What's Going On With Chase?

My Chase account had charged off, and the collection agencies didn't get anywhere with me. So it went back in-house, and my settlement co. negotiated a 20% settlement on an account that was around $10,000, after around 10 months. But, there's no rhyme or reason, no set rules; no what, when or why they offer what they do. I've gotten great settlement offers from creditors that have sued others, and I've been sued by creditors that offered great settlements to others. I wish I knew how to figure it out.

Why? Your credit has been affected anyways. Wait for it to charge-off; it'll most likely transfer to a third party collections where you'll be able to settle at 50% or less.

SusieQ hit it right on the dot. There is no rhyme or reason. Play the process out - time does wonders.

Wow, thanks for the great advice. I'm doing this on my own and I just get a little nervous about being sued. If I can wait 10 mos I'll have 50% lump sum for my Chase & Amex. I haven't stopped my Amex payments....yet...the only ones I'm still paying on-time but I'm not sure that is a good plan. I probably should just go ahead and bite the bullet - all or none...right?

When you say that CA's "didn't get anywhere with you" did you just ignore them or did you try to reach agreements and put up with their BS until they no longer had the account?

Don't forget also it's a haggling process. If they offer at 60%, counter at 20%, and so forth. It essentially turns into a game between you and the creditor/collection individual. The higher the settlement on their end, the sweeter the commission.

Thanks for the advice!! I need that reminder to not accept what they offer and get them to go lower.

When I say the collectors didn't get anywhere, it could be for different reasons. Early on, I filed a complaint with the BBB on one collector and shortly after that the account moved on. Usually, I will talk to them one or two times, but there is no reason to talk to them daily as my situation will not change that quickly, so I just ignore their calls when they have my answer, and continue to call just for harassment. If they are making offers either my phone or by mail, I fax everything to my settlement co. If I feel they have gone out of their way to be rude, by name calling or other offensive suggestions or behavior, that's it. I won't talk to them again. (Caller ID comes in handy for those.) The nice ones, I will (and by golly, there are some nice ones). I always talk to them at least once, to tell them I am in a program, and to give them the address and phone number of the company that has my power of attorney to negotiate my accounts. It seems that certain collectors only have the account for a short time, and the account will either move on to another collector or arrive back in-house with the original one. I was plagued with constant phone calls early on, for the first 2 or 3 months, but that has died back considerably. Occasionally a new collector will pop up and the process begins again. But by now I have settled 5 of 9 accounts, so I am hoping these last ones will go smoothly through my settlement co. But do this: Make a record of everything. Make notations of every phone call, who it was from, what was discussed, etc. You never know when you might need that information.

Also, regarding another comment above, no credit card company will do a settlement if you are current on your account, because they feel if you are current, you can pay. I never had an Amex card, so you may want to type in "American Express" in the search box above and see what kind of links come up that you can read about what others have experienced with them.