$70k in CC debt and $180k on 2nd. What to do????

Whatever you do, avoid debt settlement companies....do it yourself and save your cash! Do your research and save yourself a ton.

I would be concerned on having a mortgage, a second mortgage and one large balance on a cc with the same bank.... seems to me, they could refuse to settle the cc for less than owed, since they pretty much "own" your house until it is paid off... chase does have a "hardship" program for cc's that would reduce your interest and payments...
just an fyi.....
depending on what lender has your car notes, and how long you have been paying on those, you might be able to get a "modification" on the auto loans.. i know nissan does that, and they do not check your credit report, they only look at your credit with nissan.. i got my truck payment reduced with them from $403 down to $160. they also reduced the interest rate. i didnt want to do it, cause i only had 9-10 payments left, but i had no choice, i needed to free up as much money going out as i could. but hey, i only had them modify the loan for 19 payments. i figured at the 403 per month payment for the number of months til paid off against the new payment x 19, and that is how i figured they had reduced the interest rate, as over 19 months i am paying about 200 or more less in interest than i would have paid if i had not modified it..
i had never missed a auto loan payment in 4 years, and i was current when i called and asked for the modification. having it done did not cost any extra fees or anything..

Call Chase Proactive Service team at: 1-888-456-0935 (direct number)

I just negotiated settlments ranging from 21-30% on 6 accounts (all were 60-120 days late). They are very polite, professional, and will work with you if you are behind and cannot pay.

Don't mess around the the customer service reps or anyone else at Chase, just go direct to these folks, it's their full time job to work something out with you.

You should definitely consider settling these accounts. Potentially you could be saving a ton. One of the members advised to avoid debt settlement companies. I would not agree to that, simply because, unless you have extraordinary negotiation skills and aware of every single aspect of debt settlement process, I would not recommend to attempt to do it on your own. After all you probably don't attempt to change break pads on your car to save a few bucks. I had witnessed chase go down as low as 22 cents on the dollar. Sure, you could settle it all by yourself, but chances are that you won't be able reduce the debt by more than 30%. I wouldn't argue that some debt settlement companies charge excessive fees, but at the end of the day, you still saving more than you would've, if attempted to do it yourself.
You can PM me, I can show you some hard evidence of accounts settled with chase.

I don't know how it effects you because you have your first second and other debt with Chase but we were able to settle 2 chase credit cards in January of this year each at 22% of what we owed. The experience of the previous poster saying you need special skills to settle yourself was absolutely not correct with us. I'm thankful I didn't pay anyone to do what I could do myself.

Good luck.

How many days past due were you??

Hi: I saw General Lee's post above about modifying his car loan. Can you tell me how you went about doing that? I have paid on time on my note for over a year now and due to job hour cuts, I am struggling to pay. Do you think I would qualify? Thanks to all

debtinthedistance, How did you go about dealing with chase? I spoke with them and they arent willing to settle. Do I need to mail in a settlement offer?
Thanks

for me it was easy, cause i had been paying every month for 4 + years without missing or being late on payments. my loan is with nissan motor acceptance corp, and they require that you have had the loan a certain number of years (i think it was 2 yrs with them).
it all depends on your loan company. it will not hurt to call them and ask about it.. they can't hold it against you for inquiring. and they can not start repossession until you have missed 2 payments...

just call the finance company and explain that you are under a hardship and explain your situation and let them know you want to keep the vehicle and need help... you may be able to do a payment extension or two (not consecutive though) over a 12 month period. i would recommend doing the extension(s) first, before you ask for modification... use up what ever number of extensions you can according to their policy...nissan does it and most other auto finance companies do too, and they allow 2 extensions during 12 months, and 6 extensions over the life of the loan... i held off as long as i could, as being so close to getting it paid off, i didnt want to do it, but we were at our ropes end...
let us know how you make out on that..

You do not need extraordinary negotiating skills to do the settlements yourself. As a matter of fact, there are some cc companies that will not deal with debt companies at all. If they start gettiing contacted by them, it seems to escalate legal action.

My advise is to settle it yourself. There are even people who have kept their homes and negotiated their 2nd mortgages as well. I remember being so scared when I first started this. But I read up on everything here and bought some ebook from a lady who had done settlements. It was very helpful and made me feel a little more confident in being able to do this.

Chase has a program called Bill Liquidation for their credit cards. If you can still afford to pay the interest is only 2 -3 percent.