Discover - what they won't tell you!

That is very helpful, thanks!

just FYI I settled my 2 disc cards at 25% and 30% when they were 120 days past due

FYI...The website would not recognize my accounts. IS this because they still current?

FYI...The website would not recognize my accounts. IS this because they still current? Have been struggling to keep paying the Discover accounts because I have heard BofA is not as lawsuit happy as DISCOVER.

That website does not work. It does not even recognize existing Discover Card accounts! Is there is special access right to the website that you need to get through Discover Card first?

I've had no problems accessing the Discover site or the www.cardmemberassistance.com link from the main Discover page after logging in.

However, it tells me that I'm not eligible for any programs at this time. And I'm in the 60-90 day range.

So you have to be late to get thru the login system?

I am not surprised by this. Many companies have so many different departments that no one knows what is going on. My company dealt with this when trying to settle their Office Depot account. We mailed in payment, but it was posted to the wrong account, and they were still trying to charge us for it. Credit card companies really just don't know what they are doing sometimes.

Yes, I'm guessing your account must be past due before it gets set up on the cardmemberassistance.com part of their site. It may not apply to everyone, I truly don't know what bounces your account into this part of their collections.

In my case it may be my credit score which tanked after I stopped paying accounts in Dec or Jan. It might be that if they reviewed my credit report they saw I was late on several accounts.

I don't know their criteria - but I wanted to put this out there for those that are severely behind and are getting the run-around from the regular collections dept, or the hardship dept which will just try to talk you into their hardship program. There IS ANOTHER DEPT that will do settlements - try asking for the 'Web dept', that is what the representatives I talked to called it.

For what it's worth, I did go through their application for the hardship program by phone, and then declined to do it in the end because I just couldn't make the payments.

Good luck everyone.

Thanks for this info!
I currently have 2 Discover accounts enrolled in a hardship program. I have read that Discover is quick to sue, and I needed to be able to work on settling with my other creditors. My plan is to settle with Discover when my hardship plan is over. I am curious if there are currently any other offers on my 2 accounts, but the website will not let me in. The message "security violation" comes up when I put in my account/ss info.
Good to have this info though.

i logged in and found a 70% offer sitting there...after they told me in the regular collections department that I don't qualify for a settlement.

As the OP said, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. This may be the single most important information regarding Discover settlements on this entire site...I motion that it gets a sticky and stays on top...forever.

The reason this is so important is that once they have offered a settlement (70%) in my case, it opens the door wide open to go lower. My hope had always been 50% with discover...before charge off...and would have been happy with 60%. I am only 120 days in with a 70% offer right there...looks very promising.

Thank you so much for posting this information...i will try and bump it as much as possible for other discover card holders looking to settle!

Today I will make my first call to try and get through to the "web dept" over the phone and see if 50% will fly...

MM--thanks for that info. How did your call go today? I have a Discover card and I've been told that discover doesn't settle... I don't believe it!

Well, the call went pretty well actually. The # is right on the website. The actual name of the department is the "Virtual Team". My goal is to settle this one towards the end of this month, during the last week...maybe some quota's need hitting. We danced around some possibilities and confirmed the 70% offer is out there. I get the feeling that if I had offered 60% today they would have taken it, just by the way she responded to questions. For example, I would say 'I think I can get my hands on X amount in a week or 2'...she would add, 'you should get those funds in hand and call back with funds available for you proposal'.

We'll see. I recommend logging in frequently and checking those offers!

I've tried logging in using my personal SSN and my business Tax ID and no records are found for me. I'll try calling the number on the website and asking for the "Virtual Team".

Thanks again!

I am current on my discover and i got same message about violation to security or whatever, i guess i need to be behind pymts

After many back and forth discussions with Discover, I am very close to settling with them. The "Virtual Team" person that I spoke with was very nice. She gave me the # for the settlement department, once I contacted them I just explained the 70% offer that was made online through the virtual team, was more money than I had access to...and that I was trying to raise more funds to get that much.

Discover charges off at 210 days instead of 180, and I will be 210 days at the end of this month. The said the lowest they could go now, was 60%...I again told them that I would try to get that much and get back to them.

After about a week, I called back and talked to a very nice lady. She basically told me that since I could not do the 60%, that I should wait a few days for the billing cycle to end and that the status of my acct would go to the charge off dept/status (this is the last month that they can collect). Then she said 'no promises or anything, but I'm sure they would work with you since you are trying to get the funds to settle.'

Well, she was right, they have gone down to 55%...I asked that my account was noted that this figure has been offered and she also gave me the name of the manager that approved it. I am going to make one more call to discover, maybe we can horse trade a little bit more, if not I will take the offer.

The critical part of this thread is that it is important to have a settlement offer from discover so that you have something to negotiate from. Also, I have been consistent with the amount of money that I have access to so they know that I am close...but trying to get to their #...this way they will keep your account in house. I always said that I had 40% to settle with and would try to get more.

DO NOT hire a settlement company, if you do discover will send it to a lawyer that you will not like.

DO NOT hire a lawyer, discover has their own...again you will not like them.

DO NOT talk in %'s, just $ figures...round #'s.

DO NOT be lazy, be proactive and call often.

So far I have settled with Chase and BoA, this will be my third settlement. All that I have left is smaller balance bank card that is 90 days in, and they have already offered 60%...so it looks good there too. Hoping for 40% or so with them in a month or 2. Hopefully this inspires someone here to keep going and get out of debt!

I thought by law credit cards have to charge off delinquent accounts at 180 days, at the latest, and can do it earlier. But not later.

Discover representatives have told me that they will charge me off at the end of August... basically the end of the month in which I hit the 180 day mark. So that is different from what they said to MN.

Also, when I go to the website, they are still overing me a settlement at 70%, despite charging-off at the end of this month. The most recent offer on the phone was 60%...

USAA Amex has told me they charge off at 210 days... I don't know if that's accurate or not, but they said that to me. So I'm not sure if they are required to charge-off at 180 days or not...

ball mich, are you trying to settle with discover...or are you going to let it charge off and try to settle it later. Discover charges off at 210 days. That figure has been out there for quite some time. That is not to say that an account could not be charged off before that, that can happen...it's just that discovers internal policy is 210 days. In fact, once an account hits 210...in will be charged off at the end of that month. I have been told many times that once my account hits 180, the account goes to the charge off department...I think they review the accounts and keep those that they think they can collect from. That is why I think it is important to maintain contact and show good faith effort to aquire funds to settle.

has anyone declined the offers on cardmemberassistance.com? do they keep adding more offers later? of do the offers just change every once in awhile?

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I'm also at 180 days and will charge off by the end of this month. I hired an attorney to settle the account. Haven't heard anything yet. Keep us informed what they'll going to do with you. I wonder what Dis. thinking when they know we cannot afford high settlement. This is my last account to settle anyway...

So you can settle with the company yourself? Or should you go thru a debt settlement company? Has anybody heard of Discover turning it over the Zwicker & Assoc.

As I mentioned earlier, DO NOT hire a settlement company if you want to settle with Discover BEFORE charge off. If your going to let it charge off and settle later, discover will likely have sold it off by then so it may not matter. Before charge off, they will sue you if you hire a settlement company or a lawyer. Zwicker gets the majority of discovers accts, good luck dealing with them for anything less than 70%. Zwicker will do their homework on you and if they think you have assets or a job, they will sue you. Dealing with discover is tricky, research peoples stories on this site using the search function and follow the blueprint it provides. Some lucky people just got a 40% offer mailed to them, that is the exception and you need to be prepared otherwise.

Forget the online offers is detail, the only important thing about them is that they exist, call them and negotiate from that offer. Be consistent and call often!

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Ball Mich...I just settled with them for 52%. My balance was 100% cash advance. I made 10 or 12 payments on it before my financial tsunami hit. 6 payments should be enough for them to be convinced it is not fraud.

How many days are you in?

Is there an offer online, any offer?

What is your charge off date?

From this thread you can probably see how I dealt with Discover...if your interested in specific details let me know, I kept a journal and wrote down anything important during a call, plus many phone #'s and dates etc. Quite a process.

My balance was 100% balance transfer and I made 6 payments before I stopped. The last rep I talked to was throwing around the word fraud pretty liberally. But I don't know what the threshold on proving that is. Normally there is a pretty high hurdle in proving intent to deceive, which is awfully difficult, but it might be different in the case of credit cards.

I just passed the 180 day mark, and I'm told it will charge off at the end of this month.

The offer online is 70%. I have in my notes that somone mentioned 60% about a month ago, although the last rep seemed to indicate it was back at 70%.

My hope right now, is either they swing in with an "end of the month" offer to save it from charge-off, OR that once it is charged off the next department will be more willing to work with me.

I am the only one who has mentioned Zwicker and Assoc. How much do you have to owe or days late before they get the account. Can anyone give an example of the amount they owe? Mine is only 3800.00

I am the only one who has mentioned Zwicker and Assoc. How much do you have to owe or days late before they get the account. Can anyone give an example of the amount they owe? Mine is only 3800.00

If you can swing 50 or 55%, this would be my strategy:
1. Have the funds in your account ready to go.
2. Call them every day until you get a deal, say '...on july xx, so and so(name of rep if you have it, other wise just say Discover) offered me $XXX (exact dollar amount of the 60% offer) to settle this account. I did not have that much but have been contacting more sources to get more cash. I have $XXX (50%) available to me right now, I could settle this today as the funds are in my account.' Then wait for a definite answer. If they say 'I don't think we can do that'. ask if a manager or supervisor could give a more definite answer on your offer. If they say 'there is no way we can do that'. Again ask if a manager could review your account and offer. If no, say thanks and try tomorrow. When you call back go through all the same steps but include that you have access to a little more money (maybe move up your offer 1% every few days or weekly depending on the charge off date) to settle with.

Our situations are nearly identical, once I had the 70% offer online, I could use that to counter without Discover ticked off about settlement talk...they offered first and I always made that point in each call, "Discover made me this offer...but". They will honor the 60% offer imo, you may only get to 55%...but that is good with them. Heck, 60% is not bad with them. Since my acct was cash advance, my goal with discover had always been 60%, I got 52%...before charge off, very happy with that. Hope this helps!

Hey guys....the advice on this thread is SO valuable if you are in default with Discover. The "hardship" dept. told me that Discover didn't do settlements at all. So I called the "Web Dept.", explained my situation with being unemployed and not having any extra money, how I got a loan from my family for settlements. I offered 50%, the person put me on hold for a few minutes, came back and said "Yes." It was done in maybe 10 minutes tops. And this was after only about 70 days late on the account. Amazing. I can't tell you how much money this forum has saved me. Now if someone knows good tactics for dealing with Barclay Card.....

This is the best news I've heard all day!!! And all that you have to do is log on to the online discover website!! I guess, since I wasn't making payments I wasn't logging on and didn't notice the offers. I have one with and offer of 70% and another with an offer of 80%. I'm going to wait and see if I can get lower, but this is really promising. I wasn't sure whether or not to believe that credit cards offer settlements, but this is the proof that I was looking for. I just need to make sure that I don't hold out too long and end up being sued. Thanks so much for this forum, I'm learning how to play the game now.

I am just curious and in the same situation.......did any of you close the account prior to stopping payments or do you just leave your account open and miss payments. I do not have enough money to pay my jacked-up interest credit cards this month and was wondering which approach to follow. I closed the rest of my accounts 10 months ago...with balances on them and have struggling to keep up payments of course. So, which is better...close them myself and negotiate or let them close them for me. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Discover is very quick to close your accounts once you fall behind.

Does anyone know how to gain access to cardmemberassistance website?

you get automatically linked to it after you miss two payments otherwise you are denied access.

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WOW... I just logged into my Discover Card account, clicked on "Program Offers" and found 70% settlement! Well, it gives me an offer to pay 3 payments for x number of dollars, which equals exactly 70% of my total balance!! Meanwhile, I too have been getting the "we don't offer settlements" from everyone I've talked to with discover.

Thank you for keeping this post alive!!!! There is hope with Discover!!!!

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Blackbeasst, 160 days w/ a bal. of 3,900. You're only 1 month behind?

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Yeah, but it beats them saying they're not offering settlement!! At least now it's an option. This entire time I've been talking to the reps and hadn't signed on on-line. It was probably offered months ago... just never signed on.

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Do you have to be behind in your payments before it will let you log in?

I could only log in with one of my account others receiving security message.

I too can only login with one account.

However, I have no Program Offers.

I think the program offer on-line is only available for a limited amount of time. I too have received the security message on-line and unable to see the offers anymore. I'm around 200 days with Discover.What steps have others taken? Any success??

call the number on cardmemberassistance.com - they will help you not the collection dept. After being in default for 101 days and having collection dept degrading me - I called the 1 800 # on the cardmemberassistance.com site and was offered 0.99% for 60 months and $105 a month payments. By balance is about 8K.
God Bless Kim at Discover who helped me today.

I too got a 70% offer after 4 months. Still very difficult to even meet that. Will they go lower?

D kept saying no deal, then when I pressed them 60% is lowest they would go, then a senior adviser said no settlement, even though online they were offering 70%. I waited several weeks, then 3 days before charge-off I called them, they counter-offered my 30% over several payments offer with 40% over several payments, and said they would accept a min payment this month, to extend it another month for me to gather the funds. I called back the next day to accept settlement. Just wait it out.