thoughts on this plan or am i nuts?

just realized i have no plan. that sucks.

guess my post is to ask, what would you do in my situation? give up on trying to save my credit (which is now tanking because they closed my accounts with balances) and just surviving and hope for the best? i hate it because i have a low interest rate since i am current.

the debt mgmt had me at 8% with boa and 0% on my overdraft and 812 a month for 60 mos

debt settlement said 504 for 42 months.

i'm scared never had anyone call me to yell before.

Just my opinion, but I don't think debt settlement is for ANYONE that cannot come up with enough money to settle the debts within a 24 month period. Although BofA has been known to settle at 20%, you would have to have that 20% before they sell your account from what I have heard. I believe this means before the account is 210 days past due. Have you thought about just not paying the BofA? If you end up getting cold feet, they will probably offer you a hardship program for 6 months to a year where your minimum payments will be cut in half of what they normally are. Just something to think about.

well, if i don't pay boa, how long will they go before talking about settlement? i'd rather settle & have it done with. should i just stop paying and instead save money so that i can send them a chunk in like 6 months and do something like that? in 6 months i could have 10% of the 3300.

i meant in 6 months i could have 10% of 33,000 saved. perhaps in less than a yr give them 20-25% of what i owe and be done?! or is that wishful thinking :(

Well I have not personally heard/read of anyone settling at 10% with BofA....really 20% seems to be rock bottom amount. So, you have to keep in mind that it would be 20% of whatever your balance is at when they are ready to settle. They will most likely be willing to settle (from what I have read and heard) around 210 days late or slightly before that; so you are looking at having to save at least $6600 in 7 months time, if you figured your balance at $33,000. It will probably be significantly more by then because of interest, late fees, etc., so you have to take that into consideration. I myself have a BofA account that ironically has almost the same balance ($31,700) and my "debt coach" has advised me to estimate $8000 to settle. My debt coach has also advised me to try to settle with BofA first out of all of my debts because timing is very sensitive with BofA. You will get a MUCH better settlement deal with BofA if you settle with THEM and not let your account be charged off or sold. I do think 20% is realistic with BofA from all that I have read/researched (which is a ton!) and from what my debt coach is telling me. It has been 90 days since I have paid my BofA account....I am hopeful that I will settle with them before April!

Also keep in mind Fae that BofA will probably allow you to make settlements in 3 or 4 installments...which actually gives you a few months beyond 7 months to pay the settlment amount.

okay. i see what you are saying. i can do 8k if i can be allowed to have more than 7 months. i haven't missed a payment and it's not due til mid-late january.

i've been reading a lot too and i keep coming back to settlement. my main concern is boa. by debt coach is this a local to you place?

the one consumer credit place recommended me to look at bankruptcy which is just killing me. i have an app't on 15th.

i'll do what i can to get 8k to pay them off. i don't care if the rest is handed to me as income.

i am about 80% ready to miss my first cc payment and let the chips fall. i am so very nervous.

Fae;
When I mentioned "my debt coach" I was referring to his job title...that is what he does, he is a debt coach at a company called Consumer Recovery Network or CRN. They (CRN) charge a fee up front (it was $3600 for me) and after that they assign a "coach" to you to guide you and hold your hand throughout the process. When I signed up I was soooooo nervous, much like yourself. I was too scared to do it on my own. If I had to do it all over again though, knowing what I know now, I would save the $3600 and do it myself. A lot of people on this forum have used a DIY company called ZIP, which sounds to me like a great program; supposedly the owner of ZIP keeps in touch with all of the purchasers of the program, and I have heard he is very knowledgeable and good. It should come up if you google it. I think the program is under $500 but not sure. Would be worth checking it out.

I too almost went the bankruptcy route, but someone I consider to be wise told me that bankruptcy is the ABSOLUTE LAST card that you play in a financial mess. You can always file bankruptcy no matter what as a last resort...but once you do file, you can't go back. I think you will be okay. Don't dwell on the negative stuff you read. Thousands of people settle on their accounts every day...why not you? Read as much as you can and stay in contact with BofA. Let them know you just can't afford to pay right now. Watch and you will see that 90 days from now they will be offering you a hardship program for a year where the interest rate will drop to almost nothing and the minimum amount due will be only a portion of what it normally is. What a shame that these companies won't offer any of these things to people who pay their bill each month but are struggling. Unfortunately that is the reality. I will be posting regularly my progress, and I am a few months ahead of you in this process, so you will be able to hear of what happens with me and BofA. If you want my email address it is listed here on the right, feel free to ask me any questions. I have learned so much on this site; it is nice to hear all of the different opinions and situations and it also helps me to know I am not alone in this kind of situation.

thank you so much for your feedback. i have been reading til my eyeballs are about to fall out ... i am going to go look up the zip place.

i'll definitely be in contact as i begin this process.

Your business comes first!
Without that, no money comes in to pay BofA. I'm sure they will understand this.
That hardship program sounds like the best. You will still have the options later of settling or BK, or continuing to pay.
If the business is well established, lots of assets, profitable, etc. it's possible creditors could go after a chunk of it in a BK case.

Good luck to you both!

well, i still have not missed any of the payments to BofA. I just got a bill from them for my smaller one with an interest rate of 25.49%.

i am on hold with them to ask why when i haven't even been late. i told the guy i feel like that they are pushing me against a wall when i've never missed a payment.

what gives with them? are they trying to set people up to fail? are they wanting money from me? becase at 25.49% they aren't going to get money.

i am a sole proprietor with my biz. not huge at all. i make WAY under 100k a yr in sales & spend a good portion on supplies etc. it's also suffering from the recession.

fae...are you by chance in the mountains of NC? Your type style is very familiar.

When the new laws governing credit card companies goes into effect in July of 2010, one of the new laws is that although they can raise interest rates whenever they want, IT HAS TO BE ON PURCHASES MADE AFTER THE RAISE. All existing purchases can only be charged what the interest was at the time of the purchase. So, the credit card companies are raising them all NOW, to spite everyone, even on accounts in good standing, on customers that have made their payments faithfully for years. It's greed, pure and simple.

Hmm I haven't seen anything on new laws. That sounds like a decent one though. I wonder how that would apply to intro rates?

The new laws were all over Fox News and CNN a couple of weeks ago. If you use google or yahoo, type in - new credit card laws 2010 - and you will get more links to read than you will have time for. There's a lot of good things that are going to happen, but A) not for a year and a half, because the credit card companies claim they need time to adjust, so, B) they can raise everyone's rates now.

I need to watch my rates then. I have two credit cards with fixed rates around 11-12% which is decent I guess for a credit card. I generally try to keep them paid off anyway but its nice having a lower rate if I happen to let a balance float on them.