Starting on My Journey . . .

Hello nutshell....
I think it may be too late, but you can change your contact info to a cell phone....It's good you are already 39 days late......hold out for 120+......
good luck to you....Many of us here have been in the same boat and also because of lost jobs, income etc......please keep us up to date on your progress....
and continue to pay it forward....

thanks -
I only have a cell phone - which they have started calling - i have a special ring tone set for their numbers , as i get them, so i know its them calling.
*DirtyDog :) *

i will keep everyone informed as to my progress.....
trying to stay out of BR (like my brother had to do).

*UPDATE*

45 days late - --

So - i have been getting the standard phone calls - 3-4 a day.

Got one yesterday (Sunday) which I spoke with a very nice lady -
Still offering me to get on a 1 year Payment Plan at 0% and $420 / month.

I told her I dont think i can do 420/month (which i can't) and just trying to stay a float right now.

she sounded very sympathetic -

more calls to come i am sure - ....

Dont get me wrong - i got myself into this mess - i would be more than willing to try to get out - i could probably afford to do $200/250 / Month - but it would have to be at %0
otherwise i will never be able to pay anything off (not at 19% interest with 600$/month in charges...)

*** Update ***
No calls in a while.

Got an email for "Special payment arrangements may be available online that can help you bring your account current-and keep it current-while potentially lowering your monthly payment"
[FONT=Arial][COLOR=#58595b][/COLOR][/FONT]
and some other interesting facts (for us Californians)

*Calls are randomly monitored and recorded to ensure quality service.

Your Citi? / AAdvantage? Card is issued by Citibank (South Dakota), N.A., and is serviced by Citicorp Credit Services, Inc. (USA), also known as Citi Cards.

The purpose of this communication is to collect a debt and all information obtained will be used for that purpose.

Information for Massachusetts Residents:
NOTICE OF IMPORTANT RIGHTS
[FONT=ARIAL][SIZE=1][COLOR=#808080]YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE A WRITTEN OR ORAL REQUEST THAT TELEPHONE CALLS REGARDING YOUR DEBT NOT BE MADE TO YOU AT YOUR PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT. ANY SUCH ORAL REQUEST WILL BE VALID FOR ONLY TEN DAYS UNLESS YOU PROVIDE WRITTEN CONFIRMATION OF THE REQUEST POSTMARKED OR DELIVERED WITHIN SEVEN DAYS OF SUCH REQUEST. YOU MAY TERMINATE THIS REQUEST BY WRITING TO THE CREDITOR.

Information for California Residents:
The state Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act require that, except under unusual circumstances, collectors may not contact you before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. They may not harass you by using threats of violence or arrest or by using obscene language. Collectors may not use false or misleading statements or call you at work if they know or have reason to know that you may not receive personal calls at work. For the most part, collectors may not tell another person, other than your attorney or spouse, about your debt. Collectors may contact another person to confirm your location or enforce a judgment. For more information about debt collection activities, you may contact the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP 1-877-382-4357 or [URL="http://www.ftc.gov"]www.ftc.gov[/URL]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

Thought that was nice :)

Also - here is the funny thing - got one of those *Sign up at 0% for 6 months* offers from citibank in the mail

I almost fell over laughing . . .

i was working with american express today and they offered me payments of $60.00 amonth with no inerest for 6 months and then back to where it is now. i wanted to laugh, so i said how is 360.00 coming off my principle of 5200. going to help? they said that it would give me time to try and improve our employment situation. i told them i didnt see that as a fix. by the end of the call i had them down to 75%. i will call them back in a few days...good luck to you on your journey, i really think this forum is the place to be for advice and encouragement

Greetings cookycris,

[COLOR=black]"Got an email for "Special payment arrangements may be available online that can help you bring your account current-and keep it current-while potentially lowering your monthly payment"[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Arial][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Well at least they know now that you are in distress.[/COLOR]
[FONT=Arial][/FONT]
It will only get more entertaining as time rolls by.
[FONT=Arial][/FONT]
Regards,
King "Kash" Jabba Labba

Nutshell,

along the funny lines, in the last month I have recieved new cards from all 3 of them. Citi and Chase were closed by them and yet they sent me the new cards when mine were set to expire.
Back before I was in trouble I used to get so many balance transfer offers that I said then that Citi could get out of all trouble just by cutting out the money that must cost them to mail all those things.
Kaylee

***Update***
only 3 automated calls so far today - couldnt take any of them due to work meetings.


---
Got one more at 8:23 PM - i answered it they asked is Mike there - i said this is mike , then the line got disconnected.....no return call from them.


For those of you using a Cell phone - i suggest doing what i do , use a special Ring tone on their phone number so you can more easily detect that it is them calling....

***Update***
3 calls so far today (been working in yard so i couldnt answer)
one at 8:30am, 10:47am and 1:12 pm...
its 2:30PM = i figure i got another one coming in about an hour....

Yep, you're on the autodialer for sure.

I really enjoyed your comment "Needless to say - i will be dead before i get this paid off.":D:D:D

That's dead on right.

Go the distance, the reward is great.
Freedom from the plastic masters!

Regards,
King "Kash" Jabba Labba

thanks King:


***Update***
got another call today - again the person was very polited -wondered if there was anything I could to , any kind of payment, asked what my situation was.

I told them the same thing - my wife has lost her job and we are just trying to stay afloat (which is true).

She asked if I had been offered any assistance (which I had from a previous person there - which should be logged in their system).

I told her - the only thing we could possibly do is about 200.00-250.00 a month - but if it wasnt at 0% then it would be pointless since my interest alone is 600+

Their best that they could offer was 420/mo at 0% - enticing - but still cant afford to do that.


She said to expect more calls coming

I thanked her for explaining everything to me .

I am currently 53 days lat

Hi, I wish you well. Not sure what your goal is?? Are you looking to get on a payment plan to pay the entire balance or are you looking to settle, which would be in 6 payments at most? If you want to settle, there is no point to taking those calls. When you get closer to 6 months late, they will talk and it won't much matter that you ignored the calls. If you want the 0% interest, with that kind of balance the $420/mo is probably as good as it will get. Again, which are you after?

Finally, there are different ways to get very cheap phone numbers...magicjack, google, and so on. If you get tired of them calling your cell, just get one of those and call citi to change the number. If they continue to call your cell, just tell them they have the wrong #.

***Update***
64 Days late

I am answering phone calls at least once a week - not answering the rest.

They call - then stop calling once you answer for about 3-4 days - then they call again.

They have been very polite - but nothing new - same ol Payment Assistance which we cant do at this time.

They took all my information - and sympathised with my situation.

I expect i will hear from them in a couple days - ... not sure how to broach the topic of Settlement.

Quote:

Hi Nutshell!
I was just thinking about you yesterday, wondering if you had any updates. I looked at how many days out you are and figured you were in that yucky middle place, bothered by the calls but too soon to talk settlement.
I'm pulling for you!
Wanted to ask--is Citi your only card? Cause for me (I had 4) what worked was that when I was honest and said I had $$ to put towards a monthly payment they of course wanted it but I just kept repeating that the amount I had was one fourth of what my minimums would be on all 4 cards if I tried to pay. so then I said that I saw no way out of that and that I was saving that amount for a settlement with which ever CC took my offer.
If you only have Citi that would be harder.
Kaylee

Thanks Kaylee,

i have another card i use - i need it - i have to use it - cant live with out it - yet.

i am workign on paying off that as well as other bills - slowly but surely

i keep telling citi i have no way to pay them their Payment assistance amount (which is 1% of total amount @ 0%) -

***Update***
Got a call from a different number - they said they were Citi - seemed like they were.

They gave me a 1-866 number to call to talk about debt consolidation - CCG was the group name -
found it kind of interesting that they suggested that.

Hi Nutshell,

That is typical, they just escalate to another department at a certain number of days but the funny thing with mine is they sometimes had 2 or 3 departments calling me. Once I was talking to someone from citi and my call waiting clicked in and I said "wait, you are calling me on the other line" LOL
Once they get to actually pulling your credit report and discussing specifics about it be prepared for them to say 'well you are paying this other one, why not us?'
I did that in the beginning, tried to stategically default and they kept getting upset. What I said was that I was juggling them and it just happened to be your turn to not get paid.
It is good that you only have one to worry about, on the other hand you can't play them against each other but yours will be ok, I feel certain you will do it!
Good luck!
Kaylee

Also for me the debt consolidation was not going to help because no matter how you added it up I was still going to be insolvent. I used that word a lot and they seemed to like it, I think it made them think I had really researched the situation which I had..

Unless you have some equity to tap in a house I don't think consolidation would help because your wife lost her job if I remember correctly so you have a big chunk of lost income, consolidating does not get you out of that hole.
It just extends it...
Kaylee

Wow, some people still have Equity in a house lol? In my area they are nothing but a liability. The people who want out give them back to the bank and the ones who have no mortgage are screwed unless they are willing to give them away.

Yes, LOL!

Upside down on 2 of 3 mortgages! Dead Even on the other.

===Update===

84 Days late

I get calls from them every 5 days -
If I dont answer the phone (like i am in a meeting ....) then they will call every hour or so.

Nothing has changed much from there perspective yet -

I did get a call from Citi 2 weeks ago which was directing me to another 866 number for Debt Consolidation - seemed a bit odd too me - i didnt call that number.

I keep to my story - which is real not made up -

They have been very sympathetic to my situation , not a single person has been rude or harsh - yet.

now that I took there call yesterday - i will get a 3 - 5 day break from phone calls

more to come.

Hang in there, Nutshell and thanks for the update.
I remember that LULL period and it drove me crazy but let it go this weekend and have a great one knowing that the time is getting near for your own settlement.
Kaylee

===UPDATE===
Just had one of my other cards drop my available rate from 3000 to 500 due to
the fact i have paid on this one.....

that one is paid off - and Im not using it - just interesting.

=== UPDATE ===
ok, got another call that i answered yestderday

nothing really new from Citi - just kept telling my story - they are sympathetic - offered a couple of numbers to call for credit help.

i think i am about 90 days late come monday.

what citi card do you have? is a plain citi or from somewhere else? i have a home depot from citi nad all i get is letters no phone calls

Thanks for update Nutshell, I imagine things will start popping in about 2 weeks!
Hang in there.
I am still waiting on B of A offer to be finished but not as stressed as I was!
Kaylee

cooycris: i have a regular citi card - i get calls, letters, emails, text messages.

Thanks Kaylee -

I am currently 90 days + late , last week I started getting phone calls from a new number - i haven't yet accepted any of them ( I was never at a good spot i could talk to them) but I will.

the problem is - i have ZERO money for anything - right now -
I have just adjusted my 401k deposits so I can start trying to collect some cash - right now - i am just barely swimming a float.

I have 3 other charge accounts - which I want to pay off first - (Best Buy (1000) , Advanta (1200), Costco (HSBC) (2000))

Then one other BIGGY currently at ~20k , egads what a mess.

This is what happens when you have a house that you need to spend 4500/month and you only pay 2500 - - - and then the market goes to the toilet - so your 1 million dollar house is now worth 650, you have one income and no pay raises in over 4 years - living in California doesnt help either

im not living in a shack and the kids are healthy - so thats a blessing!

===UPDATE===
getting calls daily - sometimes 20 minutes apart
I changed my Ringtone for their number to be 'blank' - so I dont hear it if I dont want too :)

Got some bad news - i found out that my home loan monthly payment is going to go UP about $450 / month
Like I needed that right now - UGGGG

nothing new from them although they did tell me that at
180 days - it goes into 'Bad Debt' , which they dont want to do
the lowest they could offer is Payment Assistance - which is 0% , no penalties , and 1% of outstanding balance for 1 year -
which equates to $430/month for 1 year which at the end of the year - still leaves me at 39k -
i told them best i could do is 225$/month - they cant do that

so - i will keep getting calls and texts and emails .... i am close to 120days.



so that is just one more thing I get to tell Citi about what is going on.

But, unfortunately they won't help you very much until they ARE bad debt. I never have understood it. That's just how they roll.

====UPDATE====
119 Days Late : 43,296.18 due.

Been getting about 5 to 10 calls daily (sat and sunday too)

Usually start at 8:20-8:30 AM - go until about 8:30 PM

Spoke with the 'Next Level up' guy today - sounded from New York - but living in New Mexico - go figure.

He looked at my file - which has the same ol information

Kept telling my time is running out - before they have to turn this over to some collection agency or litigation.

That I qualify for Hardship relief - which is basically what they have been offering all along (0% interest at 1% of payoff for a year)
That would be 430/month

Then he mentioned Settlement!
Finally - Settlement

he said - his 'screen' shows he can offer 55%
which means I would need to come up with roughly 23K - to be paid off in 3 Months.

(*If I had 23k i could fork out in 3 months - i would have been paying them all along!)

I would be lucky if I could pay 1500.00 in 3 months - to be honest.

he goes - well then it sounds like Settlement wouldnt work for you.


Gave me his number - said to call him after I have thought it all over.

I think i got about another 60 days before it gets written off.

*sigh* - and my house payment just went up 400$ too - great timing yes?

Hi Nutshell,

We've been working lots of overtime so haven't been on the forums but wanted to see how it was going. I am sorry your mortgage is going up. Any chance or refi on that or possible to move to lesser place. I am originally from CA and still have family there so I know what it costs to live. My sis makes 5 times more than me but also pays 10 times more to live, in other words a house of cards that she can't walk away from with kids and all....
On your Citi, since settlement has been brought up I would just keep telling them what you can do and when they say they can't go lower...ask if they will submit it anyway. I did this several times and they did, the answer came back no until finally it came back yes!
Good luck and keep me posted!
Kaylee

Nutshell,

Thinking about you, how about an update?

Kaylee

Hey Keylee - thanks for checking in . . . .

So - i am still getting calls - unfortunately they have either been during a Meeting or while i was driving or - well - just didnt want to talk then.

I have had one of my other Credit Cards reduce my limit due to this one being in the toliet

I have been able to refinance my home - so at least that will be steady - no more rate increases there! thank god - i couldnt afford another one -
But - due to the last one - its another 400$ a month i was not expecting to have to find.

I cant afford to pay out the Settlement - even if they went to 10k - which would be great - just couldnt do it I dont think.

I'm not sure what the heck i am doing - I'll tell ya - i've never been good w/ money - as you can easilty see.

so - if I cant afford to do Settlement - then what other options would I have?

I am half tempted to take their Payment Assistant program. . . . UGGGGGGGGG!

Is there a reason you file a cease and desist letter to stop the calls? Is there a reason you wouldn't want to do this and just do everything through the mail??

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Nutshell.

You are probably like me in not ever wanting to consider bankruptcy but I just hate to see you putting money towards CC if you can't keep it up and they can't take your house...
I really don't know what other options you have other than getting another higher paying job or lesser house.
your situation is alot like my sisters only I think she is about a year behind you so I am following it ...keep me posted.
good luck,
Kaylee

It has arrived!
A Settlement Letter from CITI
OMG - they are willing to settle for 8,780.77
(My current balance is 43,903.85)
Thats at about 20% or so!
I couldnt even ask them for anything more than that - i mean my god dropping 35k!

OMG
so - now i have to call them - i dont know where it goes from here
my Fear is this
They will want to get this cleaned up in 3 months- that isnt going to happen -
hell , if I could have afforded 3k a month before, i would have been paying that!

so this may just be a moot point - but I will find out.

of course this means that 35k gets reported to IRS and somehow - that needs to get worked out next year on my taxes -but what a relief it would be to get this resolved.

Nutshell, this is great!!!

I would grab it, you will not do better I am sure and I have heard the good settlements are nearing an end.
Unfortunately, unless something has changed, it will be a 3 month thing. I would do almost anything to pay it, I don't think you will regret it.
Please let me know how it turns out!

Kaylee

I am trying to Grab it :)

The only way I could possibly do this is to try to Defer some of my House payments (2 months worth I think would be sufficient)

I have till the 26th of this month to let them know.

Hi Nutshell,

The funny thing is that I almost said that to you in the prior post----that maybe you should get behind on mortgage or even utilities---but I felt that is not good to try to tell people what to do but now that you mention it I have to say that that is what I would do. I tried to think of every option like vehicle title loans, behind on household bills, etc...selling on Ebay and in the end I did get behind on bills but I just noticed this month that my bank account is now growing again. It is amazing to not have that big thing hanging over my head and I am already getting credit card offers....not going to take them but I do like that my credit will not be as ruined this way as bankruptcy.
I tried to play it all the way thru in my head, meaning if I did not take the settlement how would it play out and for me that was really bad....
I don't look forward to those 1099's but I think I will still come out insolvent, either way I now will be back in the black enough to plan a trip soon.
Take care and I am pulling for you, sorry to be so long!
Kaylee

All

It is done :)

I have set up my Settlement starting on November 26th (Happy Thanksgiving eh?)

So I have settled for 20% (8790.00) out of a 43,000.00 payment

3 Payments starting on Nov 26, ~2900 per payment

This means I will have a 35k 1099 coming next year - i am not looking forward to that either - but guess I will have to deal with that then.

Its going to be rough - i gotta come up with 3k a month -
fortunately a couple things have happened over the last few weeks

1. I refinanced my House - from that I will get 2200 from an Escrow account ( already got it)
2. I got a 1500.00 company referral - which i should get about 1000.00 of it on Dec 3rd - so that will help
3. December is a 3 Paycheck month for me (3k per check) so that will help

that leaves 1 3k i need to somehow get - either deliquent a house payment or other bills - (will probably pick the house_)

Come february - this will all be behind me - for a little while at least

Thanks everyone for your support

Especially you Kaylee

Congrats Nutshell. I'm hoping to get a similar settlement for my Citibank. It is $27K, just now went late on it. It doesn't sound like you had too much phone discussions with them before you got the settlement offer. Any tips you can pass on?

Nutshell,

this is the best news!! Not only did you get the settlement but you did better than most of us cause the best was usually 25% so you really rocked it!

I know it will be tough to get that last few thousand but I also know you are going to feel such relief to have that monkey off your back and the black in the checkbook will come back before you know it!

Congrats to you on job well done and I wish you and your family the best.

Kaylee

So glad to hear you go it done!!! I love following the success stories. We are approaching 120 days now and the negotiating is in full force. Each phone call I get nervous and also excited that we are getting closer to getting this all behind us. Hopefully by end of year we'll have everything set.

Awesome job! I hope to get numbers like yours around April or so.

I was working with American express today and they offered me payments of $60.00 a month with no interest for 6 months and then back to where it is now.I actually wanted to laugh, so i said how is 360.00 coming off my principle of 5200,going to help!!!
==============
Rosie
==============
Best Interest Rates

all - thanks for the comments.....

All i did was try to answer their calls at least once a week -
I honestly told them everything that had gone on (wife lost job , etc)
They were always friendly and sounded honestly concerned.

They offered me a payment plan for 1 year (0% interest , 1% of the balance - which would have been about 450$) - I appreciated that offer - but couldnt make that -
even if I could - after 1 year of that - I would only be down to 39k - and I would be back to where i am now.

I was suprised when I got the settlement offer -
they did not do a settlement of 70%, 40%, 35%, ... - just straight to a 20% offer.

Now - Up to 5 months ago - i had had PERFECT payments - never was late - never missed one. always paid more than was asked - but the interest was killing me - so i never saw it deplete....

Here is the other thing - I do have one other Credit Card (CHASE) - which I have been paying on - and living on.

so - here is what they have been doing - they have been Cutting my Credit Limit - with out any notification.

They have done it twice now - once in October - once in November (15th)

Super imbarrassing when you are at a checkout line thinking you have 2000.00 left on your CC and you try to check out with $100.00 of stuff from Target and they get a 'Credit Denied'

I think to myself - Why the heck am I paying these guys on time for if they are just going to jerk me around?

UG!

Two down , one to go -
.....