Can you please advise me on attempts to settle some of my debt? I am trying to avoid bankruptcy and only have funds to settle a few of the unsecured credit cards that I owe. Wells Fargo has already settled for 25% of my balance, which I understand is a very good settlement. Apparently they understand that I am really in dire financial straits. Some of the other companys want 50% - 75% of the balance which is impossible for me to pay. Should I hold out and try to get them to settle for 25% or maybe 30% or try to pay one of them at the 50% that they want?I have not paid on these cards since Jan. as I simply can't afford the min. payments any longer. I have just gotten my income tax return and am willing to use it to settle some of my debt. My situation is this: 1 small balance still making min. payments, 1 settled, 2 under $2000 which I am going to ignore and hope they write off, and 5 more accounts with balances from $2500 - $7000. I don't know if I should try to pay one of them at the amount they have agreed to, try to get 2 of them to settle for less, so they both get paid something, or worry most about the one I owe $7000 to since it is the largest debt and probably most likely to sue me. (They will have to drop their offer from 75% of the balance to 30% for me to be able to settle with them though.) The companys I owe are NextCard, Discover, Chase, First USA, Direct Merchants Bank, First North American National Bank, and WalMart, if any of you know about their prior willingness to settle or how hard they pursue collections. Thank you for taking time to read this and reply.
I had accounts with Chase and FNAB. Chase sued me and won a judgment, prior to creditnet. Attorney they used in that one....well can we say shark? Actual word I cannot print, but would contain many #$@, etc. Word around town, is he is an A$$ and this from other attorney's. FNAB charged off, CA on report, but have never recieved anything from them. The CA is also filing BK. It just sits on my report and disputing now.
can I reasonably expect balances of less than $2000 to be written off, or might I be sued over so little?
