My journey starts today! (updated regularly)

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NO they don't. They were the worst when they called. Telling me to get a new job or have wife get job. You probably already typed them in the search button up top? Some settled I think.

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got another call from discover tonight. i don't think i mentioned this in any posts but i have 2 discover cards. one has $6xxx and the other has like $700 on it. this call was about the $700 card and the $20 payment crap again.

for the first time in taking all the calls i finally had to raise my voice and get rude with those idiots. same crap of "well you can't borrow or sell something to pay 20" and "we think this needs to be a priority". i finally said "LOOK, my first priority is my wife and daughter, house and car, utilities and food, and THEN you scum of the earth." im sure that pissed them off to no end.

i think what im going to do if i do file BK is not tell them when i take the call and get down right nasty with them. cause in the end i don't care im not going to pay and they won't get paid. and i don't want them to sell it off real quick and get something from it!

I have been following your posts. Way to go for trying to do this..it is tough as I am doing the same. What I have always told the creditors is this..."I have consulted once with a bk attorney..weighing our options. We do not want to take out BK as we do want to pay our creditors as we have never even been late on a bill as you can see from our history. However, we have now fallen on serious financial hardship. We have been advised to pay our ESSENTIAL bills and YOU are not one of them." They sometimes try to prod and get more info..name of attorney etc. The most I have ever told them is it was a first time free consult with attorney, we are self employed and qualify for chapt 7. So right off they learn they can't garnish and they will get nothing. So far it is working as I have settled 2 or the 5. Believe me I feel your pain with them getting snotty, but anyways, just thought I would share. Good luck with everything.

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and now the questions are coming in of "well what are you planning on doing with this account sir?". i so want to tell them where they can put their precious account, but alas i have to stick to my guns and play nice just in case i decide i will do a settlement!

Kudos to you for taking your financial life into your own hands and trying to get back on track. Recognizing the problem and committing to a solution are the vital steps.

Just like you, last year I was way in over my head. After careful consideration, I found debt settlement to be a great option for me.

Recently, I settled my $130,000 of unsecured debt for $40,000. I did it myself with the help of a great (and by that I mean effective and cheap!!) DIY program.

I am blogging about my experience and there is a ton of info on the DIY approach I used. deleted..pm

We all want someone to rescue us when we are in trouble, but often the best solution is to help ourselves.


deleted..pm

do not post personal or solicitory info per TOS rules.

well guys and gals, after talking with another attorney my wife and i have decided that its best that i go ahead and file.

there are no cons that we can think of over debt settlement, and surprisingly more pros to it. we just couldn't take the risk of settling and putting that money on her CC.

i'll keep updating as time goes on about the BK even though this isn't the BK forum!

With me, it was my concern over what might happen with an asset (modest small biz) that kept me from bk. I really hate to put my fate in the hands of a judge. With the settlements, even if I later filed bk, none of the settled accounts would be involved. So, for me, trying to settle at a low % on as much as I could was the best move. I'm sure you will determine what is best for you and I wish you well.

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I too considered bk but didn't want to do it for several reasons. One of them being my professional license. But if I just had a regular job I would have done it in a milisecond. People who have gone through this say the bk was so easy. The calls stopped and everything was over. So for some people who ae in extreme stress over their situation it really does work the best.

I found the biggest stress reliever was simply making a decision on what I was going to do about everything. I did settlement, but once the decision was made I started rebuilding my life and I couldn't care less what happens to my credit score.

Here's to stress free living!

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well, the paper work has been turned in to the attorney. all i gotta do is wait until its actually filed, take a course online and go to court. the attorney said its pretty much over when its filed online.

in the meantime, how fast can the CC's sell off the debt if i tell them i am filing? i know it sounds bad but i want them to get stuck with it and not sell it real quick and get something out of it.

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best of luck to you...i myself am new to all of this.i think my latest card is 23 days late. i just spoke to this guy from chase today. first off he tells me i am 23 days late then he tells me if i make a payment by monday they wont report me as 30 days late.monday is 5 days away including sunday 23 + 5 is not 30...do they think i can"t add. This is a scary thing to do, we did the bankruptcy years ago (about 15 ) we just finished a mortgage modification ( it took 18months) the people on here really seem to have had great results with settlements. i would be really happy getting 50% down the line...we'll see

well amex just called and said that it might go to collections in 3 days (80 total). they sure are quick to unload it.

looks like my attorneys office said that they should have me filed before the end of the month but no promises. oh well i've endured months of calls so whats another 3 weeks :)

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ahh discover card, how you piss me off so much! i think im going to make the smallest payment amount possible to shut those SOB's up for 30 more days and hope my attorney gets the filing out before then. every bloody time they call i'm at work and waste a minimum of 20 minutes talking to me and pissing me off further.

every other card i'm dealing with im off within 5 minutes at most and 2 are just as many days past. oh well

DON'T MAKE ANY PAYMENTS!! Tell them when they call you are filing bk and give them the attorney's name and number. Once they know you have an attorney the calls stop immediately. When i thought I was going to file bk I visited an attorney and them gave them the name and number. NO ONE called after that. It stops. so don't pay them just let them know of your decision.

Interesting thing is I had to call them like 3 weeks later because I had decided not to file but to settle. That's when they got serious about the settlements - all except cap one that is.

good luck and I'm glad your nightmare is almost over. I wouldn't torture yourself over the 'I should have paid everyone" thing. The reality is that bk law is there to help those in distress and give them a fresh start. Take it and learn from it - don't beat yourself up - most of us didn't do this on purpose - the economy or illness drove most of us to the point.

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You can if you want but they normally can't sell them off that quickly anyway. They package them for sale and so it's not like it done one at a time or even hand picked by them. It's all done by criteria in their system so I would not waste my money. Once they know you have an attorney they will stop.

But if you really want to send someone that $50, please apply it to my cap one account will ya. LOL

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Make Discover very aware that they know how to get ahold of you and they can not call your parents or anyone else per FDCPA. This should scare them enough - but I don't think you will hear from them once you give lawyer info. My cousin did first line collections for them and she said once they got attorney info it was gone.

Now take that wife of yours out to dinner with that $50!

I have a few questions strategy wise... is it better to give them an attorney's name and number for a while to get them to settle for less?

Also, I got a google voice number and gave that to all of the CC companies and told them that is the only number they are authorized to call. Then set up a nice voice mail and tell them to leave a message ..."hi you reached the XYZ Family, leave a message" then you get an email with the message transcribed to you. You will never get a call again, but you can see when they leave messages and you can call them back when you feel like it.

I am still waiting for any progress on my cards. I haven't gotten an settlement offers yet. My income has dropped to $6,200 a month after a couple of huge business failures. Here is where I am on all of my cards:

Card Name .....Days Past Due .....Balance Due
Chase 1....................76................ $18,000
Chase 2 ...................62 .................$9,000
Chase 3 ...................65 .................$2,100
Wells Fargo 1 ............65 ................$14,000
Wells Fargo 2 ............110 ...............$11,000
Discover ...................104 ...............$17,000
BofA Card ..................72 ................$45,000
BofA Line ..................103 ...............$42,000
AMEX .......................100 ...............$45,000
Citi-Bank ..................126 .................$4,500

Any Advice?
Thanks,
DebtFreeSoonToBe

Well with $208,000 of debt you are obviously in a bk position so I'm surprised no one has offered you anything yet. have you talked to them about settling and what have they said? Especially on the ones that are more than 90 days late. Or have the made offers that you simply don't want to accept waiting for lower ones? I was happy if I could get 50%, but my debt was a lot lower.

I would nicely mention that you are considering bk but you would like to settle instead. You need to stress that you no longer have the money to pay them each month due to a reduction of income due to a business loss and bk is a real possibility. I think it was useful for me to tell them I met with an attorney - try it and see if it jiggles anything out of them.

well i finally said screw it and told discover that im filing. got tired of there arrogant phone calls while i was at work.

so i say to hell with them. even if they do sell it before i file they will still be getting the shaft as they will maybe sell for .10 per dollar.

edit: BOA told as well.

wow that was fast on discovers part. a CA just called and asked if i would wanna settle with them.

Oh now they will settle. That's kind of what happen to me. Hope the settlement is good! Keep us informed.

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amex and chase are aware. all i got is cap1 left to notify. i think im gonna rip their assholes before i tell them. been a customer over 12 years and they raised my apr to 17% as well as some other crap.

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blackbeast you are the stupidest person i heard on this website, get a life. You either file bankrutcy or pay your bills loser

wow almost forgot about this thread!

and to you looker, im not sure what you think i was doing this entire time but i am filing for BK you tard.

but just an update over the past 3 months. well i gave all the paper work to my attorney oh about 3 months ago! its a 1 lawyer 1 lady helper type of deal so they are just now getting around to filing! of course the calls stopped immediately after i told them i was filing.

round about this past monday 11/1 the calls started coming in asking if i wanted to settle. of course i still have no intention to settle, but for all you out there going through this they will call you close to the 180 late mark.

just wanted to let people know there is hope if you can hold out till the 180 mark. only thing that sucks is if you haven't retained a lawyer you can't bluff them with the BK statement to get them off your back.

I had over $250k in defaulted consumer debt that I have settled but I had a $50k nut to work from and used every penny and then some. It does take cash money to pay settlements and without that bk is about the only option, other than disappearing. My best luck was at 180 days or close to it. Something I will say as an update is that I am hearing with the economy supposedly getting better it may not be as easy to settle. We'll see.