Why does debt settlement take so long?

As long as you are making your minimum payments on time, your creditors are not willing to negotiate on your balances; the interest maybe. You have to fall delinquent at the very least 120-180 days to get good settlements, the longer time passes the better the settlements.

I think I have made one payment in the past 5 months...and it was not a full payment. Is that a good place to start?

Its a good start, but you should not make anymore payments. I myself went through a company, and the reason why it takes so long is because the longer it goes the credit companies feel they will not get it at all and will be more willing to take something rather than nothing. Through the company that i used, they only got paid by the % that they saved me. so of course they would play hardball with the companies to get the best deal possible for me. in return the companies wanted what they wanted so from what i understand it is a back and forth thing were one comes up and one comes down a little until they are in agreement. But from what i understand the longer it goes the better deal you will recieve

My experience with at least one creditor was that even though we tried to settle early-on, they poked around and stalled until even more charges and fees accrued, so at the end they offered a bigger percent, but the final total was still the amount near the original debt. Weasels!! Thank heaven it was a very small account compared to the others. Those seem to be harder to settle at lower pecentages than the larger ones.

This is very true in my case, the smallest card i had was the one that took me to court. There arguement was that it was a small amount and that i should just be able to pay it. (1,000.00) you would think they would be taking the ones that owe them a bundle, but not this one, they fought it till the end.

Hi finance,

If I owed you $100 what would you say if I told you to take $40 and leave me alone? It is only natural that negotiations take time. If it's a year later you may have just given up and be glad to accept $40, a better-than-nothing amount.

That's basically why settlement negotiations take so much time.

Hope this helps.

chrys