My experience with settling with original creditors!

[catleg]

You must be a terrific negotiator to get those kind of breaks after only 2 or 3 months late.

[mokaye]

Thank you for sharing this information! I am also going down the DS path instead of BK. My wife and I have 13 cards with a total balance of $125K. We are hiring an attorney to help negotiate with the CC companies. We also have 3 cards with Chase. Glad to hear that you were able to settle with them. I just read another post that mentioned that they sued after only 4 months, so I am pleasantly surprised to hear you had a completely different experience and hope/pray we do as well.

After Chase offered 85% settlement and you refused, did you wait two months to re-contact them or did they contact you when you finally got the 50% settlement?

I always was the one who contacted Chase first. After the 4 months late, I was able to negotiate with the 35% value. I think because I had been proactive calling them, they were more likely to settle. I think if you avoid them, your chances of settling are a lot lower, therefore they do sue. I received my settlement letter today via fax. I would share the letter with you guys, but I don't think there is a way for me to upload it here. It was true to terms just like we had discussed.

Best of luck to you in your settlements. It's really not that hard, just time consuming.

[mokaye]

You must be a terrific negotiator to get those kind of breaks after only 2 or 3 months late.

Yes, I like to think that I am. I'm in sales so, negotiating is what I do.

[ryan]

Yes, Mokaye, thats pretty good. Especially getting Discover to settle for less than 50% after only 2 missed payments. I believe it, but its hard to believe! :-)

[TeacherMomma]

I really hope this works for you. I owe less than you on my cards (same creditor on a few) and none of them have been willing to settle. They just want their money. Also make sure you get a signed release. Wish you luck, but to me, you're stepping into an area where you owe people money and they want what you owe them not half of what you owe them. Like I said I hope this works for you but all the stuff I've read tells me you will never get the agreements you made over the phone with the OC's in writing.

I did. AMEX faxed me right over my agreement for 10%, and so did Chase just on Thursday. The whole thing in writing.

[mokaye]

I did. AMEX faxed me right over my agreement for 10%, and so did Chase just on Thursday. The whole thing in writing.

Wow, 15%, now that is great. How many months late were you with Chase to settle for that? I may need to hold out for longer.

[mokaye]

Yes, Mokaye, thats pretty good. Especially getting Discover to settle for less than 50% after only 2 missed payments. I believe it, but its hard to believe! :-)

Yea, it went to a collector really quick for Discover. So the collection agency was ready to get it done and so was I.

[TeacherMomma]

I haven't made any payments since January 2009, and had a time period from may 09 to sept 09 when I was involved in a chapter 7 that was dismissed. After that they just started calling around october or november and I would talk to them every few weeks to see what percentage they were at as far as settlement.......over the last two months they got in the range we were ok with. Amex called immediatley after the bk was dismissed and offered 10 percent.....that was the first phone call.

[mokaye]

Update, I've settled all of my 3 cards with Chase for 20 cent on the dollar. All of my cards totalled to 29k. Needless to say my actual payment is 5,800 and I'm debt free within the next 45 days. Yippee