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Settling with Chase, MBNA, Discover and CITIbank

Date: Thu, 03/31/2011 - 08:44
Submitted by davephillyj on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 08:44
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All 5 of my cards have all been sent to collections. Out of the 5 cards (Chase, Chase, Citibank, MBNA, and Discover) the only ones that I have settled with is the two chase cards. They were very quick and fast and offered way below what I was expecting! The first week they had my two accounts, they came back at 15% and the larger on at 12.?% and that was a shock! One we owed a little over 13k and they took $2022 to settle in full. The other one we owed 3,200 and they too $500 to settle it. I have already recieved my letters to hold on to Collectors were Creditors Interchange for the larger on and NAF on the other). Discover CA is Client Services Inc, and they are not wanting to settle for less than 30% which is 3,842....... Citibank is Alliance One, which I have read on here is horrible to deal with. She has been really nice with me, but will not go lower than 35% after 3 months. MBNA I am settling with them and not a CA. They agreed to 2155.52 so we have to come up with that---Total amount was a little over 11k. I was hoping that the others would go as low as the chase folks did, but that is not looking likely.
Should I go ahead and accept the 30 and 35% offered by the other companies? I think I can get the money from family. Will they send me something in writing first? I have heard of them getting what they can and then selling the remainder off. That had me worried. Any help would be appreciated. right now we stand at 52,000 in debt

If the real estate market had not took such a hit, we would not be in this situation. I was selling 20 houses a year and getting over 80k a year. but the last two years...... I didn't even bring home 10k.....So I have a part time job that I do as well that I just was able to get a couple months ago. I am hoping that nothing like this will ever happen again. I will never live WITHIN my means again, I will always live below them.....That way, if something happens like a job loss---I am still within my means.... I hope to find a lot of comfort on this board hearing from others that are going through the same thing. I have felt so alone for so long. Thanks so much!!!;)


I would jump at the 30% offer for Discover. I couldn't get them down under 50% and others on here have had difficulty with them. I settled my Citibank at 33% but my balance was pretty high. So what they are offering is good.

You should have settlement letters faxed to you before you set up payment. Congrats. you're on your way to being debt free from credit cards.


Submitted by aubrey on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 11:55

aubrey

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No, the two chase collection agencies called middle of the month....Chase was my easiest to negotiate with as well. I had one card down to 15.2% and took it. And my larger one that was about 13k they settled for 12-13%..... NOW I did not deal with Chase I delt with the Collection agencies. One was Creditors Interchange and the other was NAF I think. They both sent me emails to verify that the amount will be posted to my credit report as settled in full by the Chase company. I told them that I only had X amount of dollars to settle their account with and I started at 10%..... They came back with the other numbers and I jumped on it with both feet! I never in my wildest dreams thought they would settle that low. But from what I've read, always start real low, you can go up, but you can't ever go down! I gave them the number of my bankruptcy attorney that we gave a $50 payment to as a "down payment" so that he would tell them all he would represent us when we paid him in full. I gave all my creditors his Name, number and address, and they DID call him---I guess to see if I was bluffing. They saw that they better get what they could, before I filed for BR.....
After reading about Discover not giving under 40%, I called them today and accepted the 30%. I've been trying my hardest to get them down further for 6 months, and I guess I should be happy they offered this!!!!


Submitted by davephillyj on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 16:07

davephillyj

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But I did learn from one of the Chase collection agencies NAFS (National Action Financial Services) he told me up front when I told him I only had $10,000 to settle all 5 cards or we would go to bankruptcy...... He told me not to tell the others that I had a certain amount of money, but just to tell them I did not have ANY money and would be borrowing it from a family member. If they think you have the money in the bank, they will want you to make installments....You want to make a one time lump payment. This was the first time he called and he gave me so much info and told me to get online and research it all. He offered us $500 on a $3378 balance......So I took it right then and there... Here is what he said on the other companies I had to deal with

** Citibank will sometimes settle for 20-25%
** CHASE will go as low as 10%---but most get 15-25% depending on how much they negotiate
** Discover never goes under 40% (but I got 30% after 6 months of them having it, they were about to send it back to discover for them to sue if I did not pay today....They told me that back in February that March 31st would be it)
** Bank of America (Mine was MBNA owned by BoA) will go down to 15%

This is after they are turned over to collections....Not going with the company. Now from what I have done....They go throught the whole spill of ":we are trying to collect a debt and you are being recorded" spill.....I tell them, I also am recording this converation, as I want to make sure my husband understands everything they are telling me, and I dont want to get it wrong.... That's not really the case, but it keeps them from being ugly to me and lying, and that was the point. I also cry a lot while on the phone. I let them know that our income was cut in half this past year (they have no way of verifying that really) but in our case, it really was. I gave them the number to my attorney we put on retainer and told them to call and verify and they did. I told them they still had permission to call me. If you do not give them permission after you give them an attorneys name and number that represents you, they CAN NOT CALL. then all your negotiating power is gone, so make sure to tell them you want to AVOID BR and you are in the first steps to see if you can.


Submitted by davephillyj on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 16:23

davephillyj

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