How to settle?

[brokeNconfused]

ok well my wife is going to borrow money from family to pay her debts. its not a lot, like around 2500 total in orignal amount owed. Well she has not paid for a while and looking at credit report it seems as if they are still "in house" collecting. She tried to settle one account for the maximum credit limit and asked to have the fees and penalties removed in order to wipe this clean. They said no. Told her she has to bring account current before she can discuss it with them. its credit one bank. well that means paying 250 in penalties first then trying to settle account.

question is this. does anyone have advise for settling with the companies? It would be nice to settle for less, but she is willing to pay the original amount owed to each before they added all the "extra" anything to tell them? who to ask for ? WHAT NOT TO SAY?

[treehugger1]

My "expereince" has been that no original creditor is willing to work out an arrangement until you are closing in on the charge-off date. By then, your credit report is showing 150 + days past due. If you can find the additional $250, then you might "potentially" save a bit of the credit score. On the other hand, if your wife is considering BK, you might want to let the account chargeoff and she can include it in the BK.

Again, in my expereince, I have had no creditors willing to give me a "great deal" until the accounts were close to charge-off or after 180 days of default. I have no idea why they do this. I guess it's their insane rules. One would think they would be willing to take the principle in these trying economic times.

[AngelinaCat]

We filed Ch7, so I don't have any Ch 13 experience, but we were warned rather STERNLY by our attorney not to try to settle with any of the creditors outside of the BK proceedings. That if we did so, that we ran a risk of having our case dismissed.

Did you and your wife file jointly? Or did you file alone? In any case, I would contact your attorney ASAP and talk with him/her about this.

Good luck.

[AngelinaCatHub]

How can I not agree with Mrs.? (and survive) In my opinion if they will not talk, STOP paying them. DO NOT take money from parents as paying them back in a 36 or 60 plan could cause you a problem with preferential or insider payments.

In other words, if they cannot reason with you, you then you have no reason to be kind. Forget the Credit Report. What got you here to this site? CREDIT. If you cannot pay for it now, you don’t need it. GOT IT? Please understand, we have been there. ‘Hub

[catleg]

ok well my wife is going to borrow money from family to pay her debts. its not a lot, like around 2500 total in orignal amount owed. Well she has not paid for a while and looking at credit report it seems as if they are still "in house" collecting. She tried to settle one account for the maximum credit limit and asked to have the fees and penalties removed in order to wipe this clean. They said no. Told her she has to bring account current before she can discuss it with them. its credit one bank. well that means paying 250 in penalties first then trying to settle account.

question is this. does anyone have advise for settling with the companies? It would be nice to settle for less, but she is willing to pay the original amount owed to each before they added all the "extra" anything to tell them? who to ask for ? WHAT NOT TO SAY?

Did you file chapter 13 solo and are now trying to settle this one thing outside of BK to keep her credit "good"?
It sounds like you spoke with the front line collectors here. Probably need to get bounced to another dept, the hardship or "uh oh we aint getting nuttin here" group and tell them, well I'm broke but I can borrow $1000 from my parents to settle this, what do you think, can you accept that. It has to be clear that otherwise no other payment is forthcoming. Bringing the account current is the last thing on your mind.

[brokeNconfused]

this is not my debt it is my wifes. I did not include her in the 13 plan becasue at the time she had means. Her plan was payoff with tax check , but it was not enough. I am not getting involved just looking to get her some ideas about settling.

can she speak with someone in the "front line" collections to pay this off? or does she have to wait for someone else to get her debts?