Dealing with AMEX

Greetings Jay Seeder,

First of all, welcome to the forums.
And second, great post!:cool:

And just when you think that you've heard all of the tactics of the ccc's, another new one pops up. I agree with you that all they are trying to do is to get you deeper in debt.

I've never heard of a kinder, more caring or compassionate ccc!:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

They are in the the business for two reasons;
1. To make tons of money from our collective studpidity.
2. To keep us enslaved to the plastic masters.

You've a tough battle looming ahead with american depression.
The other two; chase-me down and boa-the snake should be relatively easy to settle with.

Not having dealt with american depression, I can only offer general advice on them.....others will add more.

Short term, you are doing the correct thing.
Communicate with them and stick to your story.

Long term, it will eventually go to a ca.
And then you'll have to deal with them.

Regards,
King "Kash" Jabba Labba

ps: send me a pm for more info regarding your strats.

@ Jay, a relative of mine actually encountered the same situation also. I too had amassed quite a bit of debt. But never went for a settlement, because I know that I need to have enough cash upfront for credit card companies to settle, and plus it will drastically reduce your FICO score, especially it accounts for 35% of your score.

Check out my blog, I actually just wrote about this problem yesterday.

Hope you'll find them useful!

@ Jay, for your third question, I think you should approach other debt reduction companies to help you settle the AMEX debt. Just inform them of your situation, that any of your money can only be used to pay for the essentials, and that you don't have any left to pay for the cards. Most likely they'll help you out, and depending on the amount you owe, you might only pay a fraction to the debt companies. And in my previous post, to settle for a debt settlement, you need to have enough cash on hand for such a request to take place. But going for a settlement will simply kill your FICO score, unless you're not looking to buy a house in the near future, then I may suggest that you seek a professional about the possibility of debt reduction.

I wouldn't recommend you adding anymore expenses on top of your piled up high debts. It's just gonna add more debt to you. Credit card companies don't care about their customers' financial well beings, they only care for themselves in terms of reaping every cent out of you from interest charges. So by all means, stop using your credit cards, and resort to cash. You will actually find that cash is more useful than you think.

What do you think of these ideas? Good luck with everything!

@ Jay, just did some research, have you tried balance transfer your AMEX from a 10% APR to a 12 month 0% credit card? I just saw a link on my blog that offers a 0% APR on balance transfers for up to 12 months. By transferring a portion of what you owe, you'll pay significantly on interest charges. Not only you don't need to pay interest on the transferred amount, but you also pay lower interest charges on your remaining AMEX debt, hope this helps.

I don't remember the link, but just visit my blog below and search for the 0% balance transfer on the right hand side. What do you think of this proposal?

As it turned out, AMEX claimed that my agreeing over the phone to pay the amount that would get my account back current equated to my agreeing to have them set up an ACH payment from my bank account on that specific date (I have been scheduling my monthly payments for years on the AMEX website to withdraw directly from my checking account, so they have my account info).

I was pissed that they would do this! I called them to inquire about it and told the person on the phone that the lady who I agreed to make the payment with didn't abide by the requirements necessary for them to schedule the payment over the phone. If I didn't know that she wanted to withdraw the money directly from my account, then I certainly didn't agree to it. She was being deceptive. The woman I complained to told me that she would have her manager listen to the tape to see if I was right and then he'd call me. He never called me.

It just proves to me again that they're just after their money and will try any tactics to get it.

So I've since opened a new checking account and no longer use the other one. I talked to my bank about having them protest the payment. But I decided against it since I figured it would get in the way of my eventual efforts for a settlement. Is that an accurate assumption?

I just spoke with AMEX again. They offered me a payment plan consisting of one payment of around $600 in 14 days, and then two months of payments around $220. And then my interest rate would be dropped from 16% to 8%.

Instead of accepting this, I asked them about a settlement. She told me settlements start at 90%, and then asked what I was proposing. I ended up proposing about 35%. She then said the lowest they could go was 70%.

She told me she would note in my account that I was looking for a settlement. And then she said that if I could pay the $600 or so I would buy myself time and keep my account from being cancelled and turned over to a CA.

So I agreed to the $600 payment. Was that the right thing to do? She said that my account would then be transferred to a different department that handles settlements, and that she would note that I would be trying to get the money to cover the 70% settlement and calling back to let them know.

I'm assuming that I'll be able to negotiate below 70% once my account gets switched to that department. Do you agree, or was she correct that AMEX won't go below 70% on settlements?

i just settled my american express after about 120 days ( i think) we were sent to an outside agency-nco, and we settled it with them. amex wouldn't budge at 75% and we ended up with 55% with nco. they tried the same tactics with me with the paying other bills with my amex acct and the 0% for 6 months and then 9.9 after that, well we were only paying 3.9 before all of this so i told them this wouldnt help. dont give in to their payments to save your acct, it will only delay the settlement process. just keep telling them you cant pay, they will eventually close your acct anyway. as long as you dont plan on having another card with them, just stop making any payments, and you will eventually settle. good luck...it can be done!!!

Thanks for the info, Cookycris. And congrats on your settlement! Can you give me a little insight into the logistics and timing of AMEX closing your account and selling it to NCO? Did AMEX inform you when they closed the account and sold it, or did you just all of a sudden hear from NCO? Also, did NCO send you stuff in the mail, or did they call you?

Finally, did you feel like 55% was as low as you were going to get with NCO, or do you think you could have gotten lower if you held out longer?

Thanks for any info.

Jay

Amex does not sell the accounts, they simply assign them to a CA or a CA lawfirm for collections. I'd exercise caution with making any payment arrangements if your goal is to ultimately settle. I'd stay away from settlement companies and I don't believe AMEX participates with that stuff. I don't know if you're employed or if Amex inquired into that. In my story, they hinted at a lawsuit day 60ish and they were made aware that the person on the account had a paycheck but with reduced hours...They filed suit at day 90, approx 10 months ago...The case has been pushed to Arbitration per the terms of the cardmember agreement...Amex still has the Arb agreements in there contracts...Arbitrations is gonna cost them thousands in fees that they cannot recover, per the contract...Provides for leverage if necessary...If it goes to a regular CA, anotherwords, one that can't sue thats good and should result in a reasonable settlement...Settlements will affect the score, I was in the mid 700's, settled 5 accounts, hit a low of 400ish and now back to almost 600ish...Step 2 would be to clean up the credit reports...Thats another process, I'm in no hurry as I'm currently anti-bank...lastly, if you tell them they can't take the draw on your account their not suposed to take it...I know they work it, really hard, but don't lettem push you around...Remember that's their job to get the $$$ coming in...

My AMEX account has now been assigned to a CA. I've gotten calls from the CA, but I haven't answered them. The voicemails say "it's important that we speak about a business matter." I googled the person's name and phone number and figured out the company they work for. And then I called AMEX and the recording said that AMEX will no longer discuss my account because it's been assigned to this CA company, and then it gave me the number to contact them.

I don't want to talk to the CA on the phone. Since all I've received from them are vague voicemails, is it too early to send them a Cease and Desist Letter to stop calling and to contact me only by mail? And is it too early to send them a Debt Validation Letter since they haven't officially told me I owe them anything?

I would assume that after a little while longer of not answering their calls and not calling them back that they'll send me something in the mail, which I would expect to have information about dollar amounts, etc. Is that a reasonable assumption?

Thanks for any advice.

Jay

i think nco contacted us by phone first and we settled right away. we knew that american express wouldnt go lower than 70% we did'nt want to take any chances, and we accepted the 55%. I think you should talk to them and see what they have to offer. who is the company that they sent you to? you can do a search on here and get an idea of how they work with settlements

It's GC Services. Anybody have any tips on dealing with them?

Jay

I have no experience with GC Services, just with First Source. Amex will settle for less than 70% depending on the CA and your persistence.

J. Matthew Muir, can you tell me about your experience with First Source? Are they legit? If anyone else has experience dealing with them, your input is appreciated as well.

Thanks.

Jay