My Debt Settlement Story - Preperation, Questions
Date: Sat, 01/14/2012 - 19:29
AMEX specific questions moved to separate thread titled "AMEX Ha
AMEX specific questions moved to separate thread titled "AMEX Hardship - about to miss a payments, what to do?"..
Many of your questions have been answered already, search. Wh
Many of your questions have been answered already, search.
What I can tell you is that if you stop paying Chase, they WILL take money from your Chase savings/checking account to cover a payment.
The only reason to stagger is to give you more time to come up with a settlement.
In a nutshell, you stop making payments, the phone calls begin, I answered about once a month, told them I could no longer make payments due to a tremendous reduction in income (they may pry, just explain the details do not change the situation and politely move on). I have never had anyone get out of hand on the phone, I try to politely control and lead the conversation. After about 5 missed payments, ask about a lump sum settlement. Thats it.
I can tell you Chase settles for around 30-35 percent, sometimes after only 90 days late, Amex around 30-40%. I did not have a discover but hear they go around 50%.
Good luck
Thx ioalot. One question.. upon stopping payments, is it wise t
Thx ioalot.
One question.. upon stopping payments, is it wise to reach out to each creditor initially to tell them you cannot pay and then stop paying or simply stop and await the first call?
I agree, remaining in contact sounds like the best plan, once a month as you stated for the first 3 months or so. And then begin speaking about the potential to lump sum settle with each creditor (still unsure if I should stagger, tho it would definitely help in raising funds).
As for Chase, I plan on closing that account this week and opening another account at a local bank to assure they cannot simply pull funds from my account to cover my credit card.
I plan to give my hardship story, noting my pay cut, rescinding of bonus, as well as my personal situation with my kids, medical bills, etc..
I plan to be concise, and consistent.
One thing I forgot and may be yet another issue, one of my creditors, USBank, also has my HELOC (it is maxed). Anything to worry about there??
thx again..