New here and want to get started!

If you will have enough money to settle them all at once, then yes. Stop paying all of them. That way, if they check your CR, they'll see you can't afford to pay anyone :)

Set aside the money you would have paid them to use as settlement money.

Most settlement offers start around 90 days.

Who are your credit cards with? We might be able to share our experiences and give advice on what you might expect.

Congratulations on your decision -- it was exactly a year ago that I made the same decision as you. I am halfway through my journey right now --still have another 4 to finish off with.

I personally, defaulted on certain cards at a time. I started with 4. Once I settled those or were about to settle I started defaulting on the others. Now I am delinquent on all .

I have settled 6 cards so far, citibank, best buy, home depot, first national bk omaha, toyota finance and discover recently.

Every time you settle one, you will feel much better and less stressful. It takes a while -- between six months to eight months but you will make headway.

This forum is a great support network -- everyone here is in the same boat -- I disconnected my home phone (shut it off) == let it ring there constantly === either change your phone number or don't use it -- that was the easiest way for me. if they call you at work -- tell them you cannot accept calls at work -- they have to stop after the first one -- ask them to remove it off your contacts while you are on the phone with them -- they will --

good luck -- let us know how u do --

Hi and welcome. To be honest. I can't begin to tell you whether this is right or wrong for you. I just started this about a little over a week ago and I am very pleased so far.

My unsecured debt was overwhelming. Couple that with some other issues, including a huge pay cut, and I thought my choice was bankruptcy. Thanks to reading up here and taking some bold steps, I am making a lot of great progress.

Is it easy? No, it's not.

The never-ending calls grind on your nerves. I disconnected our home phone and put on there a forwarding phone number that I got from Google Voice (which is free by the way). You can have calls forwarded to any number you choose. That really helped my sanity. I told the receptionist at my office that I signed up for some marketing information and I would be getting a lot of 'sales calls'. I told her to tell each caller that I am not allowed personal calls at work. That definitely helped some.

The thought of your credit being trashed is hard to handle. When i met with a br attorney, he ran my score and it is slightly below 500. I dropped nearly 300 points....very painful.

It is also bothersome to me that I won't fully honor my commitments with the creditors. Yes, I can deflect some of the guilt by saying had they not jacked my interest up to 30% then things might have been different, but that still does not get at the 'principal' (no pun intended) of the matter.

For me, I only went this route when all other options had been exhausted and the only other choice was br. If your credit is still good and there are potential alternatives, by all means, pursue those first. Also, look at getting your house refinanced and/or apply for the home mortgage plans available to some mortgagors in trouble. There are many out there.

Best of luck to you in whatever direction you go. There are many great people around here who have walked in your shoes.

hey, it's great that your ready to get your debts behind you. first thing I would look at is, How old are the debts? they could be old enough that they can't be collected.
Who is calling you? is it the original collector or a third party? This makes a big difference. What are they will to settle for? there are certain limits to how far creditors will go when dealing with a debtee not familiar with credit card negotiations. These guys have always answered all my questions over a free phone call and this is stuff they deal with everyday [COLOR=blue][Link removed per Terms of Service] ~ OG[/COLOR]

hope this is helpful too you and good luck getting rid or your debts!!

Thanks for all the great replies. All of you kind of put me at ease a bit. I am so nervous. We have GREAT credit scores but I can always repair my credit score.

The credit cards are:

Citi, Bank of America, Discover, JCPenney (GEMB), Sam's Club, Menards and Capital One.

So, my next question would be...when they start calling do I talk to them? What do I say to them without making any promises? Do I tell them we have lost our job? Thanks again!!!!

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Hey,

I think you can even consolidate your debts. In actuality, settlement hurts your credit score as you are required to miss payments on the accounts which you would like to settle. But, in case of consolidation, I think as far as you can go on making the monthly payment and also maintain all of the other accounts, your credit score won???t be hurt.

With debt settlement the outstanding debt amount lowers but with consolidation the interest rate lowers and the number of debts you have gets reduced to only one. Now, as you consolidate the debts, you will have to avoid closing down all of the accounts at the same time in order to avoid hurting your credit.

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debt settlement is not necessarily going to "tank" your credit scores. It may suffer to an extent. But without all that debt, you will be free to enroll in programs that fix your credit like credit counseling(since they aren't free, but very affordable to someone with no debt). After that your financially stable, your scores improving, and your not living under the thumb of cc companies. I recommend using an attorney instead of debt settlement company though.

[COLOR=blue][Solicitory information removed per Terms of Service.] ~OG[/COLOR]

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Settlement is going to hurt your credit and isn't for the faint of heart. But you said you have a mortgage, so ask yourself why you really need that credit score. For me, the answer is because I was taught that a good person has good credit. So, time to get over that! Being backed against a wall is the only thing that convinced me to let go of that belief. I'm a good person. The economy is bad, and it isn't my fault. Terrible credit is better than losing your home, your marriage, or your sanity.

Soaplady posted something important that was only one line, but worth repeating:
Citi, Discover and Cap One are all very aggressive. The sue routinely.

What I did wrong was to not learn my creditors first. I picked my largest payments and stopped those. Some of that was a good call, some not so much. Each credit has different collection style. I lucked out with Chase, settled one of my accounts on the first phone call at 20%. Citibank/Home Depot sent me to a lawyer at 60 days. I wish I was still paying Citi and had defaulted on a different one, but now I've got to settle Citi before I can move on, because they'll garnish my wages if I don't deal with them.

So, put each credit's name in the search box and read, read, read, Make a page in your notebook for each one. Keep notes on what you read and on every conversation.

Good luck!