Settlement with Chase Bank before charge off

You can try settling again before charge off although you may have better luck in collections.

Call them again and make them the offer. See if that works. Charge-offs do not look very good on your credit report but since you are already considering BK as an option I believe that you are not very worried about your score right now. In case the account goes into collection, you can always negotiate a settlement with the collectors as well.

Great job and outcome!!!!

Thanks for the suggestions. I will call them a few days before the 25th.

I also contacted BofA credit card. They offered me a 70% settlement on a 22k debt. At least they were willing to work with me but still too much. Unlike Chase they did not even ask me how much I was willing to offer. They just looked in their system and told me what they would take.

Reading through the forums,some people suggest making a minimum payment right before charge off in order to "reset" the charge off clock. Does this work and is it advisable?

As compared to BofA, Chase does play hard ball when it comes to settlement negotiations. Moreover, why settle for less than what is owed on an account which is not old per say and possibly sue the debtor for the full amount plus some.
As far as resetting the charge off date is concerned, there are a couple of factors at play here:
1. Charge-off periods are a matter of the bank's internal policy and may differ. FDIC insured banks play according to FDIC regulation which has established charge off time frames.

2. Most of all, it depends on the amount covered by this last minimum payment you are planning to make. If the amount is calculated based on the compounding balances carried forward from month to month, your minimum payment due will change to reflect that and in case you make THAT larger minimum payment, the bank might not do a charge off.

Just an update. I was unable to reach an agreement with Chase before charge off. Debt was sent to Client Services for collection who agreed to settlement at ~30%. Thanks for all the advice.

I misunderstood the condition of the B of A. I agree with you, you probably will get a better offer then. However, you may be able to get a better off now if you're assertive.

Try this, call Chase first and try to work out your deal right now, but with 3 payments instead of a lump sum. Make the first 2 payments for the amount of your normal minimum payment, with the third payment being for the remainder of the settlement.

By doing so you should prevent the charge off and lock in your settlement, and you'll only fork out a minimal amount of money while you wait for your other creditors to cooperate. So this way, in case you're unsuccessful you didn't throw away any serious money and you didn't alter your creditors view of your collectability.

Then call the other creditors and try to expedite their process. Going the exception route will a lot of times allow them to deviate from their normal settlement parameters. These parameters are more geared around your time of delinquency. By negotiating for an exception you will direct your situation to a decision maker that may be able to cooperate with you right away.

You sound like you have a nice handle on things. Feel free to follow up.

I was under the impression that charge offs were done at the 6 month/180 days mark. My last payment to chase was done on Sep 22, 2012. Could they have been just trying to pressure me to start making payments by threatening charge off, even though I am not at the 180 day mark yet?
Timing is an issue because my larger debt is with BofA. I think I may get a better offer the closer i get to charge off with them. They told me charge of for that account would be in April, even though my last payment to them was also on September.
I had been hoping both charge offs would be at the same time (therefore creating additional urgency) so i could negotiate them together. If calling Chase before the 25th does not work, I will have to let them do the charge off and wait to get an offer from BofA that I can work with. At which point I will have to see what Chase did with the charged off debt and try to settle that one too.

I have no idea why they are not settling with you -- that's pretty strange -- but if it does charge off prob will go to a collection agency which I know will settle -- but.. it will hit your credit so some people don't like that -- good luck :)

Jared, thanks for the encouragement.
I just finished speaking with Chase. The representative I spoke with told me once again that my account was not eligible for settlement but that she could try to submit an exception so they can review that decision (no guarantee that a settlement would be offered, just a review). I would need to submit additional information about income prior to hardship/after, mortgage, insurance, utilities, gas, etc. I think this information would be over the phone, it did not sound like they expected faxes of pay stubs, etc.

BUT I was told that even before attempting to make this exception I would need to make a minimum payment of ~350 (my regular minimum payment). This is because apparently they don't have enough time to do the "review" (it would take about a week/10 days) before the charge off deadline of today at midnight.

For the record I also upped my offer to 4k, but this would be on top of the 350 payment to postpone, with no guarantees that a settlement will be approved. The representative told me they can't even review my latest offer until the account is reviewed and made available to settlement.

Will making this minimum payment hurt negotiations in any way? They say i could do an over the phone check or make a payment online. What strategy would you suggest to get this resolved?

Postponing charge off would be great but not willing to keep having this same conversation every month with chase, in which they keep trying to collect monthly payments.

I just called chase at 8663398391. Once again was informed that there was no settlement option available on my account and that charge off will occur Feb 25th. I'll try my luck with collections as Soap Lady suggested, and just concentrate on BofA CC for now.

At the delinquency you described, you should be able to generally cut your deals right now.

I would call them back right away and be more assertive. From what you have described, you're relying on them to make the offers. It generally doesn't work that way.

Most of the time you have to be the initiator and make the offer. And when you do, It's important to do so with some urgency behind it.

Once you have determined your strategy to create some urgency call back and ask them to submit your offer as an exception. If they explain they can't, reemphasize your urgency and go up the ladder.

It sounds like you have the ability to settle all your debts at the same time? If you do, it is highly advisable to finalize your negotiations at the same time. This way you eliminate the risk of wasting money settling some of your accounts, in case you are unsuccessful settling others.

Feel free to follow up with any questions. Good luck.

Called Chase one last time to try to upgrade settlement offer but was once again told account does not qualify for settlement offer. They did mention that a payment of ~700 would postpone the charge off. Would this be advisable? And would it reset the clock, ie add 180 more days before next charge off, or just postpone for one month?

Hey Whynot,

I wouldn't waste the $700. That's a lot of money and probably double the amount of what's necessary. Your normal payment on 14k should be closer to $350 - $420.

I'm shocked that you're experiencing this much difficulty with them. Chase is normally an amenable creditor to work with. It sounds like you have made a nice effort too.

I'm a bit perplexed, as you should be able to strike a deal right now with no problems. Since your account is scheduled to charge off tomorrow, you should call them one last time. Go up the ladder till you get the answer you're looking for. Seriously.

Whynot, I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've had to do this myself. Sometimes speaking to as many as 3 - 5 managers or supervisors on one phone call is necessary.

Just make sure that you're professional, accommodating, and that you negotiate from the perspective of logic and common sense.

I'll check this thread again tomorrow. So, feel free to update or reply with any further questions. You should be able to strike your deal tomorrow if you handle it correctly, so it's worth your time and effort. Good luck.

Awesome. Great job!!! Everything they said is inline with my experience. It will probably take them a few days to look over the exception. And the $350 is right inline with what it should be.

I would call them back and explain you have very limited funds, so you'll need the $350 to be counted towards the offer.

They should be able to accommodate you by submitting your offer of $4,000 in 2 payments. One today for $350 and one thirty days from now for $3,650.

The budget information is fine to release. And yes, it will be done over the phone. You should be doing it today in fact, when you call back to arrange the payment.

You're doing great! Let us know what happens.

I would call 866-833-6398. They settled my accounts for less than 30 cents on the dollar.

Hi -- I had 3 chase cards -- total was around 30k -- they all charged off -- went to collections agencies -- mostly united collections bureau -- still are sitting there -- lately they've just been changing agencies -- if you dont' have it -- wait till it goes to collections and try to settle with them -- they did send me letters they would accept 3500 to 4000 on an 10k bal -- good luck - - message anytime

In respect to it hurting negotiations. Not in the slightest. It should enhance them, because now your account will be in front of the eyes of someone who gives a hoot about minimizing the banks losses to charge offs.

I'm not saying that they will accept your offer, I have no idea what you look like on paper.

But, even if they counter offer, you'll have 30 more days to negotiate with them before it charges off.

Remember, they don't want it to charge off anymore than you do. Their motivation to avoid charge off could end up tipping the scales if their delinquency rates go up over the next 30 days.

If their delinquency rates go up, they'll be more inclined to negotiate beyond what they were before, in an effort to offset the other delinquencies by collecting from you.

That motivation would cease to exist if your account was already charged off.

It's a low risk/high reward situation. I would personally do it for myself.