citi turning account over to attorney

How far behind are you? I find it hard to believe that they would sell off/charge off an account this early in the month.

last payment made on the 2 accounts was in january 2011...

Citibank does not "sell" their paper. They assign it to collection agencies and law firms for collections.

thanks soaplady-- that is what i have been reading here by others- they all say citi does not sell their debt , yet that is what the rep at settlement dept told me.. i also inquired about a lower settlement rate, and she said no, they will not accept anything lower...
i think i am going to call back and talk to someone with more authority
that can hold the account in place for a few weeks....

you know, unless you have the money in your hand, it is a waste of time talking to them . They will not negotiate in the future.

They will probably send your account to a CA.

You might want to just try letting it go to collections.. then telling the woman that she can either settle the debt by accepting what you are offering her.. or you will file bankruptcy and she can get nothing.
I just did that to an apartment collection that has screwed my ability to rent an apartment, and I told the CA that they could accept my offer or I was going to pay a bankruptcy attorney that amount and the CA would get nothing.
It is amazing how quickly they jumped through the hoops I laid out for them. Now my attorney says that the CA is in violation of the fair credit reporting act, and there is money in suing the CA for slander of credit.
Good luck and don't let them push you around!

Citibank is probably not going to negotiate lower than the 50% they are quoting you. Not because they haven't accepted less than this in the past (they have), but once they quote you a settlement, they don't have the authority to change it.

But, if you're patient and let the account go to collections you're going to have a much better chance at getting less than 50%. And, at that time you'll be in a better position to negotiate since you'll have money.

Sounds as if the account will charge off at the end of this month, at which time it will go to a collection agency or attorney. I do not believe the account will be sold - we don't see Citibank accounts getting sold too often. As a matter of fact, I'd have to check our records, but I believe Citibank holds on to their accounts for years.

Good luck!

the worst part of this is, i have 2 accounts in my name that i have gotten 50% offers on,plus my hubby's larger one. there is no way i can settle all 3 of them at 50%... i got something worked out on my larger one the other day at 50%, i have until the 22 to get something worked out on my smaller one, then at least til the end of the month or further to work something out on hubby's.. but like i said, there is absolutely no way i can pay 50% on all 3.. my 2 is do-able the way they are working with me on them, but with hubby's balance being a good bit more than my bigger one, i know we will not be able to do that one... we still have others to deal with too, but these are the 3 biggest balances we have....
i don t know what else to do, other than see if we can pay the past due amount on hubby's account, and get some sort of hardship payments set up for long term to pay it down enough to where we can settle later on, after everything else is done and we have had time to accrue more money in savings...