My Journey is Complete!!

Sorry DTM
what you wrote makes no sense.
You dont want BK because of the public record... what do you think Forclosure is???
You settled all that debt (nice Job Great results) however you will go into forclosure anyway. Forclosure is the same as Bankruptcy in regards to credit and perception.
you should have gone BK and paid nothing back and have $50,000 in the bank.
By the way you can include the 2nd mtg in the BK when the house is underwater.
Im sorry but to go into forclouse but not BK makes no sense

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And I quote "And I am BROKE but very very happy! As of today (well once I complete the payments anyway), I have no more credit card debt."

And I say without reservation or hesitation...

:D :D :D CONGRATS! :D :D :D


Did you hear that "ping" noise?
It was the chains of debt being broken.

Respectfully in awe!
King "Kash" Jabba Labba

You are my hero! We all hate to be in this situation but wow you did it! And it seems to me you did it with as much grace and class as possible. I admire you and congratulations!!! Best of luck with all the other future endeavors. I cannot wait until my subject line says what yours does!!!! :>

Congratulations on your cc settlements! Any hope for a short sale on your home?

You are truly Dan the MAN. Great story, very happy for you.
Kaylee

Congrats!
I just finished settling my unsecured debt with Wells Fargo as well - $130,000 for $40,000. It's quite a ride!
Have you considered blogging about it? I am blogging about my story and finding it very cathartic.
Good luck with your home. I am currently dealing with a loan mod as well. Seems more stressful than the unsecured debt.
Best,

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Blogging is good, and I do congratulate you on your results. It just goes to show that we can do this ourselves. Clearly you could have done the same WITHOUT paying anybody ANYTHING. This proves it to you and to me. Hopefully, sharing our experiences will save others from having to pay the money you paid for your program. I did mine entirely on my own, with only background information from this forum and other FREE sources. Yes, it was tempting to buy a program. But it clearly was totally unnecessary. These companies want to settle. The economy is still very questionable, and it is "money in the bank" to them.

Dantheman, I am going through 2 mortgage modifications and trying to settle a heloc in addition to dealing with some CC debts. I am the person Chase won't settle with that posts here sometimes. Anyway regarding your mortgage and heloc, I have been at this for 9 mos and finally got both first mortgages modified and still have the outstanding heloc to deal with with a nasty bank PNC. Wells is a little better than PNC for heloc settlements.

I think there is a good chance the following will happen to you,
- You will be offered an unsolicited offer to apply for a HAMP mortgage mod on your primary mortgage.
- The Heloc will send you an unsolicited settlement offer for 30-40%.

HAMP and in house mortgage mods are structured like this, 2% first 5 years, 3,4% next 2 years and 5% thereafter. You might want to make a decision in advance if this is something you would be interested in. In my case with an underwater property, a 2% mortgage for me makes it worth it to stay in my house because that is less than rent, so I took it. You can stay in your place for practically a year without paying before they finally offer this to you so you can save a lot of money. If you are going to try for a mortgage mod they will ask for 3 mos bank statements so if you have a ton of cash in there you will be denied. In my case I bought a sentry fireproof home safe and am storing some cash there and also in a credit union at my work that nobody knows about.

For the heloc it sounds like yours is already charged off. If you get the collection agency that is an arm of wells, it is easier to deal with them than a junk debt buyer. The biggest junk debt buyer is Dick O neill you can read about on this site. They are NASTY and will harass you for 50% no exceptions. Better to take care of the heloc with the bank collection arm if you can. You hear about all these people online who claim to settle helocs for 5% but in my case that has proven to be unrealistic, the bank I have wants 30% minimum, which is a lot given the size of most helocs. There is a 4 year statute of limitations in California so if you can make it through that, you are home free but given the aggressiveness of my bank, no way will they let it go 4 years. You might want to check your state SOA because if you charged off years ago maybe you are already passed the SOA and done. If you do stay in the house with a mortgage mod you need to settle the debt because they still have a lien on the house.

Hi Dan the Man!
Congratulations on your final settlement! You are an inspiration to me and many others on this site! I thank you for your response to me regarding Wells. I am still working with them (actually a company called Viking they "assigned" my acct to ) I was told it is charged off. Anyway, I wanted to offer some of my experience re HAMP. I stopped paying my mortgage in Sept last year. I was able to get a loan mod relatively easily from the lender themselves. I then applied for and was approved for HAMP. Two things important for home loan mods. A cooperative lender willing to work with you, and YOU need to calculate DTI and Needs Benefit Test. Make yor income and debts fit the required parameters upfront. You can get the requirements from the Fed website, i googled making homes affordable program guidelines. Unfortunately for us, my husband and I realized we will never own this home outright, which was the purpose of purchasing it in the first place. We considered a short sale~ frankly a lot of work for an unspecified credit benefit (credit is shot anyway because of credit cards) I thought of just letting it foreclose, but had a pang of guilt since they worked with us so much on two loan mods. I offered a deed in lieu of forclosure and they accepted (no personal liens or judgements) appraiser coming this week. I don't know that this is much better than forclosure, but it is what it is. I considered trying to rent this place out for income since I got the payments so low, but realized any pymts we make on this house to bank are just RENT. So hope some of this was helpful.
I have 3 down and 2 to go, both Wells accts (they are the hardest for me!) I'm a decent negotiator, but they do this everyday and I have only successfully done 3. Like I said, you inspire me!

Fed up with Chase AND One at a time....thanks much for sharing. My first with wf goes to the "decisioner?" next week for mod. If they do the 2 percent, it will give me the freedom to choose to try to sell or stay. Otherwise, if they foreclose, it appears I am not responsible for the first because it is nonjudicial-at least a lawyers opinion is such. The heloc is a different story. Now charged off, it is still with wf and they offered 60 percent to me this week, just after chargeoff. they want a bone to keep it from going wherever it goes next, so I will have to consider that. No, I am out of money...even short to pay the last settlement, but feeling so much better than a year ago. Wanted to just jump then. Made decent money and always short after cc pmts.
Any other suggestions on the HELOC or mod, please let me know. Your brother in settlement, DTM

Just so everyone knows. A Deed in Lieu and a short sale are both treated like a foreclosure on your credit as far as mortgage companies are concerned. So it would be 3 years before you would be able to get another mortgage - even if your credit rebounded into the 700s. FHA is looking to extend this to 4 years but hasn't done it yet and Fannie and Freddie are also considering the move.

I know a lot of agents who specialize in short sales like to tell people that it's better on their credit but it is not so. Used to be, but not anymore. As far as going late and settling the HELOCs - no problem there. All those late payments are treated just as late payments unless the creditor reports settled for less than full balance. Then again it's considered a foreclosure to a mortgage lender.

But for other types of creditors - like if you need to buy a new car - you would be much better off settling it. I would think your credit score would rebound faster and like dantheman said, it's not public record.

I wish you guys all the best luck with these. The only really right thing I did was not buy another house during the boom so I feel lucky that I didn't give in to my spouse's nudging to move to a newer home. Yeah and now that we have gone through this tough financial time, spouse finally sees my wisdom (well okay only on occassion).

Settled the HELOC today and now I sit back and wait for the 1099's...good thing I am insolvent on paper!

Still working on the HAMP for my first. Whatever happens there I will be ok.


Here are the details of my settlements:


Wells-Fargo HELOC $100,000 Settled for $20,000 (over one year)

Wells-Fargo BusinessLine $60,000.00 Settled for $17,550.00 (3 payments)

American Express Optima $12,500.00 Settled for $ 4,488.00 (6 payments)

Bank of America Business $12,500.00 Settled for $ 3,680.00 (3 payments)

Bank of America MBNA $18,000.00 Settled for $ 5,230.00 (3 payments)

Bank of America Personal $12,000.00 Settled for $ 3,360.00 (3 payments)

Chase Bank Personal $20,000.00 Settled for $ 5,617.00 (lump sum)

Commer*e Bank Visa $23,000.00 Settled for $ 9,400.00 (3 payments)

Wells Fargo $500 Paid-in-full/Closed
Capitalone $5000 Paid in full/Closed

Totals $258,000.00 Settled for $69,325.00 (26.87%)

Amex was the first and easiest, with NCO. BOA was next...they lumped them together and were accomodating. Chase was hot and cold but once it went to NCO it was simple. Wells Fargo....ouch that hurt but it was about 30% so I cannot argue. They told me at first that 80% was it! And then there was the last one, Commer*e Bank. They are a smaller regional bank and I thought for sure they would sue for a judgment. Settled 3 days before chargeoff at their #, which was 50% of the original balance...However, the original balance had grown $6000 over 8 months. So the settlement ended up in the low 40's. That was not great. However, the risk was that collections would sue or insist on a payment plan for 5 years. Finally, the HELOC...they offered 30% at close to a year late and I settled at about 20%.

The single most important result is being out of CC Debt. That allows me to start over (yikes) and takes me out of paying $3500/mo largely in non-deductible interest payments. However, there is a huge secondary benefit in what was accomplished here. That is, there is NO public record of any of this! (well, except here where you don't know who I am). In many States, and certainly in mine, every time any court sees your name, it is searchable on the web by anyone.....forever, along with every detail of the case. I have totally avoided this by settling, rather than bk or summons.

Remaining to deal with is my home. Lost value from $625k to $250k in this picnic over the last 3 years. Had $300k equity and now underwater on first and second. So that helps my tax picture but hurts everything else like hell. I probably will quit fighting the foreclosure, as they have not offered a modification in 9 months of trying. If so, the first will have no recourse, but the second (WF) will be after me for $97k.

So, I will stay in touch with all of the new anonymous friends I have here and I wish you all the very best. Thank you for sharing your experiences with me and I hope I have helped you along your journey.

Good Luck to all. DTM

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congrats to you for all of your settlements. We just finished a mortgage modification with bank of america(orig. countrywide) worst 18mnths of my life! But we did it. We actually hired a company to do it for us, but they dropped the ball along the way and i took over and finished it. Now I am hoping to settle my credit card debt. Good luck with your modification!

I forgot to ask: how long did it take for your settlements? Also what is this whole insolvent thing?

Congratulations Dan the man.....!!! I know you were one of the people here who helped me ......I have now settled all of my husband's accounts and will post!!! I think you did a great job and I wish you the best of luck....this has been a tough time for all of us and I am so glad that I found some support here.....I was going to go BK and risk my home while taking care of my elderly parent....YIKES...anyway, I've avoided that....still have HELOC which I can hopefully pay off in the next 4 or so years!
again congratulations and know that you helped another person here!!!

this is debtor in CA....I always screw up my password or something!! LOL

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how do you qualify for insolvency? and if i dont qualify how do they tax the settlement?

Hi, I was wondering how your credit was not affected if you were over a year late on some of the payments? Thank you, i am trying to figure this thing out, and what will work for me. Thanks

UOTE=dantheman;700398]Here are the details of my settlements:
Wells-Fargo HELOC $100,000 Settled for $20,000 (over one year)
Wells-Fargo BusinessLine $60,000.00 Settled for $17,550.00 (3 payments)
American Express Optima $12,500.00 Settled for $ 4,488.00 (6 payments)
Bank of America Business $12,500.00 Settled for $ 3,680.00 (3 payments)
Bank of America MBNA $18,000.00 Settled for $ 5,230.00 (3 payments)
Bank of America Personal $12,000.00 Settled for $ 3,360.00 (3 payments)
Chase Bank Personal $20,000.00 Settled for $ 5,617.00 (lump sum)
Commer*e Bank Visa $23,000.00 Settled for $ 9,400.00 (3 payments)
Wells Fargo $500 Paid-in-full/Closed
Capitalone $5000 Paid in full/Closed
Totals $258,000.00 Settled for $69,325.00 (26.87%)
Amex was the first and easiest, with NCO. BOA was next...they lumped them together and were accomodating. Chase was hot and cold but once it went to NCO it was simple. Wells Fargo....ouch that hurt but it was about 30% so I cannot argue. They told me at first that 80% was it! And then there was the last one, Commer*e Bank. They are a smaller regional bank and I thought for sure they would sue for a judgment. Settled 3 days before chargeoff at their #, which was 50% of the original balance...However, the original balance had grown $6000 over 8 months. So the settlement ended up in the low 40's. That was not great. However, the risk was that collections would sue or insist on a payment plan for 5 years. Finally, the HELOC...they offered 30% at close to a year late and I settled at about 20%.
The single most important result is being out of CC Debt. That allows me to start over (yikes) and takes me out of paying $3500/mo largely in non-deductible interest payments. However, there is a huge secondary benefit in what was accomplished here. That is, there is NO public record of any of this! (well, except here where you don't know who I am). In many States, and certainly in mine, every time any court sees your name, it is searchable on the web by anyone.....forever, along with every detail of the case. I have totally avoided this by settling, rather than bk or summons.
Remaining to deal with is my home. Lost value from $625k to $250k in this picnic over the last 3 years. Had $300k equity and now underwater.
So, I will stay in touch with all of the new anonymous friends I have here and I wish you all the very best. Thank you for sharing your experiences with me and I hope I have helped you along your journey.
Good Luck to all. DTM[/QUOTE]

Credit not affected??? My credit is trashed and I am paying cash for everything. I put necessaries in my wife's name, as the debt and problems were mine. That, however, is part of what is teaching me the lesson to never again get in this situation. dtm

how does it affect you when you are "an authorised user" on the acct? or like in my case all of our credit cards are in my husbands name with me as second or just user?
we expected the credit to go bad but we can get it back...it would take us forever to pay these cards off!!!