Advanta Bank is not willing for debt settlement - what to do?

I'm in the same boat as Marcello: I'm ignoring P&C. They offered a 5k settlement on a 13k debt due in a lump sum. But I don't have that kind of money just sitting around, so I have nothing new to discuss with them. Is it risky to ignore them? I'm in WA, and don't see any lawsuits since Advanta went belly up.

Thanks for any insight to calm my nerves a bit.

Nothing more to calm your nerves, but you can be sure the collection agency trolls will be back here soon with some lies to jangle them...

Call or Email your State Attny's office and tell them a CA is making false claims and threatening legal action. I don't care if the alleged debt is of a business nature. Your State Attorney's office will file a formal complaint that P and C will have to answer. You will be given a case# and PnC will then back off.

I did this and no longer hear from any of the street thugs at PnC. P n C wrote a generic letter promissing to never call me again. Would love to post it for all to read but need to remain anonymus.

You won't believe how many complaints PnC have in Florida. Let them get too many and be shut-down!

I would think that P n C would be happy with what ever they can get, but there settlement options are not that favorable. Has anyone gotten a settlement they where happy with????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I sent 'em an 11% check with accord and satisfaction language. That was more than a year ago. They still have Sentry call occasionally. I don't give 'em the time of day. So yeah, I'm happy with my settlement.

Quote:

To all that have assets in their personal names:

Talk to an asset protection attorney about setting up strategies (or learn yourself by doing a google search for "asset protection") to move the majority of exposed assets off your personal balance sheet by repositioning such assets in other entities. The reason why you need an AP attorney is because you have to structure the transfers so as not to be considered a fraudulent conveyance which a creditor can argue and win and have the judge order the assets frozen. A creditor still has to get the judgment first, although. And then, if it's not in your home state has to domesticate that judgment from Utah or wherever they first file to your state. IRAs, 401Ks, and pensions are protected from attachment general creditors such as Advanta. You are not protected from wage garnishment, unless you collect SSA or retirement.

Basic assets at risk held personally:
1) bank accounts
2) vehicles (autos, boats, planes, motorcycles)
3) real estate
4) brokerage accounts & other investments

Bottom line: do what you need to do NOW to become JUDGMENT-PROOF and not AFTER a claim has been made against you when it will be too late to transfer assets!

Quote:

Quote:

my account is six months overdue and I was getting calls from P & C and now the calls are coming from NBC Management Services. Can anyone tell me what is going on?

Another Pennsylvania-based collector http://www.ncbi.com/

As for the details of Accord & Satisfaction, I recommend Mark Hankins' e-Book "Debt Hope: Down and Dirty Survival Strategies" ... there are some ins and outs, he's quite clear and he doesn't guarantee anything. It's a potentially winning strategy, not a buzzsaw where the other side has no chance whatsoever.

And no, the 11% A&S check isn't going to let you IMMEDIATELY repair your credit report ... for most people that's a couple of years down the line. Credit doesn't matter much anyway, not for the next few years while the banking, finance and monetary systems stabilize.

[COLOR=black]I have not paid a payment since June of 2009. Money is tight and I have had 4 different collection agencies call me. Not one of them would settle with me at a rate I could pay. The attorney I have spoken with told me to file BK if they can not settle with me. I have tried to settle every time they have called. Last time the guy was reading off of my credit report. I would like to settle but BK is my other option and my last if they do not settle with me.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Can anyone tell me if they have settle and for what %? Terms? [/COLOR]

Why would you want to file BK? That should be a last resort option. Wait until they sue you and win (if they are really suing anybody).

ACT is Advanced Call Center Technologies. They are a collections call center that advanta uses to harass people.

I think the big question here is????????????
What percentage have people settle for, if they have settle at all?????

Seems to me that the FDIC has not sold off the advanta debt YET? They are getting BullSh*t CA involved to try and collect what ever they can.

Just my 2 cents.

I was in business for 20 years. Accumulated a ton of debt trying to buy my company and employees more time while hoping things would turn around. No lender is willing to help with terms I can truly afford and be able to repay.

Right now no creditor is suing me, but let's say that changes...fine! I'm taking this opportunity to get my remaining assets in order then will wait for the last possible moment to file Ch7. Looking back at this economic era will require very little explanation as to why my credit scores went from awesome to disasterous.

Marcello, take a break man! You are going to make yourself nuts trying to find a pattern of reduced settlements.

Let them hire an Attny at $300/hr and incur court costs, drag it out over several months or years...then if you lose, write the whole thing off. You need to realize the banks are Stupid! Rather than work out better terms, they dig their heels in and get nothing but huge legal bills and even bigger write-offs.

Push Comes to Shove has the right thinking.

There's an old joke about a couple of guys (sometimes it's said the smart one is an attorney) who see a bear charging at them from across a meadow. One starts lacing up his running shoes, and the other one asks why he would ever think he could outrun a bear. The one preparing to run says "I don't have the outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you!"

The point here is that the almost-unprecedented economic dislocation we are facing is going to put many people in the position of having defaulted on debt. The creditors, collectors, junk debt buyers and lawyers know full well they can't eat all of the apparent feast laid before them, they know lots of it is already spoiled, lots is going to spoil, and lots is illusory anyway. The also know that they can get lots of it pretty easily, while their opponents will hide some of it and play tug-of-war with the rest.

If they're smart, they go after easy pickins and walk away from the rest. If they're stupid (like the recently-failed Mann Bracken) they push past the point of diminishing returns and reach the point of negative returns.

Smart debtors know that time is on their side, and smart debtors know that information asymmetry can be on their side if they work to achieve it.

If debtors were even smarter, they'd work together to form something like the "el Barzon" movement that swept Mexico in the '90s.

Hey, Thanks "Push Comes to Shave". You do have a point.

Quote:

If that story is true...wholly $hit!

Hey Obama, is this the "Change" you promissed????????

That really has to suck...thinking you had a settlement and then getting screwed on your last payment. Collection Agencies really are the bottom of the barrel.

Yep, collection agencies pull the rug on "settlements" all the time. That's why it's great to send an accord & satisfaction check and see if they don't just let greed get the better of them. If they send it back, wait a little while and send them one for a bit more.

If you're in a state where the accord & satisfaction case law is favorable (and even where it's not terribly favorable, you can often argue the law of the home state of the creditor [in this case Utah], or count on getting a result-oriented judge if the amount is in small-claims territory), go for it.

Only a small percentage of these Advanta claims will get sued on before the statute of limitations expire. A smaller percentage than that will be defended. And a vanishingly small percentage of defendants will come forward with something as colorable as an accord & satisfaction defense. Creditors' attorneys just don't want to deal with the hassle, and at worst you'll be able to get a more favorable settlement as a result of using it.

Anybody ever send an accord and satisfaction check to Philip and Cohen? Thinking of playing that card. It can't seem to hurt?
How does it work???????????
You send them a check for a say 5% of the balance and them you write accord and satisfaction in the memo area.

Thanks for all of the insight from everyone! Does anyone think that Advanta will become more litigious now that they are "owned" by the feds?

Guys, I received the first notice from ACT in which it says I have 30 days to dispute the validity of the debt. Question: should I send them a DV letter or ignore? I heard sending a DV letter will just piss them off and speed up possible litigation.

I would always send a DV letter. It perserves your rights under FDCPA and is a defense against account stated.

From what I have seen, if a creditor is going to sue you, they will, regardless of whether you send a DV letter. The DV letter may slow them down.

You do not write the words "accord and satisfaction"! Ideally, you write words that your state courts have found effect an accord and satisfaction. I hesitate to suggest ANY words in case they're not quite what a particular state's court system is looking for, however "in full and final satisfaction" probably comes as close to a generic formulation as possible. Now for UCC A&S protection (recall that A&S also happens under the common law, and at least in California also under some non-UCC statutory law, which is why A&S doesn't work so well in California), you need a "dispute" so with Advanta that's an easy one ... write "37.99% interest is unconscionable usury!" Be sure to put the account number on the check. Be sure to photocopy the check before sending it. Be sure to keep either the canceled check, or the electronic image (both sides) either from the web, or get it from your bank.

The Hankins book "Debt Hope: Down and Dirty Survival Strategies" is much more detailed on the subject.

Quote:

I got charged off in November after less then 90 days. I haven't heard from anyone in almost 6 month or more.

I received a letter from RGS Financial..

Do I send a DVL or just ignore?

Regarding the applicability of FDCPA to business cards, if the card was used for personal or household purposes, then FDCPA applies. There is case law on this. The actual use of the card trumps the labeled use. And how does the CA or JDB know how the card was used?

In the interest of accuracy, there are a couple of Florida 2010 cases filed by Advanta/FDIC ... the attorney is Stacey Fisher out of Miami ... the cases are filed in Deland (Volusia County) which is HUNDREDS of miles away from Ms. Fisher.

A wily defense attorney could make her life HELL, what with 8:00AM uniform motion calendar hearings and all...

In Florida, getting hit by lightning strikes is more likely than suffering judgment for Advanta debt. http://www.myfloridacounty.com/services/officialrecords_intro.shtml

Search for yourself ... no need to pick a county. Set a date range and search for "Advanta Bank" judgments.

Got a settlement offer after 120 days, $13k settled for $ 3,800. I sent cashiers check Return reciept requested on time. It is now 3 weks later and no adjustments have been made on my account other than showing a payment?????? How long does it take to show that account is settled?

I hope you got a settlement offer in writing!!! I would not send in a penny without it in writing. Again....get the settlement offer in writing. I have read that people get screwed left and right by CA when the offer is not in writing. I hope in your case I am wrong.

Did you settle with Advanta/FDIC or with Phillip and Colen. If you settled with ACT - they are know to play game with settlements if not in writing.

Here is a new one.
Phillip and Colen left me a message and said that my account will charge off this week and offered me a 30% settlement on my answering machine. I have never spoken to anyone since I stopped paying them about 4 months ago.
Anyone else have something similar happen to them??

Did you mean Phillips & Colon? Sounds like a milk of magnesia event to me...

Yes --Phillips & Colon -sorry about the spelling and yes not going to get into it for now with them.

No, you got a Cohen there ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohen

BTW, Sage is still calling me ... and I'm not giving 'em the time of day.

I am waiting for my settlement letter now(Advanta). I have agreed to pay by Wed. I only put enough $ in to pay P&C. I dropped my overdraft protection just in case they try to take more than the agreed amount. Then I started reading all these threads. I have move a thousand out so if I do not get the email today they will get nothing on Wed.

Where is my post?

Advanta's been bugging the crap out of us since we quit paying back in May, about 5 calls a day from numerous agents. I finally spoke to a refreshingly decent chap just to see what they would say. They said they would knock off 25% no questions asked for a lump sum payment, but to get 50% would require a credit check and some kind of asset submission (yeah right, like I'm gonna provide that). Of course they offered other payment plans, but our business is no more so payments aren't an option. I said not good enough and haven't heard from them since, but it's likely the calm before the storm I'd imagine. Since our business was a corporation, I just don't get how the personal guarantee comes into play (or how having the corporation helps then if that's true). We only used the card for business, but I guess it doesn't matter...is that really true?

Quote:

Schmucatelli

You've got a little confusion about the value of a corporate entity. It protects you when a creditor looks solely toward the corporation for repayment. The little business seldom gets that deal--personal guarantees are de rigeur unless and until the corporation attains a certain size and becomes creditworthy on its own.

The corporate entity does protect against personal liability in tort situations (accidents & injuries), again providing the corporation is "adequately capitalized" and individuals followed all the rules. As for protection from the IRS--whoever can sign checks is on the hook, even the barmaid who could do it only so that the business would never be caught unable to take delivery of a shipment of liquor.

So if you get a credit card for the business, chances are you sign a personal guarantee, and your protection from that debt is out the window.

I just settled with Advanta Bank via Sentry Credit. Account balance was $26780. Settled for $5356 ... 20% of total debt.

Take that Advanta and your freaking 30% rate hike!

Quote:

I have a settlement letter with Advanta through RGS Financial it is for 20%, I am making a $500.00 payment today through Money Gram at Wal-Mart today. The next for payments are due on the 30th of the next four months. It will not be an easy payment to make but it is one more step to getting my life back in order. I did not due this on my own I had help from Sherman, I found his information on one of these blogs on this website, I was a skeptic but I had nothing to loose because no matter how hard I tried I was not able to settle for anything less then 40% on my own. He charged me hardly anything to do help me settle.

BREAKING NEWS

CardWorks to Service Business Card Portifolio


I have no idea how this changes thing and Maybe someone can explain.

Here is the link with the story

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cardworks-to-service-advanta-business-card-portfolio-2010-07-26?reflink=MW_news_stmp

What about the people who've already been charged off? That article says they are only taking over those accounts not charged off. Is it right that my interest rate went from 6% to 37% (for no reason) resulting in a payment I cannot afford.

Yeah, I would take a settlment but it better be a low one or they aren't getting anything from me.