possibly doing settlement need suggestion

I have been working thru my employer with a referral company just recently, and just looking for suggestions, outcomes.

Answer the phone around 90 - 120 days. Tell them the truth and push for 20-30 % settlement and then hope you get that. I started with biggest debt first. I figured if I could not get the biggest one settled first with a low % then BK was my only option.

first...get rid of car...pay the difference
second....you must get on a budget and sock away money for settlements
third....looks like you going to need more income...get another job.
fourth....pray and understand that you might get sued.....who cares!
fifth...you can settle with these creditors for 20-50% of balance
good luck

thanks bill, and guest23, i like your feedback, the car i think is worth 20-22k. should i let them repo this? Or try to sell this to a private party.

You could call up the lender and ask about voluntary repo....you could try to sell it (i would do this first)

The biggest key to being sucessful with debt settlement is having the ability to save money for when the settlement negotiations actually happen. The rest you can learn easily from this web site and other do-it-yourself type sources. How much can you realistically save each month if you were to stop paying all of your credit cards today? Typically speaking debt settlement usually works best for people who can save 50% of their credit card debt within a 12-18 month time frame. After 18 months the risk of being sued by your creditor increases greatly. As for "who cares" about that? Well, YOU might be the one who cares if your wages are garnished or a lien is placed on your home due to a lawsuit.

On a side note why in the world would you get rid of your car? Do you not need it to get around, or to get to work...etc.? Cars depreciate as soon as you drive them off the lot so I would not count on the sale of your car as a money maker or even a way to pay off your remaining 51 payments.

know exactly were you are. total monthly payments and total outstanding balances, make a plan.

stick to your plan no matter how bad it gets and every dollar adds up. If you can liqidate somethings to add to it do it the smallest things like selling your cds or dvds it all adds up dont think that it will bring me 5.00 look at it that if you sold all of this it will all add up to say 100.00 that believe it or not could make the difference between settling or not settling. no treats or rewards till its over and it will work out.

sunnymay...i respectfully disagree.
Not having all the facts I simply mean to seek a lower car payment possibly a 2-4k car. Most people can save $300 dollars a month simply by getting rid of the car payment. Secondly, when I said who cares I meant that you'll have to deal with that later on down the line. As far as liens and garnishment, these companies would need a court order and even then, unless your a deadbeat....most reasonable people will answer the lawsuit by securing a good attorney and work out an acceptable settlement. My advice is to avoid bankruptcy at all costs unless its the very last resort.

i agree bk should be the absolute last resort. Check out my latest deal on a car.

I was driving around a beat up old van (but hey no payment) my husband works at a transmission shop and the trans was out of a 2002 dodge durango beautiful vehicle low miles mint shape the guy took very good care of it. and due to the economy did not want to put 2,000 in a trans for it scince it was a 4th vehicle for him and his wife.

long story short i got a beautiful car for less than 1,000 (this includes the trans parts scince i did not need to pay labor, and am selling my van now for more than what i paid for the nice car.

So there are deals out there right now. There is no reason to have a car payment. Get rid of it, buy something cheap. If you are having debt trouble you shouldnt have a car payment when you can be driving a 1,000 car. It may not be nice, it may not be new, but it will get you to were you are going. suck up the pride and get it done. I will make a profit on my beater and have a beautiful car to drive the deals are out there you must find them!

Regarding the car, I would like to make a suggestion that MIGHT help. You did not say where you are, but if it is possible, I would consider using public transportation. Obviously, in some areas that is not possible, but in many areas, it is an option. Yes, it might be inconvenient and time consuming. However, a car, even if it is just an old clunker, is going to cost money, either in car payments or repairs and maintenance.

i wished i lived in the city for that reason i would definately take full use of the public transportation.

thanks love my things, clovis, and sunnymay for all your suggestions. Living in s. california is not easy getting around, everything is far, im just gonna see if i can sell this vehicle and stay with a cheaper one. Wish everyone the best of luck.
I guess i shouldnt contact my creditors for a few months and let them know. Is this correct? While i was reading on the forum it says to stay in touch with the creditors.

Staying in touch with my creditors has proven to be very helpful for my situation. Others, though, will say to not answer the phone. I guess it just depends on what you are the most comfortable doing -everyone has an opinion on what works best but ultimately you must do what works best for your situation.
Good luck to you!

I am staying in touch with my creditors. So far, I have only encountered a couple of aggressive people, and they were both from Target Bank (Target has been the hardest to deal with for me). In addition to phone calls, I have written letters every month or so. I have explained, in some detail, to all of them, about our situation. We are both on Social Security Disability and I have sent proof of that status to them too. That has really helped with the phone calls. In fact, I get a little nervous when not hearing from them.

My biggest concern is a couple of balance transfers and cash advances we did late last summer. We got into a real jam in August of '08 because I had coronary bypass surgery. Even though we are on SSDI, I am still allowed to earn a few $thousand each year, so I had been doing some engineering work from home for a company a few hundred miles away. I had surgery at about the same time the economy hit them, so after my recovery, that income disappeared completely. It really put us in a bind. In hindsight, I should have stopped paying everyone then, but I did not. Plus, I have been trying help out my elderly parents and I made a trip to their home in November that I probably should not have made. Again, hindsight is usually close to perfect......I was still in a state of denial.

The point of all of this is that I have been as honest as possible about what happened. Maybe not in quite as much detail, but there is no use trying to deny that I paid some of those expenses with a credit card.....they obviously know. It was a case of poor judgment, but at the time, I really did not expect that my "extra" income would just stop so suddenly, but it did, and here I am.

i feel for you. I think for the most part we all have went through a denial phase. You know what i mean. Things will pull through things will eventually get better, i will pay it off with my refund. We all have done it or we probably wouldnt have gotten into debt as bad as most of us have. You always try to find a way to make it work out later until later it is 3 times worse than it origionally was.

Just hang in there, you are dealing with it now. Which is better than next year. or next month. You are taking action and realizing were you went wrong and you know what, in time you will see that comming again and know were you made the mistakes and hopefully you wont get trapped in that situation again

Hi clovis,
If you dont mind me asking what has resulted, any chance did they lower the interest or make a payment plan? I just got a letter the other day from citibank offering me a payment plan since they havnt recd last months payment and is coming due its first 30 days the 12th of the month.

Johnny

All of them have offered some sort of "hardship" alternative. They have ranged from deferment plans, where I would pay a much smaller amount for a few months (which is really meant for people who might be experiencing a temporary situation) to paying off the entire balance over 5 years, with a very low or even a zero interest rate. Unfortunately, none of those plans are workable for me.

Clovis,
Did you negotiate the amount with the creditors, did the lower if after you havent made payments for a few months. I want to be in touch with the creditors just not sure. Just so many people are not making payments and are getting lower debt amount. Not to worried about my credit score as of now, it may take a dunk for a little for now.

they will if you handle it properly. If you stop payment for 3-6 months they usually will send you a offer for less than the full amount If they dont you call them and make a offer and then you will negotiate they may not take it and offer you something higher you may not be able to do that and offer higher than your last offer but lower than thiers its a negotiation

thanks for all your responses. I guess I will let it go for a few months and see what happens. Thanks **love my things**
appreciate it

Is that provanta company really on the legit? I checked their bbb rating and it was at an A. But I just thought it was wierd that love my things testimony on their blog is the same customer testimony on provanta's website.

i made the blog post, and they contacted me afterwards asking if they could post a portion of it on thier site. I didnt see much harm in it. Thier program worked well for me and i know its hard to make a decision these days on settlement companies. with so many scammers out there. Times are so tough on everyone right now, and if my experience helps others, i feel i have made a difference.

But the blog post was made a long time ago and it was just a few weeks ago that they contacted me about it