2 weeks until 180 days

The accountant is correct. You need to make more aggressive offers. BOA is normally easy to settle with. So, you should settle the debt with BOA as early as possible. If you are finding it difficult to settle the debts with the creditors, then you can get help from a debt settlement company. They can negotiate with the creditors in a better way. However, personally speaking if Chase and Discover have made a settlement offer of around 35%, then you should grab it.

I must say 35 percent offers are excellent, if you can work that Chase account down some more it would be perfect. Do you have any:
-Extra cars
-Boat
-Baseball cards, etc...
Anything of value you do not use to fund these settlements? Have you tried obtaining interest FREE loans from friends and family?

Hi Good Nelly, Thanks for your reply. I actually settled already with BOA. I am sorry I should have probably posted this in a different way. Also Chase and discovers offer was percentage off my balance. Meaning chase wants 68% of balance in full and discover wants 65% of full ballance. I have access to a 401k which after taxes would give me 20000 to work with the creditors less the 5000 already given to BOA. This leaves me with 15000 to take care of 46000 of my remaining balance. Again sorry for not being more clear in my original post. With these numbers and dates looming in my head, I get a little confused at times. If you are saying that these are good offers, I really only have the balance of the 401k withdrawal to work with and I guess I would need to pick one to settle with. Is it possible that they will still make offers after the 180 day mark and still keep it in house?

pemperandgartle,
Thanks as well for your reply and again sorry for not being clear. I woulds jump at 65% for given. Thats just about where I need to be. I spend a lot of time thinking about this day in and day out and I must say how relieved I was to settle the first one. At least I am moving along in the right direction. Any other input is welcomed and apppreciated. Thanks again!

Hey All,

Here is some updated information on my journey. Monday is call day for credit card collections which I always take to see if any new plans are available. I did make some progress today.

Discover called looking for payment which I was not able to commit to. But I did find out I am past the 180 mark as of now but I have until the end of April before it is totally charged off. No new offers for a total settlement at all but they did want to get a payment of 200.00 to keep me from charging off. Hopefully something will be offered next month as I dont want to wind up in collections. 13000 still owed but will increase next month. Best full settlement offer still stands at 8500.00.

Chase was going to charge off by the end of month. And litigation proceedings was going to start in April regardless of charge off. 12000 owed. Best full settlement offered to date was 8200. They offered 6000.00 payable over 90 days. Not exactly what I wanted as I am 2000.00 shy but to avoid charge off and stop the court proceedings I am probably going to take it as they said the offer is absolutely the lowest it will go without going to court. I have 3 days to decide. Sounds like it would be in my best interest to take it before it goes any further.

Still have a way to go but it feels like I am making some progress. Hope I can do something with the rest. Any helpful advice is always appreciated! Thanks for reading!

No need to be sorry. It is ok. :) First of all, I think you can pay the $200.00 to prevent Discover from charging off your account in the next month. Next, they are making a settlement offer of around 68%, which I personally feel is not good. Debt settlement normally helps consumers to settle the debt by paying 40% to 60% of the payoff amount. I think you are not being able to negotiate the settlement properly. Check out the following page to know how to settle debts on your own:

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/steps.html

If you are still unable to achieve good result, then contact a reliable debt settlement company in your locality. You can get a list of reliable debt relief companies from our Ranking Chart section.

The same thing applies to Chase also. But, if you still cant do anything, then pay off the amount to avoid charge off and the court proceedings.

Greetings "had_it_with_credit",

Regarding the chase account, was it a cash advance, everyday stuff or ?
Kind of surprised about their actions.

Chase was one of my easier accounts to settle with.

Regards,
King "Kash" Jabba Labba

Hey good nelly,

Thanks again for your reply and advice. BOA was almost too easy. They did everything for me and less than what I kept offering. Wish they were my last settlement instead of first. Discover I have until the end of next month. They seem stuck on the same offer or keep giving me various repayment plans that add up to the same thing. I will read those steps which hopefully will give me a little better negotiation knowledge. I did talk to others locally that had the same hardship situations as myself and they found chase, citibank, and discover to be very hard to reach a deal with. I am happy to have the court charge put on hold as the answer I would need to offer for the summons would be covered by me agreeing to repayment terms and would receive settled in full upon completion.

Hey King,

The chase debt was all personal purchases with no cash advances. Had the card since 97. Had a high balance of 19000 about 10 years ago and we have agressively paid on it to get it to 12000. I am not sure either why it went to this active litigation department, but after this it went to chargeoff and the continuation of a civil lawsuit. They said 50% was the best offer they could offer. I am inclined to take it to preventing any further movement. Thanks again for your reply.

Hello again, "[COLOR=#003399]had_it_with_credit",[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#003399][/COLOR]
Sounds like you've been doing all the correct things such as the continuing conversations.
Chase-me down may be changing the way accounts are collected on.

In my opinion, ff 50% is what it takes to slay the plastic master, do it.
Negotiate agressively on your payment terms.
Just remember that for every minute you are on telephone hold, it's costing them money.

It's one step closer to debt freedom.
Make certain that the 50% offer is "everything" and you know to get it in writing.


Please let us know what happens next.
Regards,
King "Kash" Jabba Labba
[COLOR=#003399][/COLOR]

Hi King Jabba Labba,

I talked with others in my area that also said they had a tough time with chase as well. It may be if they have local lawyers on retainer they will send the civil summons. Chase said they could not go lower as the attorneys said if it goes to court they feel they will get the entire amount by mean sof garnishments and leans. I offered 3000 originally, they said no. 8200 was their number. I went to 4000, they said 6000. I said 5000, they said six take it or leave it. 90 day repayment plan. Need first payment by the 26th to prevent charge off. I am just waiting for the charge off letter before sending payment. Glad to have that one behind me...

Now I have discover and state farm bank to deal with. State farm called and said charge off is March 31. Offer from them stands at 15000 of my balance of 23000. They did say I can present any offers but getting it approved will be up to the supervisor. Any starting point tips would be appreciated as this one has to be done in about a week. I was thinking starting around 6000. Thanks again....

I am surprised that you are getting that bad of settlement offers. That is a real bummer. If State farm has to be done in a week, I would make an offer of 25%. Feel them out, and call everyday. You have until the 180 day mark, so use every bit of it to shave off %'s. If one person one day lowers it by 10%, call again the next day and try to get them to go down another 5%, and so on, and so on. At day 179, start negotiating, and raise your offer little by little. It sounds bad, but just make a game out of it.

Honkytonk Man,

I had a hard time with chase getting to 50%. They claimed the only reason they moved at all was that I had the card for a long time and had a great repayment history. They also said that I always took the calls and they understood that I was in a bad spot. Over the 6 months, I had one better offer 7000. I didnt take it and they never offered it again, but they said they did have a record of it. They told me that as it progressed from department to department and closer to litigation that the settlement offers would increase. I do have some equity(not much) but I didnt want to take a chance and have a lean put on my house. The bank wouldnt even consider a loan due to lack of employment and the outstanding card balances. One thing I did learn is that cash really is king.

As for State Farm, I have been offering them 25% for some time and they keep offering 70% with no wiggle room. Part of the balance is from a balance transfer(not cash advance) from about 5 years ago. I am not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I will use my week wisely. I am afraid that if I wait until day 179, I will not have enough time to get the offer in writing. We will see what the week brings. Thanks again for your reply and other post! Back to the battlefields.....

Hey King and HonkyTonk Man,

I found out some interesting information as to why I may have had issues settling my chase card. As I agreed to the 6000 settlement number, I received the settlement fax and written letter within 48 hours. I did make a call to ask about the way it was written and wanted confirmation that this put a hold on the summons. The rep told me that chase only has their own lawyers in 5 states: 3 on the east coast, 1 on the west coast and 1 in between. All other states are settled inhouse before charge off or sent out 3rd party collection after 180 days. He stated chargeoff would have occured at the end of the first full month after you hit 180 days. So in reality I had another 30 days, but the lawsuit would have went ahead regardless of chargeoff or not. Everyday I learn something new. This may be why others have a hard time while some just breeze through the process. You never know if these rules will apply to your particular situation but if it helps just one person, then its all worth it.........

Several of my best settlements came into play only after charge off. I do not agree with postponing the chargeoff date hoping for a better settlement. You may well do BETTER following charge off so there is not much point in postponing it unless you have a unique situation.

Hey Dan,

Thanks for the reply. What is the effect on your credit rating going from settled in full to charge off/3rd party collection. From what I read here, it seems like collections/3rd party is a differnt animal to deal with as far as how aggressive it can become. I have also heard it is the best outcome in the settlement game as far as your rating. Not that I am really worried about credit score now verses getting my debt cleared up. It would be nice to recover somewhere down the line once gainful employment is reached and know that it will not take 10+ years to be able to have some type of credit worthiness.

Charge-offs have a negative impact on your credit score. Debt settlement can hurt your credit score too. But if you go for Pay for Delete settlement, then your score will be least affected. After you settle the debt, keep on adding positive information on your credit report. Your score will gradually improve.

Hey all,

Heres an update as to progress. State Farm Bank. Calls used to come in once a week. I was informed that as of March 31, the account will charge off. Now calls come everyday, several times a day.I am taking each and every one. Most of the time I get the same person. They seem to keep pushing re-age and hardship repayment plans which I repeatedly turn down. Full settlement offer was 14800 which was up from 13500 on a 21000 balance. I started out with 3800 tax refund amount. That was denied. No counter. I added a small insurance amount to it the next day to make it 5500. Also denied. Counter offer was 13800. Still higher than the lowest offer I received 90 days ago by 300. Next day another call to see if I found any additional funds which of course I had not. They asked if I could get together any funds over a 90 period to complete a full settlement. The only income we really have coming in is unemployment so I offered an additional 1000.00 making the total offer paybale over 90 days to 6500. Also denied no counter. Not sure what will happen from here but I got 2 more calls the same day from them. One was robo dial and I got disconnected while holding for some important information and the other I just repeated the same offer which was denied again. I have a feeling the calls will continue everyday now until the end of month. I just hope that I find a person that will accept the offer as my offers are going up, there is little to no movement on their end. Hopefully over the weekend I will make some positive progress. We will see.............

It doesn't seem like they are lowering the offers in your situation for some reason. Have you considered filing bankruptcy? Just throwing it out there, since it varies so much for each person. If you don't have a lot of assets, no (or low) equity in your home, ect, you might want to look into it.

Hey honkytonk man,

I have about 25% equity available in my home and just about enough in our 401k to cover the credit card debt but that would leave me with absolutely nothing left. Our accountant doesnt feel that with the new laws concerning bankruptcy, we wouldnt be able to walk away completely free. So he said if you would have to have a repayment plan anyway, it would be better to try and settle first. Like I said in previous posts, BOA was my first settlement and the easiest. Chase at 50% was better than going to court, but unlucky for me that they had an in house lawyer team in my state. I have had most of these cards for 15+ years with a perfect repayment history, so its not debt that I took out a year ago and can't pay. I still have until the 31st, so I will stick to my last offer of 30% and see if the offers come down from here. I can always go to 40% of the 30th if need be. After that I will have to take my chances with 3rd party collections. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks again for the reply!

Have you considered TELLING them that you are going to file BK, and that you have no other choice here. I have read on here, that some ppl use that strategy and it works. They throw out there to the creditor that they have spoken with a BK lawyer, who is advising that they do that. You tell them that you dont WANT to do that, but things are looking like that is your only option. I have also read that others pit them against eachother saying I have $XX.XX and that it is going to the first one to accept your offer to them. Just a thought. Sounds like you need to get tough ON THEM...not them on you. Good Luck.

Hey Help Me,

I actually just told them that I was going for a free consultation and I would use that information on planning how I handle my credit situation moving further. That really doesnt seem to move them. I have not heard from them yet today but the day is not over. Thanks again for your reply

Hey All,

Just an update on my journey. Well Thusday is the charge off deadline for SF CC. Since last Wednesday, the calls came in non stop at least twice a day. Couldn't get much movement until today. Balance was 21000. Best settlement offer was 13800. My highest offer was 6500. Today I was offered 10,500. Great offer, but did not have the funds to get it done. Not wanting to hit charge off status at the end of month, I asked if someone could consider my previous offer. I was told no but their next offer went down to 8500. That was getting closer to where I was. At least with movement in my favor. I tried to split my offer and theirs at 7500 spread out over 3 months. Offer denied. So I thought about waiting until tomorrow or even Thursday, but the rep assured me it wasnt going lower. I figured not a bad offer and with 3 months to secure funds with what I already had saved, I figured I would grab it. Just waiting for the settlement letter to come in although my first payment must be made by 3/31. The letter may come on April 1. They assured me everything was recording and will be the same in writing. If I wait until April 1, it is too late and collection is notified and account is no longer with the CC company. So one more to go......toughest one for last. Hopefully 7 months and done.

Can they e-mail you the settlement letter? Or would that not be as binding as the actual letter?

I actually asked if they can email it and they said it was not possible. It could be faxed, which could take 2-3 business days or mailed which could take 7-10 business days. Although they reassured me that everything discussed was being recorded (everything was repeated twice and the constant beeping sound which I believed) and would match the payment dates and amounts that I agreed to.

Gotcha. I hope it works out for you, I just don't trust any of 'em when it comes to verbal agreements. I need to get myself a phone recorder asap!

Good luck!

Hey Anonymuss,

Just wanted to let you know that the fax came in last night as the payment came out today. It was exactly as discussed. I don't think that the actual credit card companies would play around with something like this but it is better to be safe than sorry. After today, 3 more payments and done. Settlement numbers have not been as low as others, but I am happy not to be dealing with court and 3rd party collections. Strangely enough, we have been receiving credit card offers again over the last 6 weeks and we just started the repayment process. Haven't read any of the offers but I must say they are good as an alternate way to heat my house and save on the gas bill. Discover by the end of April and my journey will be over........