever -- look at the long term... if you can't commit to it, don't do it -- if you take that program and then fall off of it, they will not likely offer you another program in the future because your track record will show that you don't keep your commitments to the programs... maybe something more feasible for you will be available next month... If you ask, of course the collector will tell you that it's the best it's going to get because they need to collect the account before the month ends - but there could possibly be something else for you in another month or 2 or maybe the same offer will come up again but you'll be in a position to actually commit to it...

You are exactly right! I got a letter from the "Litigation Dept" and I called. I talked to a woman who was trying to get me to sign on for payments that I am quite sure I cannot make. And I told her I didn't want to do that. I have no assets to sell, no money in savings. I talked to my daddy but he is strapped himself. Even if I lucked up and they did a 10% settlement like they did for the other lady on here, I'd have to spread it out a few months.

Thanks for your response. I appreciate your thoughts on this. You made some great points. Do you think they would allow smaller payments or are they always looking to get this paid off in say 5 years?

My 10% settlement had to be made in two payments, three weeks apart. They would not negotiate any further, that was their final offer. I was lucky I had a family member I could borrow from, but that was a one-time deal too, and has to be paid back as soon as I get back on my feet.

When you think about it even 9.9% interest is unacceptable considering what the Feds did today lowering the interest.
When they gave them the bailout they should have capped the rate of interest they could charge and eliminate the fees.
Legislation is coming hopefully it will help. The Advanta man called today we are 100 days past due. Suppose to call him back to listen to the next deal??? We like everyone else have no money, business sucks and our monthly rent on our facility just jumped up in October, last year of our lease to further wipe out whatever we could have paid to Advanta.

Honestly, the best thing as far as Advanta is concerned is always going to be a non profit consumer credit company because you get 0% interest... I have friends still working there as collectors but I really don't know what programs are rolling out right now so I can't tell you for sure if the programs are always going to require big payments like that. I can tell you though that if you fail on a program, you probably will not get offered another one so you are better off waiting until you can do something than taking a program and defaulting off of it.

When it comes down to it, a non profit CCCS type company is always the best thing to do with your Advanta card (other than if you end up getting a good settlement offer that you can afford - but be aware that any amount over $600 that is written off will generate a 1099 and you will have to include that as income on your taxes.) It does show on your credit and it isn't necessarily a good thing to go with CCCS - but at this point in our country and the economy, the entire credit industry is going to change. I estimate a very large percentage of the country is going to end up with not so lovely credit before this is all done and what exactly are companies going to do, loan to no one? I doubt it.

Not to mention, if you have a home - who cares if your credit sucks? The only reason you should even care what your credit looks like is if you want to go out and get more debt -- and anyone who's been through this kind of crap with a credit card should NEVER want to get one EVER again. There is really no need nowadays since you can get a VISA or MC logoed debit card. There are even ways to get a mortgage without using your credit bureau - you have to prove a lot more and do a lot more paperwork - but it can be done.

Me personally, if I had an Advanta card - I'd file bankruptcy or go to CCCS. Not that bankruptcy doesn't impact you - but if you think about it... if you file bankruptcy and start the rebuilding process January 2009 - you would probably be in a mostly decent credit place by January 2012 or 2013.... (not to mention the priceless benefits of relieving the stress off of your back) whereas realistically, if you're sending minimum payments and going in and out of delinquency -- you're going to still have be playing this game well past 2020. A good bankruptcy attorney can pretty much help you save most everything you own even though you're filing.

I guess there are a lot of things to think about :) Debt sucks. I hope that this nightmare within the economy will obliterate the debt society we've created and get people back to saving, thriftiness and only buying what you can actually afford.

Ifyou file bankruptcy. Can you keep your house?And car?
What kind of assets can you keep. Anyone know? Not that the house is an asset owe more on it than it is worth....

Ifyou file bankruptcy. Can you keep your house?And car?
What kind of assets can you keep. Anyone know? Not that the house is an asset owe more on it than it is worth....

no...you cannot lose your house or car......

Question, I have my primary home, a rental property, and a small building that I own, I run my business out of the building. If I were to file BK on all my debt, cedit cards, etc, which I can not pay, because the business has gotten so bad, would they make me sell my property? I understand I could keep my primary home, and my 2 vehicles, wife and I have to get to work. What I am wondering here is, my properties took such a huge hit, how would the BK judge make you sell them if they are not worth what you owe? and what if they do not sell even in a hard sale? I can pay the mrtgages right now, but this is all I can pay, my business has took such a hard hit, I have to ask my guys to take a 10% cut tomorrow which I never thought I would have to do this, but it is the only way to keep the doors open for business. I ended up with alot of debt over the years borrowing to get the business started etc, credit lines and everything else you can imagine, I even put my wift through scholl which set us back as well when she was not working, thank god we got her through schooling or we would be in worse shape. My problem is, with this economy my business has got hit hard, and looks like it is going to get worse in 09. Any suggestions would be appreciated, and this is a California matter if it makes a difference from state to state legally. One more thing, I have about 150k to 180k in debt, in case anybody needs to ask, I am in the same boat with Advanta, Wels Fargo ETC.


Thank you

I am about 70 days past due and they declined a setlmt offer I made of 35$, I owe about 8k. They have threatened that in mid-Jan if I do not make a paymt they will send me to legal. Is this a bluff? thanks

the key is "send you to legal" that pretty much is an idle threat that they would possibly send it to be reviewed. If it was actually approved for legal, they would say - we are legaling this account and unless you pay XXX by 01-21-09, it will be placed. It would be very specific. What you are talking about is just a maybe - not a definite.

I would speak with an attorney. I can't tell you beyond your primary home. You are correct that if you have no equity, there is no incentive to force you to sell, but there still may be laws about what you can keep. With it being business related, there may be allowances for you to keep it. Most attorneys will give you a free consultation if you call around. Write down all your questions and so when you go to your consultation, you find out everything you need to know and don't waste the visit.

I just talked to Advanta again today. I declined my earlier offer from them that I mentioned in a post earlier. I am now over 120 days past due. The gal I talked to said that if I don????????t settle with them before January 26, 2009 (150 days past due) my account will be sent to an outside collections company called Phillips & Cohen. Has anybody on here dealt with them? Am I going to be better off settling in house with Advanta?
Advanta again offered me a 9.99% interest rate to pay down my debt over 4 years. It would be a payment of about $214 on a balance of $8,454. She said they would forgive about $500 of my balance. The funny thing is that Advantahelps.com said they would forgive over $800, but my term would only be 3 years and the payment would be about $260. She also said that she could settle with me. They are finally starting to make big offers, however she says that they would have to pull my credit and get approval. The problem is that my credit is about a 720. She claims however that they could settle for around 4,600-5,000 on my balance of $8,454. My guess is that they will get better the closer I get to my deadline, but maybe not.
Any thoughts from any of you that have dealt with them or any of you former collectors?
Thanks

It's odd they would send the account to an outside collection agency; I didn't think Advanta did that. My account stayed in-house with them for nine months until settled. And Phillips & Cohen are awful. They briefly had another of my accounts, and didn't get anywhere with me. The rep that I talked to asked me how much money my elderly parents had and how much would I get if they died soon, and kept calling me back when I hung up on him. Just awful. I'd rather deal directly with Advanta, if I thought all the reps at P&C were like that jerk. I can't even remember which account it was, but they had it only briefly and it went back in-house. Chase, maybe. But I know it wasn't Advanta.

I am so upset!!! I have been late 1 time, over the limit 3 but paid down. As of 6 months ago they decided my interest rate needed to be 19%. I called, they said there was nothing they could do. Just keep paying on time and call back an a few months. So, I did. Now my interest rate was 22%. Again, nothing they could do and call back again. After 6 months maybe they could do something. So I called this month. It took 3 trys to get a supervisor to tell me sorry, and now my interest rate is 38%. Help!!! Who can I talk to? I need the rate to go down. I am not behind in payments. I will be exceeding my credit limit in a few months due to the new intererst rate!!! Any ideas.
Thanks

The only way they started negotiating with me is when i let it get more than 2 months behind. It could affect your credit, but don't let them screw you either.

I expect to see a lot of the kind of nonsense that frustrated! is experiencing. The new credit card laws don't go into effect until July of 2010, so they are going to be doing all they can to raise people's rates before then. One of the new laws is that they cannot raise rates on current balances. They will be able to raise them, but only affect purchases after that point, not the ones already on the books. So they are going to try to screw as many people as they can before the new laws take affect. Not just Advanta, either, but all of them. There are a lot of good, helpful laws to be enacted, and the credit card companies don't like them one bit. So they are doing what they can now, to make the consumers pay.

Wow am I glad I found this site! After reading all the messages, I see that I am not alone. I have two cards with 30K on each. One of them Chase put me in the hardship program at 0% over 5 years. Advanta raised my interest from 7.9% to 32% and baisicly said to bad so sad, if you don't like it pay it off.

I am now 30 days past due and told them if they lower my rate back where it has been for year's I can afford to pay. But if kept at the currant rate I cat;t afford to make min. payments and partial will not keep them off my back.

So it sounds like the thing to do is just wait them out.

I think I am over 120 days or more past due now with Advanta at about 30k or so. What is really starnge is, when I check with Advanta Helps, it says I am in a forgiveness program, which I do not even know what that is, I have not got a phone call from them in about a month, really strange, no threats no nothing, last I heard they offered me a budget program which was 9.9% over 5 years of payments, but could not afford it or come up with the money for the program, I called the guy back up and told him I just could not get the money to do it, and I didnt thin I could arrange to make that kind of payment. Again, I have not heard from them in a month or so, I find this strange after seeing what others here go through with Advanta. They were calling me off the hook for a while. I emailed them asking what the forgiveness program was, still no response. Maybe somebody forgave me and paid the bill? }:)~

They don't work with DS because they do nothing to actually help you. They take your money and let all of your credit card accounts fall farther behind and wait until they "charge off" before they try and settle the debt. So in the mean time you end up paying taxable income on a debt that you have been making payments to a 3rd party for. Doesn't sound very bright does it.
As far as getting collection calls it doesn't matter what company you owe money to they are going to call you to collect on a debt owed. So pay your bill and people wouldn't call.

debt settlement programs do work, when they are with reputable companies. Most of us have debts that had gone unpaid for months to begin with. We aren't all just lazy and stupid, guest above, some of us have legitimate reasons why our debts haven't been paid. I had a business that had to close unexpectedly (to circumstances beyond my control) and was left with basically nothing. A lot of people are losing their jobs. Some people have been in accidents and disabled. We fully intended to pay the debt back when we made it, but circumstances intervened. Please don't judge when you don't know the situations, we are all just trying to survive, support our families, and keep roofs over our heads.

If they have a specific date they are telling you the account is going to another company and they are telling you the company it will go to, it's legit. That is specific, that isn't an idle threat. That means that someone submitted the account for legal and it has been approved. On that date, the account will be gone. Advanta rolls their accounts at the end of the month, as far as teams/offers/delinquency level, so if your account is approved for legal on the 26th, I HIGHLY doubt you will get a better offer than the ones they have given you as of right now. Your account will not be switching collection teams between Jan 1 to when it goes to the other company. With your personal FICO being that high, they aren't going to believe that you really can't pay. That high FICO says to them that you can pay, you're paying other people - you're just choosing to not pay them. Now that may not be true, I'm just telling you how it's looked at. They see it as preferential treatment - you are choosing who to pay. I don't know anything about that agency/attorney they are going to place the account with so I can't tell you how that would go down if you just let it roll to legal.

I can tell you that there are pros and cons to both. On one hand, once the account charges off it is pretty much as bad as it can get as far as your credit and you could just let the debt sit there as a charge off and refuse to pay any agency that acquires it and hope to wait out the 7 years. Your problem is that an $8000 balance is plenty high enough for that agency to garnish your wages and/or put a lien on any property you own (depending on what state you live in, but most all of them allow this at that balance amount). An agency is a lot more likely to go after you with a lien or garnishment. 3rd party agencies are also typically much more vicious as far as talking to you on the phone - but they are the agencies that have to, by law, follow the fdcpa, so sometimes they will call less often - especially in comparison to Advanta, who is definitely the MOST frequent calling collections department. A 3rd party agency will probably offer you an even better settlement than the original creditor, but they will offer it after they've tacked their fees onto the balance and probably increased the total by at least $1000.

The only thing I can really tell you is that based on what you've stated, I feel extremely confident telling you that they will not pull out some last minute better offer to try to get you to agree to save your account from being sent to that company on like January 20th. What is on the table is as good as it is going to get.

Yes Susie, reputable debt settlement companies can work I suppose - but they are pointless. They do not do anything that an individual cannot accomplish themselves. I would NEVER recommend anyone EVER go with a settlement company.

If you are struggling to get by, why pay a company extra money to settle your bills when you can keep the payments, plus that extra fee, in your own savings account and let it build up (which is all settlement companies do - that and send form letters to the companies that the companies ignore) and then YOU can start trying to do settlements once the accounts get far enough behind and the offers start becoming available.

The only possible benefit of an agency is that they are holding the funds so you are circumventing that temptation of spending what you are supposed to be setting aside to save up for settlement. However, that can also bite you in the arse because that non access to your accruing money has left many hundreds of customers with no accounts settled and no money recouped when dishonest settlement companies have shut down or disappeared after customers have spent 6 months sending them funds.

I think only dishonest companies hold the funds themselves, for the very purpose you mentioned. My funds are being held in an independent bank account that I have complete control of. The thing is, settlements take a lot of time and effort. I had $90,000 in debt, spread out over nine accounts, plus I have overwhelming responsibilities within my family and community. There was no way I could coordinate doing all this on my own. Absolutely I would have settled on my own if I had only 1 or 2 accounts, or a way lesser amount than $90,000. It's just peace of mind, knowing I have turned it over to professionals. I do not feel this type of assistance is pointless at all, it all depends on your situation. Although I have settled one account on my own, my company has settled four others in my first year of the program. To me, it's been well worth the fee to let someone else handle it.

Glad I found this forum. I have several debts that are about 90 days delinquent. I have an account with advanta that is roughly 120 days past due. I owe about 19,000. I finally started talking on the phone to my creditors and must say that Advanta has been the least cooperative. I was warned by their customer service rep that unless I made a payment of at least 450 by Jan. 9th my account would be transferred to legal. By the way, my minimum payment shows up as 2,500. I now think that this was a bluff. But I made that payment because he said it would buy me time to negotiate a settlement. During this phone call he offered a settlement of 12,000 which I countered with 7,500. He said he would submit my offer for review. Well... I talk to a new guy a few days later that has apparently taken over my account and there is no record of my offer. Not only that, he said their settlement offer is 17,500! Did I make a mistake by paying them $450? Will they be more willing to negotiate come Feb 9? Also, could someone recommend the best way to pay creditors including CAs. Over phone, personal check, cashiers check? Thank you

Well today I was contacted by a guy named Matt Couangi from Advanta. He said that if I send in $1,084 by the end of the month that my interest rate will be reduced to 21.99% WOW!!! Just like the guest above I am afraid that without something wrighting it is all smoke and mirrors and any monie sent in will be just absorbed in fees and do no good for my situation. He also wanted to get the monie electronicaly direct from my bank account. I dont like that idea due to being afraid that they would do it more than once and cause further problems. He did say that the conversation was taped and not to wory about him saying something was not true. So I requested a copy of the recording for my records. He said he could not do that, hmmm why not?

I just checked my credit score and it has dropped from a 720 to about a 540. So at this point, I don't really care anymore the impact to my credit score (see above). Any advice on how to handle this upcoming settlement that is due Jan 26?

Where would be a good starting point?

On a side note, anybody had any luck negotiating with AMEX?

The best the offered me today before they send it to collections is 25% off the balance. It sucked. My account is about 120 days past due with them. Thier hardship program is terrible too.

I just checked my credit score and it has dropped from a 720 to about a 540. So at this point, I don't really care anymore the impact to my credit score (see above). Any advice on how to handle this upcoming settlement that is due Jan 26?

Where would be a good starting point?

On a side note, anybody had any luck negotiating with AMEX?

The best the offered me today before they send it to collections is 25% off the balance. It sucked. My account is about 120 days past due with them. Thier hardship program is terrible too.

My account too has been turned over to Phillip Cohen. The last message I got said that they may have to turn it over the Advanta attorneys. They are a collection agency right? Do they sue or does the OC sue? or both? I am really just considering BK. Right now NOTHING is an option.

Phillip & Cohen are a collection agency. My experience with the particular collectors I talked to is that they were nasty jerks. I received a summons from Advanta themselves. But the summons came along with an alternative settlement offer that was very good that I took, then the lawsuit was dismissed.

Well, payment date is here and I am not paying. I wrote back in December about be raised to a 38% interest rate after being late only 1 time in the last 12 months. My rates graduated from 7%, 19%, 22% and now 38%. I kept in touch every few months for the last 6 to see about getting a lower rate. Each time I was told wait a few more. They claim to have sent letters warning about increased rates. They want me to call a Debt Company....Why?? The girl that talked to me said even if I went that route they could still refuse to settle. Ok, incentive there. But, I am not having any other issues with my other cards. Like many, running businesses it was tough last year. The economy did not help. I want to pay but cannot justify this rate for no reason besides..."We feel you warrent this rate."
So, what can I expect....hundreds of phone calls, no working with me, lower credit rating and all for what.
What to do. I have never had this situation before. :?