I know not to sign the offer, but should I TYPE my name in after Sincerely? Anybody ever had any settlement luck with Amex? I owe them $1900 - I am trying to start low as suggested somewhere else on te board. We really don't have the full amt right now. November 19, 2002 American Express P O Box 297804 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33329-7804 Re: Account Number xxx To Whom It May Concern: After many months of being unemployed, I am writing this letter is an offer to amicably settle the above account and avoid bankruptcy. It is not to be construed as an acknowledgment of my liability for this debt in any form. I will pay your company the amount of $600.00 as full settlement of this account. If you accept this agreement, I will send you a money order or certified cashiers check for the settlement amount of $600.00 in exchange for a full deletion of all references regarding this account from my credit profile and full satisfaction of the debt. This agreement is binding and will be void should you not hold up to your end of the agreement. Furthermore the debt will be deleted from my credit profile at all three credit bureaus or the bureaus your company regularly reports to in the course of doing business. If you agree to the above, please acknowledge with your signature and return a copy to me. Upon receipt of this signed acknowledgment, I will promptly send you a money order or cashiers check in the amount stated above. Notice: This agreement is restricted. This is not a renewed promise to pay but rather a restricted settlement offer only. By not signing below, you agree that the debt has not been renewed nor has any concrete written agreements been exchanged. Creditorâ??s Authorized Signature: _____________________________ Date:____________ Name Title : Sincerely, jlynn
You might want to add in that if they agree, sign and return this document along with a copy of the UDF they sent to the cra's asking for removal. That way, you can fax a copy of the UDF to the cra's and have it removed in a matter of a few days.
Jlynn, Thought I'd answer to this thread as well! Not sure what your Amex status is, but hope the following helps! Do a search for my name and you'll get the settlement details. The attorneys would not settle for deletion... or even a discount. It was impossible to play hard ball because we had a hearing coming up! Also, I found a few threads last night that suggested paying directly to AMEX. We didn't do that. Wish we had! Would have loved to have locked out the Nationwide pigs and their attorney scum! If you are still working on this one do a search for: Amex and Credit and Bureau and Unit You'll find some excellent threads!
Jlynn, how did your settlement offer go? I have an unpaid CO with them I am looking to settle on, doing some research. Any advise? Thanks
Well, they ignored the one from the original post. I had the money just about saved up to do the full payment, and then my adorable 10 yr old broke her finger. (No health insurance right now . Three days later, my just as adorable 9 yr old severely sprained his previously broken ankle. Two ER trips, three trips to the Orthopod, and PT for the 10yr old who pitches competitive fastpitch. Amex gets to wait. Nationwide is stalking my EQ report, so I'm sure Amex is going to bring themselves to the forefront very very soon. Oh joyous days await.
Isn't that always the way!! Sorry to hear of your daughters health troubles. I have an outstanding $4000 balance with them, been paying it off for 18 mths. I was wondering if I should offer to settle and if they would be willing. At this point, even if they update to paid in full rather than delete (which they are not known for doing), it would get the past due notation off $1500 which is absolutely killing DH's scores. Not sure yet if I have to go through RMA (they are not reporting), hopefully not. Thanks!
Jlynn, Sorry for the late reply. Our account was for $5,800 and I didn't do anything until after suit was filed. My head was still up my A__! We knew we would be selling our house to relocate to LA and just wanted to buy time to pay it off out of the equity. After the initial contact in February when they wanted something like $7,200 we did nothing over the phone... all by fax. I didn't trust them at all! Instead of filing a response to the complaint, with the help of an attorney we filed a request for demurrer... basically asking for a hearing to request that a judge to throw out the case b/c the attorneys did not include a copy of the contract in the complaint. The demurrer did its part. Pushed everything back to late April after the house closed. In mid-April I sent a settlement offer of $5,000 hoping it would bring them down from $7,200. I also wanted full deletion. They said $6,200 and no adjustment to CRs. After about five back and forths by fax, it was clear they weren't budging! We could have played hard ball and waited till after the demurrer hearing in late April, but we wanted the monkey off our backs and my wife (her account) didn't want to testify at the demurrer. The court is located about 65 miles from the attorneys' offices, so we were planning a strategy of bringing them down here a whole bunch of times to eat into their fees! In the end, we agreed to the $6,200 in two payments one in Mid-April and one in early May, though we paid it off at close of escrow in late April! We signed a "stipulation of judgement" that would have gone into effect if we failed to pay. In return for full payment the case was dropped. In the end, I'm happy we did it the way we did. I'm not sure Amex would have so readily agreed to drop the derogs if we had paid less!
Well, I'm lucky in that I won't have to come up with that much money - mine is $2076. If that #&($ that DH is working for would pay us the two month's salary he's behind, I could just write a check with no problem. What ya gonna do though? Quit... that would really help. Jobs aren't abounding for a 50+ with no high tech experience.
Hopefully the boss will cough it up soon! Good luck! Nationwide is a bitch to deal with! Don't let them get you down and try not to let it get to the point where they sue you! Glad to help at the end, though I'm sure there are others who have done much better than we did. Once that suit is filed it becomes a lot harder to negotiate!
