discover -- attorney placement pending

Hi Chrissyhen,

It is always better to settle your debts with the creditors before it goes to an attorney. Once your debt account is turned over to the court, you will receive a summons for it. While answering the summons, you can offer a settlement plan on your own. It will, then, depend upon the court as well as your creditor whether or not your settlement plan will be accepted.

Take care.

Hi chrissyhen,

The best thing for you to do will be to try and settle the debt even before it actually goes over to the attorney. Court proceedings for me is always a complicated thing to be handled. So, if possible it is always better to try and solve the matter before it reaches court.

Thanks,

Marvel Becks

My amex acct went to an attorney, and within a week we struck a deal. He gave an indirect indication that he had a month before he had to file suite. You may be in a better position to negotiate at this point, and if thats all you have, theres not much else you can do.

Good Luck


Oh...
I recall you saying you had to pay Cap 1, did they get you on a hardship program or and reduced payments?

Okay, here's the deal. It used to be that when Discover sent these overnight letters threatening attorney placement, they were always 100% true and did indeed place the accounts with attorneys.

More recently, however, we have noticed that this is not necessarily the case, and only about 40% of these accounts end up with attorneys. So, what do you do now? After going through our client files, I've noticed a few different scenarios.

First, let me point out that in most cases Discover will not settle for less than 60% or 70% of the balance if the account is still with Discover, so you really don't stand to lose too much if you take your chances and let the account go to an attorney (and if Discover is lying, a collection agency).

These are the possible scenarios:

Your account could go to Zwicker & Associates, which is a national law firm which Discover often hires (as well as American Express). When Discover hires Zwicker, they instruct Zwicker to not settle for anything less than 80% of the balance. Not good - and thank goodness that's not the case with other creditors and Zwicker accounts. So, if our clients' accounts end up with Zwicker, they either settle for 80% of the balance or end up in a re-payment plan. I've even reached out to the CEO of Discover; while he was somewhat sympathetic to a few of our clients' situations, he refused to budge, but did allow these clients to settle at 80% over a period of 12 months, which did indeed help.

Or, your account could go to a local attorney, who is more likely to settle your account for 30%-50% of the balance. One of our clients took her chance, after I outlined her options, and her account did go to a local attorney. We avoided a lawsuit, and she settled for 50% of the balance, which was less than Discover was willing to accept. Yet, another client's account went to a local attorney, and was settled for 33% of the balance, but he did have two Discover accounts with the same law office, so this may have helped.

Also, if your account happens to be one about which Discover is lying, and they're really not intending to send it to a law firm, it will be outsourced to a collection agency. You'll be able to settle for less than 50% with most collection agencies (30%-40%).

Also, depending on where our clients live, we also have a better idea of knowing what the likely outcome will be.

Hope this information helped. Have a good weekend!

Hi Chrissy,

I just posted a very long and detailed answer to your post, which I believe is going to assist you a great deal. However, it was flagged to be reviewed by a moderator before it's actually posted. I'm confident it will be posted shortly, so please keep an eye out for it. As I stated, I believe it will help you a great deal!

hey and thank you so much for your post --

no my cap one I just brought current -- it was for a much less amt and I only have to pay 35 monthly --
they are very agressive and for the 35 a month I could do it -- to stay out of court --

wish I was able to settle with them but it would have been tough

thanks marie -- I will look for it -- I truly appreciate all your help