Been 3 yrs and I'm still only getting 50% offers

[LadyInTheRed]

Sorry , guess losing 2 wives to death by the time I was 43 kinda keeps me in the morbid zone

I'm so sorry for your losses.

I am an estate administration paralegal, so I am always in the morbid zone. While we have young deaths, most of the estates I deal with are for people who died in their 70s. There are plenty in their 80s too. I have one client who is the executor of her husband's estate. She is 92 and going strong! So, don't give up on life so soon.

[mckinnea]

I stopped paying on my Citibank account close to a year ago and today received a settlement offer of 10k on 29k balance. I'm still not motivated - nor able to pay..

[josephga]

I stopped paying in october of 09. all my offers have been the same. this month I got another letter. they want too settle for 9500.00 on allmost 24.000. I'm mailing out a letter this month asking for verification of account. when they mail me back I'm going to counter offer with 6000.00 with 30 days to decide or I file bankruptcy. hoping the threat of bankruptcy with motivate them to take it or get nothing....

[joshuagraham]

The problem with trying to settle your debts--unless they are all with the same creditor--is that as you begin to settle some of the debts for a low percentage, your other creditors will start to think that your circumstances have improved and you have money, so they'll sue. So for example, if you have 5 debts--all with different creditors or JDB's--and you settle the first one for 20% or whatever, and maybe settle the second one for 20% as well, then I can guarantee you that one (or more) of your other creditors will sense an opportunity to bring suit and garnish you for the full amount plus collection fees, attorney fees, etc.

So in the end, you will have wasted valuable money on settling that could have been spent on exempt assets and filing for BK. Furthermore, any taxes owed as a result of settling debts ARE NOT DISCHARGEABLE IN BANKRUPTCY even though you could have discharged the debt itself without any problem.

Agreed. I tried to get all my creditors to settle for 5% with an ironclad contract, but failed. Instead they got 2%. LOL And as the taxes would have been onerous, I would probably have declined in the end.