Bank of America done. 1 left.

Good to know that you have done the settlement. However, I would suggest you to check your credit report after you have paid off the settled amount. Check whether or not BOA have updated your account status on your credit report. By the way, have you negotiated for a pay for delete debt settlement. If you have, then BOA will delete all the details on the particular account from your credit report. You can also request BOA to update your account status as "Paid in Full" on your credit report. This will help you improve your credit gradually.

Good to know you have settled with BOA for 25%.
I got mine done for 30% on the same balance. Just received the settlement letter.
The letter doesn't have the address where settlement amount to be mailed.
I called the rep and she said i can pay it online or at a brach or an address she gave.
Whatever the method of payment as long as it gets poste dto account before the date, its fine she said.

What do you guys recommend is the best way for BOA.

We will be paying ours by phone. We set up a separate bank account for our settlements and with each settlement we only put in the amount of money they are authorized to take out.

Hope that helps. Good job on your 30%. Feels good. Right?

Thanks Nelly for the advice. Once I get my settlements done we will run our credit and assess the damage. In time it'll come back up and in the meantime we're learning the valuable lesson of living without credit cards. I think that's best so we NEVER do this to ourselves again. We have 2 years left on a car loan that's always paid on time and 28 on a mortgage that's always been on time so we feel pretty good.

It's good for the journey not to be easy. It shouldn't be and it helps cement the lessons we're learning..

Good for you! Congrats on settling yourself. We had two BofA's and they made up the largest of our balances. We settled with them for 20% made over 4 payments. I found them very easy to work with.

You are right about your credit. We checked ours after settlement and we had dropped 200 points. Two years later, our scores have recovered to pre-settlement levels. It will recover.

Congrats again!

debtinthe.. SInce your in the mist of settlements doing it yourself...what should I be reading...I read posts, but is there someplace special or a specific post or thread you advise me to read??

Thanks!

hello .
can i do the negotiation if my credits is good standing? or 1 month late????

I guess you can certainly negotiate with your creditor. They might reduce your interest rate (or even the outstanding amount) if you've been a good customer. You may also discuss a repayment plan that suits your financial conditions.

Intoodeep,

what I did was read this forum over and over while we were waiting to get late enough to settle. I searched the forum for posts specific to my creditors and read posts by others who had settled several accounts and saw what their strategies were. I stayed in touch with each creditor usually once a week or so which was a pain at times but also kept the calls to a minimum. I looked at what others had been able to settle for and made plans for each creditor and what I thought I should be able to settle for, what I really wanted to settle for and what # I was willing to settle for if they offered it. I used other people's experiences to help me determine this. For example one of my cards was Discover. From reading here I learned that Discover is one of the hard ball companies. I saw that 20-25% settlement offers although not never seen were almost unheard of so we decided our target was 45-50%. They were at 70% for a long time. We didn't try to offer them 20% as we did with other companies because we did not want to get sued. I offered closer to where I thought we would end up and finally settled for 50%. With Chase most people seemed to have an easier time getting a lower settlement # in the 20-30% range so I started at 20% and kept at that number or close to it throughout. We settled that at about 22%.

Read the success stories. There's a lot of time between stopping paying and getting to settlement so learn all you can. There are so many stories on here on people who have done it, how and at what percentages. Reading those stories helped me formulate my plan as well as helped me get through the times where waiting was scary. I have only 1 card left to settle and expect to do so within the next week or so. My credit is shot but I have learned so much and I am no longer a slave to my credit card, their fees and APR increases. That is worth all the time I spent reading and the time and anxiety over talking to the creditors.

Good luck!

no more credit,

I was an excellent customer before I stopped paying my credit cards. I always paid on time and had had my cards for many years (7-20 years). I found they were only willing to negotiate a lower interest for a limited time, etc. when I was 1-2 months late. Discussions for settlement were not until after we were over 90 days late.

debtinthe: Thanks so much for all the info, I'm glad that the things that you advised me if most I have been doing...however, I have not really looked into seeing how much each Ccard company will settle for. I'm finding it hard to gather that info..I have a US Bank and wells fargo..neither are very popular( like, case and BoA).
I like you have always been in good standing with all my cards for many yrs life yourself..so this whole Idea of not paying is beyond me, but I also know like you I have to do this..,I can not be a prisoner any longer..its consumed my life for far to long and has caused many problems in my life.. horrible, horrible anxiety and meds are barley keeping at bay...I just keep thinking can I DO THIS?? Do I have what it takes to make offers ect...(I have the money to settle..well my mom does because she has offered to help me out of this mess then pay her the amount I barrowed from her) she sees that I can not longer stay afloat and my poor kids(thankfully they are small) don't get it...but I'm sooo stressed, I'll die of a heart attach if I can't get this done...how long from first missed payment will right now has it been???? I need to know what I'm looking at here.
I really don't give a _____ about my credit score..I really don't. I need to rid of this disaster and screw my credit score. I have no job anyway and haven't in 6 yrs so even if I had a 801 credit score it really means nothing since i have no means to pay for the item(car, house ect...) I'm a stay at home mom and my home is under my husbands name and all our cars are paid off..he just re-fied our home and the credit cards are in my name I'm the one that opened them, really whatever I just want this debt to be gone!!

Thanks for letting me vent and go off topic..but, damn I'm scared as hell to do this...but I already started the ball rolling..I'm a week late on the first card.

Intoodeep,

I'm sure everyone who has done this has been scared. I know I was petrified and the waiting is definitely the hardest part. Our 1st missed payment was in July and we have all but 1 settled so 6 months from missed payment. We are just about 6 months from our last one and that should be settled this week. You started, hang in there. Your time will come.

thanks debt! Can't wait to read your updated post on your settlement of your last credit card...What a joyfull day that will be. I just hope I don;t run into any CC companies that sue..cause I'll die..LOL

Hi everyone,

I am new here and I really need some help. My bf has $24K debt with BofA now. He joined a debt settlement company last May and haven't paid any credit card bill since then (that's what the company told him to do). We found out the settlement company is a scam and decided to negotiate with BofA by ourselves. We called BofA this morning and his debt is already charged off and they only accept 40% settlement, which is around 10K. We can not afford this amount. I mentioned on this forum that people get much better offer. According the lady we talk to, this is their regulation since last Sep and nobody can get lower than 40%. I am confused. How and when did you guys get these great offers? what did you do? Any advice is highly appreciated

I wouldn't mention this site, or let on in ANY kind of way of what you're trying to do. I would "act" clueless and scared, but at the same time, stay firm with your percentage goal. That's what I'm doing, I'm about 110 days in, and they're starting to bend more and more (I'm at about 50%, down from 80). Only 60-65 days more, and I should be at my goal (20-25%). Although 25-30% I would still be very happy!

Anita,

I am so sorry I don't have much advice for you. I settled all of my cards before they charged off so I am not sure how things change after they charge off. I did settle B of A for 25% in January 2011 but it was right before charge off. Good luck to you.

nobills11 and debtinthedistance,

Thanks for your kind replies.