BofA

The bank can hire a third party collector to pursue the account before charging it off. My best guess is this collection agency is hired by BofA to follow up with their collection activities.

Banks are using collection agencies more and earlier to collect on debts that are bad and that are going bad. Often when placed prior to charge off they are called "early outs" and the collection efforts tend to be more customer service friendly.

I called and the CA is ACT-FIA Card Services located in TN. I explained our financial hardship and was unable to pay at this time; then asked what happens going forward...they said it will continue to be delinquent and late charges will continue to be added; then at some future point it will charge off. They pushed hard for a repayment program and wanted our income/mo bills. I did not feel comfortable telling the CSR our info, and explained that we have been through this with other creditors and did not qualify because our bills are higher than our mo. income. I finally just hung up after being switched to another rep who began asking the same questions. Has anyone dealt with this company? Thanks

FIA has been settling at 30% at 120-150 days.

Well I called BofA after getting an email and text message; seems the acct is back with BofA. The rep was very nice, tried to get a payment from me. I asked about the possibility of a settlement, he said they cannot offer one now because I am only 4 mos late; but next month I would qualify; and that the acct would charge off the end of August (7 mos). He also stated it is an AMEX card held by BofA; not sure that makes a difference than just being a std personal cc from BofA. He also said he would put a note of the acct not to call me until June. I hope that is true; not getting numerous calls each day from one creditor would be nice.

As a rule, if you make no payment on a card for 150 days, they tend to be open to settlement. Short of that, some settle but not many.