Comments on: Credit Card Debt Negotiation or Debt Settlement

By: lynn

lynn — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:57:07 +0000

i spoke with an attorney about filing bankrupcy –7. he suggested trying to settle first and talked about asking for a 1099 waiver from cc companies/collection agencies. has anybody heard of this and if so anyone successful?

By: Gilly

Gilly — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:08:42 +0000

I’ve dealt with Bof A and several others. The only way I could make headway with any of them was to go into default and negotiate over time. My BofA accts took anywhere between 6-10 mths to settle, and at anywhere from 14-20% of the new balances as they accrued with usury interest and fees. By the way, when I first began trying to work with BofA, it took me 8 people, multiple phone calls, xfers, getting hung up on before I reached a so called analyst who finally suggested I call a debt settlement company to settle at 60-70%. Do it yourself, be patient, and don’t pay anyone fees for this-they’ll only guarantee you results that are less effective than what you can do for yourself. Remember, you’re gonna need the extra cash to deal with the 1099’s on the back-end(for taxes)that you’ll receive later–their ae different options in dealing with this as well depending on your circumstance. Hope this helps you!

By: Faye

Faye — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:40:45 +0000

Anyone deal with Bank of America? Called them today. They indicated that they no longer will negotiate principal reductions. You either, according to them, “qualify” for a 5-year program through their “Proactive Account Unit” or you don’t. If you have too much debt (I threw some numbers at them to see what they would consider), you do not qualify and they will not tell you what their criteria is either. They certainly seem to lean towards negotiating with a debt consolidator/management company but not a debt settlement company because, like I said, they stopped accepting debt reduction. No answers as to why using an outside source is more effective than doing it yourself. The little I got out of that question was the assurance they get that the monthly payment is somehow more apt to be consistently paid through a debt consolidation company versus dealing direct.

By: Tim McCarthy

Tim McCarthy — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:30:08 +0000

Great article! By the way, I recently read in the book Bankruptcy 301 (http://www.bankruptcy301.com) that some credit cards will settle your debt for 60% payable over 60 months and not requiring you to pay all of it within a month or 90 days. I called up all of my credit card companies and found out that Citibank is doing this out of kindness to their customers during this difficult time. I took them up on this great offer–what a relief I didn’t have to pony up the cash right away. Better to negotiate directly with the companies–by the time you factor in fees, debt settlement companies seem to be a rip-off.

–Tim

By: Rabi H

Rabi H — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:19:00 +0000

Hi.
I have two account with GE Money (Furniture: Bed and Flat Screen).
As per today I have $3000 (bed) and $2800 (Flat screen) balances , my brother agree to payoff $5000 for me. I want GE money to lower the total balance with $5000 so I can Pay it off .
How can I do that ?

By: Joseph

Joseph — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:18:07 +0000

If you have trouble dealing with creditors then do what I do and only communicate through letters. If you only work through return reciept letters then if they do sue you then you have proof you have been dealing with them or attempting to deal with them. The worse thing I believe you can do is stick your head in the sand and expect the situation to go away. if you get sued do not admit you owe any monies at anytime because it is an automatic judgement and you will never get a good deal. If creditors have the burden of proof then they are more likely to work with you.

By: Foxie

Foxie — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:32:55 +0000

Hello
I am going to make this as short as possible. I became disabled in 2003, consequently my incoming monies were reduced to about 62% of what I was making. This year, I finally decided to go with a credited nonprofit credit consolidation company and have been very happy with their work on reduction of interest rates and the regular payment schedule. Prior to disability I was able to deal proficiently with creditors ,or anyone for that matter, but since, I am extremely emotional and feel overwhelmed everytime I attempt to work with someone concerning my financial issues. (It has become extremely stressful as well as it takes a long time for me to recover, physically)so I felt by going this route, I owe less then 10 grand, I was being responsible about my dept plus kept from going into bankruptcy, which my mother, “the banker”, always told me to avoid at all costs.

I was informed one company, Dell Financial, did not work with credit counselng companies in any venue. I was shocked so of course I needed to research if perhaps I had gone with the wrong credit company. Unfortunately the information was correct and when I called Dell, they confirmed it as well. The representative I spoke to, told me to get my account current and call back, and usually they did work with customers on reducing interest. (I have to admit, this is the first person, in customer service, with Dell, who had ever really helped me in any capacity and I thanked him profusely) A couple of weeks later, I called back to explain my situation of disability, a decrease in pay, placing all my credit into a credit counseling program. I requested a reduction of interest, and was told they could reduce my aprx 25% rate by 3%! I stated that why could this not be reduced more, considering my situation, and was told that this was decided by their interest adjuster group. I then inquired if I could speak to such a person, she said no, and that it would do no good. I inquired as to what their criteria was in order to come to a conclusion of 3%. She didn’t know but was sure the credit report was part of it. I stated well if I had great credit, I would not be working with a ccs at this point, and was there anything I could do to better my chances of getting a higher reduction? Her reply was It would be better if I called one of the credit report agencies. I was flabbergasted and said so you are saying your company has no control over your interest rate, they do? That doesn’t even make sense that you are referring me to a credit report company instead of someone within your own company. lol. So I thanked her for her help and asked to speak to her supervisor. Of course, she said the supervisor would only tell me what she did.

I fully explained my disability situation with the supervisor and what I was doing so that I could pay off my debts. The supervisor said he would put notes into my file and send it onto the adjusters to have them reevaluate my account and then mail me their decision as to how much they could reduce my interest rate. I did make a point of saying to him, look, I am making an attempt to pay my debts. Because I have tons of medical expertise, on paper, stating I am in no condition to work, and in fact they are now labeling me now as “perm disabled”. I think bankruptcy would be easier for me to obtain then many folks. But no, here I am calling you trying to negotiate a lower interest rate so I can pay off my dept to you. It would be to your benefit to work with me. This was all done politely and as professionally as I could do so. I was quite proud of myself for making it through the whole phone call without crying or getting upset simply because of the meds I am on, as well as the conditions I have.

Well, 2 weeks later I got the lettet stating they could not reduce my interest rate,,,at all! Not even the 3% I guess was possible. I feel overwhelmed. I did call a nearby local ccs place to ask a rep how else could I approach Dell? I am at a loss. He suggested I might try to get a hardship deal. I plan on trying this once I get my nerve up again..thats just it, it takes a lot of energy for me to deal with this stuff. I wish I had a good friend who could step in for me and help me but at the same time, I am proud of myself for making the attempt. It was a difficult decsion for me to relinguish control of my fiances to the credit counseling company, big time. I’ve always been an overachiever and I wish I had done so earlier, but for now I am just trying to take it one day at a time. It took me a couple of months to get over the emotions of doing so.

I feel overwhelmed. Can you think of anything else I should try? Or is there someone or some group that might help me on this one company? I have thought of csontacting our consumer protection group in our state..but I don’t really know if this is something they would help on. Suggestions highly welcomed.

Thank you

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:55:13 +0000

If I take settlement with a credit card co. and they give me an r5 rating or “settled” rating how long will it take me to get good credit again and how long will it stay on the credit report. Can you negotiate the rating as well and if so what would be better.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:37:25 +0000

Debt negotiation which leads to debt settlements is a process to eliminate large amounts of debt either in one lump sum or a set of installments. Debt negotiation cannot be started at least until account has fallen 90 days delinquent, if account is this past due then your credit has taken a hit. It is not ethical or legal to suggest to anyone to stop making their payments to their creditors.

Joining a debt settlement program will cost money, my best suggestion is if you are going to join a debt settlement program join one that only charges fees on performance, meaning a company that only has one fee. A fee for negotiated settlements only.

DYI or do it yourself is not as hard as the author suggests. I have been negotiating debt for a long time, if you want to negotiate your own debt you need t o study the following:

1. Study Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
2. Learn a base of commonly debt settlement terms, for example charge off, litigation, reaging, etc… You can find this vocabulary n most debt settlement sites or blogs.
3. You need tough skin. When speaking on the telephone with collectors you must be made of steel and always be two steps ahead of them. Never cave in, sound sure of yourself and negotiate wisely. I do agree with the author about debt negotiators, their experience negotiating every day. I did not know how to negotiate unsecured debt at first, I started one account at a time and so can you.

By: akshay

akshay — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:46:56 +0000

hi, i was using a standard chartered credit card in april 2007 which had 50000 $ limit, i had used the card to a limit of 57000, the bank did not sent me bills for first 3 monhs, but after that one fine day sudenly i got a call saying me 3000 $ as minimum due payment as they had rounded up my outstandin @60000$, this payments of 3000$ went on for 4 months after that i was out of my job and all this continued for 4 months and because i was out of salary i dint paid the minimum amount, they called me last month and said me that i have to pay them 90000$, which is impossible for me to pay, is there any way for me to compromise on principal amount as its very tough to pay all this amount