Debt Settlement one month in...

For a $4000.00 debt they put a lien on my home. :(

I co-own my home with my friend

Just was called to say that I was to pay up or they would garnish my wages. I ask if we could have a settlement and at first they didn't give me much of a break, then I talked to another rep. He put it down a little better. He told me I had a little over a week to come up with the funds. I tried, but now I have to call them back and explain I haven't got the funds. I'm trying to find someone but who has extra money lying around.

Hey GoingCrazy...

I have been in a debt settlement company now for 8 months and they were very up front with me and told me that my most agressive card was going to be SEARS. I have 8 cards in the program totaling (24,000.00) Some of my cards try telling me that they DO NOT AND WILL NOT WORK with the settlement company. My company told me that they would say that, because they will do all in their means to get me to pay, even threaten court.

When it comes down to it, court is costly and they try to avoid it at all costs. Collection agencys work on commission and they normally have a time frame to collect their commission so, of course they get nasty. I had this one tell me, "I will pull your assets and it will all come out in the washer Missie!!!" I was like, ok...go right ahead. Because I owe 60,000.00 on our 62,000.00 home!

I have been told that they do pull your assets and stuff and look for savings and things with value--however like you stated (can't get blood out of a turnip.)

I received a call the other day that had me in tears and I called my company and they were like: "No, the worst case scenerio is you will have to go to court and show the judge your in our program and chances are the Judge will through out the judgement against you OR we will drop the cards from our program to allow you make payment arrangements with them, but that was not likely to occur. I also had 3 local attorneys basically tell me the same thing that a Judge will respect the fact that I am enrolled in a program and trying. Chances are they may do nothing at all.

It has been over 3 1/2 weeks since they threatened to sue me and have a summons issued for me for court. It is my understanding that if they tell you that and have full intentions of doing it--they do it and not just talk about it.

I hope this helps. I know it can get scary.

GoingCrazy

It is usual for the creditors to sound aggressive to those who are becoming past due on their accounts. I guess, we will have to accept this because we owe them at the first place.

Do not tense yourself as you have already hired a settlement company to take care of this matter. The counselor will get a better debt settlement deal for you. Be sure that you send your monthly payments regularly towards the new account. Once the negotiation is final, the amount will be sent at once.

The creditors will sound reluctant to your proposals at the beginning but the fact is they want to have their money back. You are paying off something than nothing. Don't worry! Everything will be just fine. Keep in touch with your settlement company for the latest updates. Read some articles of debt solution and know how to become debt free.

well my debt counselor wasn't terribly uplifting.. they made an "offer" this morning involving me giving up one paycheck a month to pay them back in a year (which I definitely cannot afford and refused). However, he was startled when I told him I got my letter from this place 18 days after missing my first payment, threatening legal action. He thought that was pretty darn quick... I also pointed out to him my pathetic income and debt to income ratio (my credit card debt is roughly what I earn in a year, maybe a little more). So he's trying to work through it. I like how they can talk a lot without really saying anything. Very non-committal.

Oh well. Hope tomorrow's a better day.

I would be leary of the program you are in then. Because if you have only been in the program for a month...you have to send in payments to build up enough money to settle with. I don't understand how you could have enough money saved up in a month to settle or try to settle an offer. ?????

The so-called "offer" was an offer for me to pay off the debt in full, without any sort of reduction whatsoever. It was, as the debt guy called it, a "horrible settlement." I agree. I could have done that without DS. If I could have afforded to pay the bill off quickly, I wouldn't be in DS.

The fact that we're even discussing settlements at this point made me uneasy (but then so does the threat of litigation). When I pointed it out to my counselor, he said he was a little leery himself. We'll see.

As a VERY interesting side note, he tried to call the firm while I was on hold... he couldn't get ahold of them so he left them a message. While I was still talking to him on my phone, they called ME (didn't realize till I checked missed calls after I hung up). They've called several times since then too. They have not, however, called my settlement place. I have the feeling they think I'm stupid and I'm going to deal directly with them. I certainly do not pay for a DS to deal directly with the sharks. :P