Amex, Zwicker, Citi, beneficial

If the debt is old, the creditors mostly agree to settle the account for less. This is because, if they do not agree to settle, they may get nothing (if you file bankrupcy). The creditors mostly agree to settle the debt for 40 to 60% of the outstanding debt amount and for how much you can settle depends on your negotiation with the creditors.

i used a settlement company but i had??1 of those accounts benificial.?? from what i remember benificial settled pretty quickly but i hear citi is hard to deal with

love my things is only posting to promote provanta debt settlement via his blog. webmaster do something.

Ingnore "guest"?? they dont know anything about anything except to get on my nerves today.
Before to long im gonna get a moderator myself.

If that is true then why don't you stop leaving your link to your blog which is clearly just a ploy to get provanta debt more exposure. Now THAT gets on everyone's nerves! You discredit any good comments you may have by advertising. Who would believe you????????

Don't believe anything that love_my_things has to say!

I don't - I caught on to that a long time ago. Disgusting!

OK - first of all -- lets all say this together "DEBT CONSOLIDATION COMPANIES COST TOO MUCH". ok so anyone that wants to chime in and tell me credit cards are only accepting 40-60% is just wrong. I settled chase at 35%, Advanta and 35% -- I know people that have settled citi at 35% (although I am yet to get that done) -- I was simply wanting to find out anyone who has settled with Citi, AMEX - or Zwicker and Ass. or Predential cc? I've very do-it-myself here - I'm thinking I had the cahonas to get me into this mess -- I can take negotiating with these people - some who are actually nice. (yep, especially if you want to settle with them). SO, NO DS companies need to reply -- just regular everyday people.

Hello;
I am settling my own debt and I can tell you that many of these credit card companies WILL go below 40%!!! I settled with Chase at 35% and my biggest account BofA ($40K ) for 17%. Both were around 120 days past due. I also settled an AmEx account at 55%, but they were threatening to sue and at the time I did not have as much knowledge as I do now. It certainly is a learning process. I personally think it is much more beneficial to do settling on your own. Not just because of the money you will save, but if you keep in communication with your creditors they are more likely to work with you. Makes a big difference. I am also going to be settling with Citibank soon. I am hoping for 35% but I have heard that is hard to get.
Good luck!

ugh - tired, yes a lot of them are very nice people. if you are not afraid and have the time to get on the telephone by all means do it. People join debt settlement programs for the following reasons:

1. They feel by paying someone else they do not have to deal with their problems (creditors calling)
2. they are afraid to speak to collectors
3. they simply do not have the time
4. they get sold a bunch of bologna by debt settlement companies

and yes you can get settlements as low as 20% and the chances of getting sued while negotiating your own debt decrease significantly and not to mention avoiding retainer, maintenance and commision fees. Finally someone with half a brain, congratulations ugh - tired.

I just couldn't see paying someone to do it - no, I don't have the time either - but anywhere from 9-15% for ds companies is alot! I've got about 90Gs to settle - even at 10% that's $9000 -- you have to remember that when you negotiate - because it's so easy to throw up your hands and let someone else do it - at 9-15% Iconsider a paid part time job. hah As far as Citi -- I'm as low as 40% on one and they are considering a 33% on my business card - so who knows, I'll update the boards when I settle with them. That dang AMX though -- I'm just coughing at 55% -- ---- so I would be paying the rudest, lying, least easy to work with people the most . . . . it's going to be a while before I swallow that one.

I will share my experiance, for some strange reason AMEX was the first one who hired CA to collect as soon as I was 30-60 days late, I settled 4 CC @ 25% and other 2 CC @ 20% in my personal opinion AMEX and CAs they hired were easiest to settle with, I'm having problem with Chase and BoA my cards are pass due 120 days now and they still saying all they can do for me is 40% I'm still hoping I can get better then that so I'm waiting to see what will happen after 150 days
does any one know at what point BoA and Chase marks accounts as charged off?

180 days past due.

Chase by far was the easiest I settled -- but at 35% - the gal actually told me that was their min -- although someone else posted on here they accepted 20% (dang huh). My amex dc still won't go below 55% - I can't seem to get citi below 40% . . . and so I'll wait. I'm about 4 months on everything.

and -- I was rereading one of my posts and I meant to say DEBT SETTLEMENT AGENCIES COST TOO MUCH. LOL --- I'm sure if I had a gibillion dollars it would be worth it for someone else to handle it -- but then again I wouldn't have credit card debt. It seems to me like the lenders like citi and amex and chase go in waves on what they will accept and what they won't. When I stopped paying and starting working on settlements Citi had a rep for settling early and low, now they seem a little high. Chase seemed to be settling low but lately I'm hearing people not getting past 40% -- BOA seems to be still low for anyone I've read about, AMX seems to depend on what debt recovery agency they work with. Probably a fiscal quarter end, a year end, the end of the month - probably all play into it.

when you reach a settlement do they expect the full payment at that time? what if you can't pay the entire amount at once?

Hello, I'm very much interested to get some advice from you guys.I just discovered this site and i've been reding the blogs since yesterday.I have about 90k in cc debts and I want (if i can) to settle it on my own. I already talked to 2 diff debt settlemnt companies and of course,paying 9k(based on 10%)in fees is too much for me.I dont have much time to be on the phne with my creditors bec I work M-F 730-5-30pm that's why i thought on contacting these companies to see how it works and what they can do.I have discover,amex,chase,usbank.Can you give me some insights on where to start.I'm not behind yet on my payments but i will be this month. I undertsand that you have to be at least 90 days past due before settlemnt offers come in.Pls help me.

oops, the above message is esp for ugh-tired and sunnymay

Hi michmike;
Okay well first, a good rule of thumb that I would ask yourself is can you save 50% of your debt (so in in your case that would be 45K) within 18 months? If the answer is no, then you should seriously proceed with caution. The chances of you being sued increase dramatically after the first year. Not that being sued is the worst thing in the world, but if you live in Michigan (assuming from your name...and by the way so do I) I believe your wages can be garnished if it comes to that. You undoubtedly can get better deals than 50% but since you need to take into consideration that your account will be slapped with late fees and higher interest amounts, saving 50% is a realistic amount to work with. If you take a do-it-yourself approach you will definitely save a lot of money. All of the credit card companies are open past 5:30 pm and also on Saturdays. I understand if you are unsure of yourself and want a debt settlement company to work for you but the money you could save by doing it yourself could make a huge difference. I have given the advice to many posters to check out Zip Debt on the internet (you can google it and find their site) if you want to take a doityourself approach but are too nervous to take the first step. If nothing else, read the FAQs and blogs and you may feel better about doing this yourself. The cost is under $400, a one time fee, and I think the owner (who understands this business very well) gives you one phone consultation and unlimited email support. I am not affiliated with Zip debt in any way, I just have the same philosophy that they do and it has really worked out for me so far.

Chase will be the easiest to settle with, and you will get the best deal if you settle with them before charge off (180 days). Amex will send your account to a collection agency probably within 60 to 90 days of being past due, maybe sooner. Most likely they will send your account to Zwicker and Associates. Discover is VERY aggressive and also uses Zwicker but I have heard and read that they are much harder to settle with. I also have Chase and AmEx and Discover. I put my Discover account into a hardship plan, which is 0% interest for 12 months and a reduced amount due each month. This bought me time to deal with my other creditors, and I can still save for my settlement goals. I have settled with Chase at 35% and AmEx at 55%. I also settled with BofA for 17%, which was my biggest account. I do not have a USBank account therefore I have not done a ton of research on them but I do recall reading some posts that they are very difficult to settle with.

The best advice I can give you by far is to save save save. There really aren't any strategies that work well if you can't come up with the settlement funds when the time comes. Also, stay in communication with your creditors. Tell them your income has been reduced and you cannot pay your bill, but you are hoping to turn things around. I told my creditors exactly that, and that I was searching for a 2nd job (which is true) to supplement my reduced income. Every few weeks I would call them to let them know that I had not found a second job but that I was still looking. When I got to the 120 days past due mark, my creditors started talking about settlement deals.

You can definitely do this yourself. Read as much as you can and educate yourself on the process, and you will be a step ahead!

Hi Sunnymay,thank you for the helpful info, also for other posters here that share their experience with their creditors . I'll check on the site that u mentioned for DIY debt settlement.Since im not behind yet on all of my cc's yet.do u think i shld keep current on the ones that i can afford to pay the min?just so when the time comes for settlement offers(later on) i wont end up dealing with all of them at same time?although i think i read here that it wont be a good idea to keep current on some cc's and be past due on other cc's. i can probably come up with half of what i owe in 18mos(i can get some frm my 401k,if that's the last thing i need to do)How does the hardship plan works?do they automatically offer that ? if they do, around how many months behind do they offer that? me and my husband's Discover bal is abt 27k total, we also have diff accts with Amex with a total of 22k..since we have 2 separate accts,do we have to deal with cc companies separately,including settlements?any input from posters will be greatly appreciated.at first, im not sure if i can do this myself but after reading all your experiences dealing with these companies and by doing it yourselves,i felt an inch of confidence that i may be able to do this myself too ;)(im soo nervous!).although i know every situation is different.
for posters on this site,any info or advise on how to deal(how they dealt with) with USBank,Amex and DS,Chase will be greatly appreciated!

Hi Michmike;
Well the problem with keeping current on one or two accounts and not the others is that your creditors will be able to see that you are paying some and not others, and they won't like it. It is a good idea to "stagger" the non payments of your accounts but only by a month or two at the most. For example, you could stop paying AmEx and Chase this month, and then stop paying USBank the following month and finally stop paying Discover the month after that. (I would not let any more time than that go between them.) This will give you a little bit of breathing room when it comes time to settle, since most of them will start talking settlement around 120 days, and give you 3 months to pay.

Almost all of your creditors will offer a hardship program...some are better than others. Obviously you don't want to be on a hardship with everyone because that really just delays your situation. For me, I had no choice about Discover though, and I had read that they are very aggressive so I needed some extra time to deal with them and hardship was the only way. With Discover I was between 60 and 90 days past due when they offered to get me on their hardship program. I have a Discover account and so does my husband and they did not combine them, but since I stopped paying both at the same time they offered the hardship for both at the same time. Since it is now such a low payment, I plan on dealing with them last, when I have enough saved to settle at 50% in one lump sum.

I would be very cautious about taking out funds from your 401K. If you are in Michigan I'm sure you have the same feeling that most Michiganders feel that no one's job is stable in this state. (Auto industry affects ALL of us!) I know if for some reason you cannot pay back your 401K down the road there are severe penalties. I would be very certain of what the consequences are before doing that!

I remember how nervous and scared I was. Especially when the call start pouring in. This site is great though for getting information. No one will work harder for your situation than yourself, and you can do anything a debt settlement company can do and probably better. Plus, I do think that most credit card companies get ticked off when they think you are "saving to settle" which is exactly what you are doing with debt settlement companies. They know that you are paying a good chunk to the settlement company and they don't like it. You will get better offers if you do it yourself.

Thanks again, I have a long way to go. I know what you mean abt 401k..I'll try to save and save so hopefully i wont get anything from my 401k. I'm in California btw..i still need to do some research/ get info abt wage garnishments,liens, etc-laws in CA,,just in case. I just get really scared whn I hear lawsuit,summons..oh well, we'll see.I'm sure i'll have more questions later.thnks again

Hello again;
Oh sorry for the assumption that you were in Michigan...LOL! Yes, my biggest fear was the whole lawsuit and garnishment thing, which is why the hardship programs come in handy so you can deal with your other creditors. Just keep in contact with all of your creditors and make sure you have a good reason to tell all of them why you can't pay on your account... just "getting behind" on bills won't cut it. You need to have reduced income. Don't worry....if I can do this anyone can believe me!! :)

amex used to have NCO collect for'em afew months back but now they use United Recovery Systems (URS) which have offices in Az and Houston, TX to collect for'em and they are a pain ....