A little help please!

I don???t think sending a letter stating you are going to default, plan on saving the minimums you were paying and settling for 50% of the current amount owed 6 months from now will really get you anywhere with the exception of it might keep them from suing if they are considering it. Essentially that is what you are going to do but telling your creditor that upfront won???t get you any bonuses, it probably won???t stop collection calls and certainly isn???t going to help your credit score. I doubt it will help you during settlement either. I am in favor of waiting 3 months or longer, saving a settlement amount and then attempting settlement as a lump sum settled in full for lesser than owed. Make sure to account for taxes owed to the IRS in your settlement offer.

FYI; I'm NOT a Lawyer and I've successfully taken on these type of predatory Collectors in Small Claims Court and won, as they aren't holding the 'original, signed' Application form for Credit w/ the original Creditors, etc... Matter-of-fact, I can't find anywhere that it says in the Law that they can do what they're doing Legally, either...!!! Google it and see... email me ASAP and I'll send you some Legal doctrine and definitions to help out your Case, and as recent posts indicate, IF they're also messing you over, as in not reporting correctly, etc., you MUST swallow your 'fears' and go before a Judge and make your case w/ the info. that I can share w/ you online... It's all Legal and even ethical, BUT you must be willing to at least temporarily IGNORE certain things that you've been 'pre-programed' by the evil and wicked 'Credit Card Industry' into thinking are the facts, when the EXACT opposite is the TRUTH...! -For example, IF it was me, (B-4 you signed the agreement to make those payments...) I would have gone to Court in person and told the Judge, 'Hey, I never responded to these guys because they are NOT someone that I ever have ever dealt with in business, nor do I have any records of dealing with them, ever, let alone owe them money, etc...?! Now, after agreeing to pay them, it will be harder, but the Law is STILL on your side, as they've violated almost all of the 'Fair Collection/Lending Rules' and you can have them fined literally $thousands$ of dollars for EACH transgression, to the point that they will LOSE money on you and be forced to drop you, and they will hate you, too...!!! Back to the Judge; you STILL have every right to tell him that you've faithfully paid something into this 3rd party 'Creditor's pocket', but that you've since learned in the Law that you have (had a right to) a right to A.) Challenge the fact that you owe them a dime in the first place, they never proved that B-4, i.e; THEY STILL would have to PROVE it in Court before the Judge, LEGALLY, with EVIDENCE of ORIGINAL, SIGNED COPIES of the actual original DEBT INSTRU-MENTS (or, have 'valid, Notarized copies' of same, swearing to and attesting to the EXACT Copy of Original signed Agreement docs, etc...) and how has it come to be that you legally 'owe them' anything as a (3rd) third party to any of those original Agreements, i.e.; 'Contracts', etc... and, B.) They will NOT have any of the Original docs to show the Judge, (violation: a FRUAD before a Judge/Court) or even Legal copies of same, and you can get then get this agreement nullified as a FRAUDULENT Agreement, (when they 'illegally coerced you' into signing their FRAUDULENT Agreement, when they KNEW you didn't legally owe them a penny, they're Lawyers after all and they MUST KNOW the LAW, and they will look VERY basd before a Judge now...!!!) C.) Again, they ILLEGALLY and UNLAWFULLY coerced you into a FRAUDULENT Agreement, via intimidation and threats of further sanctions and Legal harrasssment, etc... (Legally that payment agreement is VOID becasue of how they coerced, intimidated and made fraudulent accusations, based upon ANOTHER parties agreements in which they were NEVER a party to, originally!!!) ALL OF WHICH IS VERY ILLEGAL!!! Now, IF you didn't understand what I just said, now, FORGET the 'original Creditor', they're out of the picture and these predatory Law Firms do NOT represent those Creditors, they're gone, finito, out of sight, not a party anymore, legally speaking!!! The ONLY folks that these predatory Law Firms represent is THEM-SELVES, period...!!! That's another point, read everything over again VERY, VERY carefully and see IF they imply or even try and say that they do 'represent' the original Creditor, etc., becasue they don't, (they can't!) but they want you to think they do... Didn't you ever wonder WHY the original Creditor NEVER EVER sued(s) you personally??? -Think about that for a minuite... It's because they CAN'T without a VALID CONTRACT, and an 'Agreement is NOT a valid Contract!!! So then, IF we never 'agree' to these claims that the (3rd) third party pre-datory Law firms make, (that we ever owed them any money) how can they LEGALLY sue us either...?!?! Problem: Matter-of-fact, we are our own WORST enemy when it comes to those Credit Card Debts, as we will 'testify against ourselves' all of the time, thinking we're being honest and truthful, when LEGALLY the Party that we DID 'default upon' is totally out of the picture at the point that the predatory Collectors come knocking on our doors... Remember the Fifth Amendment?!?! We have the RIGHT to say nothing, to NOT incriminate ourselves, etc., (especially if it's NOT true...?!) and they use our own 'testimony' against us, because we don't know how we're being illegally manipulated, etc...!!! The last bit of info. that you need to know will forever change your mind about Credit Card Debts and the Credit Industry, NOT to mention Banksters, etc... -Did you ever stop and think how is it that Bank of America has 300 to 400 Bank Branches in the Metro-Phoenix area alone, not to mention ALL of the other Major Cities and states that they have Offices in...!?!?! Where does ALL of that money come from to build, operate and staff all of those thousands of facilities nationwide, etc...??? -From collecting Interest and penalties on money they've 'loaned out' that it's even their money, etc... It's money that they 'create' electronically out of thin air, via the 'Federal Reserve Banking rules' of 'Fractional Banking' which in essence allows them to Loan you $5,000 ELECTRONICALLY on a Credit Card, when they only have $500 on deposit in their Bank...!!!! -Get it?! In this example, assuming you 'spend' the whole $5k, you are paying interest on $4,500 that was 'magically created' electronically by key-strokes on a Keyboard...?!?! -It's a 'Ponzi Scheme, through and through, and us Consumer's pay it day in and day out because we are IGNORANT of how they actually 'monetize' our signatures on the Credit Card Agreement Forms, whcih Legally speaking, those agreements are NOT a Contract, etc... -That's why you must email me for more info... They (those original creditors whom you 'first' owed the money to...) FRAUDULENTLY created money out of thin air, WITHOUT informing you what they were doing, 'cause IF you knew this, you would NEVER sign one of those Agreemetns in the first place, cause it's FRAUD, and you have the RIGHT to know BEFORE you sign anything to know all about that 'Credit Transactio' by Law under the 'Fair Credit / Lending Laws' of the USA...!!! email me at jbmattheeussen 'at' yahoo 'dot' com for all of the Legal concepts to look up and learn, you are in the right here and they are ripping you off in many more ways that you think...! Thanks very much for your patience and time in reading this...! -jbm -P.S. Lawyers are very, very 'clever', (along w/ the Banksters...!) they never will admit openly to the illegal and unlawful way in which they entrap Consumers by the hundreds of thousands every year!!! And they earn $300/hour to rip us off, too...?! -Sickening, sickening, sickening... -jbm (Sorry for repeating myself, but it took me awhile to 'see' the truth that they want us to 'miss' because they're taking a legal action against us and we panic, etc...!)

Keep in mind that your credit score WAS 760. It isn't any longer. My point is that you should forget about your credit score for now and concentrate on getting out of debt. Remember that good credit is for those looking to obtain debt, not get out of it..

Jbmatth, I agree with the general premise of your arguments against credit cards, credit card companies, collectors and collection agencies and I also share similar disdain with the aforementioned but to play the devils advocate I would like to add a couple comments.

I agree that a signed contract is a key piece of evidence that most collections agencies are missing and I agree that a defendant does not have to acknowledge a non-existent relationship with some random collection agency that has filed suit but I do not think the fifth amendment really has anything to do with that scenario. My understanding of the fifth amendment is that invoking it protects the defendant from giving criminally incriminating evidence. These are all civil matters unless the testimony would lead to fraud of some type. I think if you carefully think about your response prior to answering you could probably show no relationship with the collection agency. Then it is a matter if they can prove the account is yours and that they have rights to collect on said account. I have seen some posts on here discussing this matter and how some documents other than a signed contract could be used as proof.

It is not 100% accurate to state that the original creditor never sues. I have seen cases about the original creditor filing suit or a collection agency filing suit on behalf of the OC. They have a direct relationship and have access to any and all signed paper work, statements and records. Generally they would have the signed application which I think would be a contract or at a minimum show intent.

One final comment about Ponzi Schemes. Ponzi took money from investors on the notion that they would make a strong rate of return on their money relatively quickly. Instead of investing that money he spent part of it and used the remainder to pay of some of the investors. He was then forced to get more investors to keep this process flowing. This really is not what the credit card companies are doing. They are making a boat load of money off of fees and interest as stated but they make more than enough to pay any investors they might have. I think the real problem credit card companies will have is when too many people start defaulting on the borrowed money because the credit card companies made poor choices in lending practices. It may become similar to the problem we are having with mortgages right now. I don't think any judge would clasify that behavior as a Ponzi Scheme though.