AMEX Hardship - about to miss payment, what to do?

Unfortunately, we're noticing that as many as 40% of American Express accounts end up with Zwicker & Associates after just 60-90 days of delinquency, and communication with American Express from its debtors does not affect their decision as to whether or not they will outsource the accounts for litigation.

On the plus side, many American Express accounts (60%) also end up with cooperative collection agencies. But, our research thus far has not resulted in how it is that American Express determines the fate of its accounts. My next step is to compare our clients' account numbers so that I may determine if a certain portfolio or product within the American Express credit card division is more likely than others to be sent to Zwicker & Associates.

When accounts are sent to Zwicker at such an early stage of delinquency, there's nothing that Zwicker can really do. Rather, we have to wait until the accounts are sufficiently delinquent to settle them with Zwicker. In the meantime, a lawsuit is usually imminent, and some type of arrangement must be made at that time. After proper arrangements are made a settlement can be reached when the accounts are delinquent enough.

I know I didn't help much with your decision to call or not to call American Express, but hopefully I was able to shed some light on what it is you can expect.

Good luck!

Thanks for your response. Sounds like I need to hope both GOLD and BLUE cards end up outside Zwicker to have a chance at a decent settlement. I hate to rely on that but i may not have a choice. I am hoping I can settle regardless rather than go thru any type of litigation. If they see I am maxed across the board, I am hoping they are inclined to work out something that would be amenable for all parties. The fact that they farm this out so quickly is unsettling as I will likely miss my first payment this week and as soon as next month I could be dealing with Zwicker for all I know..


Any additional insight would be helpful..

Thx

This is new to us and these boards have been invaluable. Here is my experience. Hope it helps you too!

We had 2 accounts with Amex, one blue and one platinum. We quit making payments on one in Sept 2011 & the other in October 2011. We contacted Amex at that time on both accts to see about hardship and were told that they could not do anything until January and to call back then.

In late December, we received a call and both accts had been forwarded to Zwicker. I was able to get on a hardship repayment plan on the Blue account with Zwicker - manageable payments on Amex site, 0% interest, yada yada yada, but the platinum had a much larger balance. They initially offered a 60% settlement. I said I would think it over and call back. Called back the next day with counter-offer of 50%, they said they needed hardship letter and would take to Amex, but doubted Amex would take it. This was on a Friday. Early Monday morning I faxed hardship letter to Zwicker. That night I received call from Nationwide. Over the weekend sometime, this account was pulled from Zwicker and send to Nationwide. They were very nice (can't believe I'm saying that, but so easy to deal with.) I explained situation and counter-offer. They came back with a 40% settlement offer with payments over 2 months. We took it!

Later that same night, I received another call from Zwicker - the agent was very upset that the account had been pulled and said he was going to try and get it back. I was very concerned about this because we had already agreed on a settlement with Nationwide and I didn't want that messed up. I told him to leave the account alone and I haven't heard back.

We ended up paying in one payment, have confirmed receipt with both Amex & Nationwide and received confirmation letter of settlement complete this week.

I have to say that we never thought we'd be in this boat, have managed to pay all cc's without issue. Amex just got out of control. We tried to be proactive, but they wouldn't help. I've heard so many horror stories about CA, but this one was very easy to deal with. I was very skeptical throughout the process, but all seems to have been OK.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the very useful info.
I am already on hardship programs for both cards since October and just called today to let them know I could not make the payments on either acct. But was trying to gather funds. I did not mention settlement. Woman mentioned I could be dropped from program within a month and said that pre-existing rates would then apply, stated I "may receive calls" and wished me the best, very nice. The accts I believe may already be charged off based on my agreement so I am wondering if the calls she mentioned will be from a Zwicker or NCO. I guess I'll see soon enough. Regarding the hardship letter zwicker asked for, was this to get into a hardship plan or to settle? And how detailed (ie numbers) was it? Or was it just your story?
I am wondering if it goes to Zwicker, would waiting a few days to see if it gets sent to NCO is a good idea.
Your recent real world situation is extremely helpful.
You can PM me to chat details if you prefer.
thx

I have approx $75k in credit card debt. Minimum payments were more than what I brought home in my paycheck, so I turned to debt settlement. I did my research and signed on with a debt settlement company that had good results to handle the accounts. DS company's take a 35% commission on the difference between your balance and what they settle for. The more they settle for, the more money they make. Pretty simple.

My hardship with AMEX was pretty easy in the grand scheme of things. My AMEX Blue card I enrolled with the debt settlement company to be resolved. Roughly a $1000 balance. They settled it for 50% + 35% commission on $500 savings. My AMEX Open with a $8500 balance was not eligible for their debt settlement process because it was a business account. I had to go that one alone. On my DS company's recommendation I stopped paying the monthly bill. I sent them a C&A letter and asked them to deal with me only via mail. After about 180 days I get a summons from local constable for a Discovery motion on my account. Now the account is with a lawyer. I contacted the lawyer, told him we can go to court, but it's to both our advantage to work out a solution.

He agreed to allow me to pay $50 a month for 6 months and then revisit the situation when financially things improve for me. The 6 months ended this month. I got an email from him stating we need discuss my account. I emailed back and setup a time. In-between time I contacted AMEX to see what the status was of my account and who they had on record as handling it. Jaffer & Asher Law assigned my account to a contract law firm in my state, which is who I was dealing with. When I contacted the firm I had set the discussion up with and let him know what I was doing behind the scenes, he seemed surprised that I was doing my research and checking him out. We talked a little bit about fraud and then I asked him where do we go from here. Fully anticipating that he had an offer sitting on his desk to throw at me. Turns out he didn't.

I knew the day was coming that I would be having this discussion with him so I did some research and even read a book or two on how to handle these situations. He told me to make an offer and he would take it back to Jaffer & Ashe for approval. My research also told me to always offer no more then 25%, which I did spreading payments over 4 months. He came back a day later and said they rejected it but countered with settlement at 35% over 6 months. I countered at 30%. They rejected staying at 35% over 8 months. I countered with 35% over 12 months. Everyone agreed. We're done.

I'm not a negotiator, a car salesman or even in the line of work where I practice negotiating. I just did my research, had a battle plan in mind and didn't cower to demands because the collectors demanded it! The best advice I can you is to be just as aggressive with them as they are with you and DO YOUR RESEARCH! Once you get to the point of collections and lawyers, you need to switch to survival mode. You are not going to save your account. The creditor is not going to reinstate you or write nice things about you on your credit report. Your job has to be to get out of the situation as unscathed, unscarred and as cheap as possible. That's it.