Payment Plan Wanting To Settle - Amex & Chase

Do not tell them anything until you have the cash in hand.

I am a former Amex worker and my suggestion to you is not to settle Amex, try to pay it in full. Amex have a program called Oasis meaning if you back back what you owe you will be given your card back with half the balance, lets say your line of credit was 10 000 and you pay that in full, Amex will give your card back with 5000 to start ....and you can build from there.

I think you should settle Chase first.

2. Keep your small monthly payments with Amex, if its hard, then go for it.

If u need more help let me know.

Personally I would settle amex and get as far away from them as humanly possible.

Good info to know. So, am I throwing away money by continuing to pay on the plan for the next 2 months? And am I hurting my chances on a better settlement by continuing to pay? I know it's a gamble, but what are y'alls thoughts?

We were able to come to agreement with Amex for about 58%. We were only one month late on our hardship program and maybe could have done better had we waited, but not worth the stress for us. They were willing to work with us and the person we dealt with at Zwicker was very pleasant.

Chase on the other hand has been more difficult. This account is currently at about $22,000 and the one we really wanted to settle. We are on the assist program and are 2 months late now. I originally contacted Chase 30 days ago to come up with a settlement, because I wanted to make sure that we got enough money to cover the settlement, but they wouldn't talk to me. They continued to call and about once a week I would give the same news, since they wouldn't agree on a settlement amount, we had to get an arbitrary amount of money from family and we're waiting on that money. Once they realized that the money wasn't in our bank, they didn't really want to talk with me.

Today, we have the money. I called to give a settlement offer of 47%, they countered with 75% and said that's the best they can do. Was told it's good for 60 days and can call back after 60 days and try for something better. I explained that I can't make my monthly payments, because that was dipping into my settlement amount - if they came back at a later date to settle, I wouldn't have the money to do so. Also explained that husband is losing job so will have no income. Trying to be proactive and it's unfortunate that we can't come to an agreement. We've been customers for over 10 years and have charged ALOT and have paid ALOT - great customers until this last year with change in economy.

Oh well, we'll continue to hold out.....

It really doesnt matter how long you have been a customer or how much you have paid in the past. Once you start missing payments, you become a liability and they just want you paid off and gone.