need help on settlement 4 cc accts I have 4 chargeoff cc accounts; citi, mbna, fusa & discover. mbna & discover were sold to first select & report $0 balance acct sold or transferred on all 3cra. citi & fusa show balances & are with collection agencies. These accounts all co in early 01. I have a few questions. What % should I offer to settle with citi & fusa. what % should i offer to 1st select? balances are as follows citi=$8500 fusu=$14000 1st select=$3200 1st select2=$34000 . My credit was perfect until 00' my cra's are all in the 580 range now. I have no judgements or collections showing yet. I plan to sell my home soon & buy another. Any advice would be appreciated.
Re: need help on settlement 4 cc accts Those are all pretty high balances, they will probably come after you for that. if you can buy and sell now, do it, otherwise, if they sue and get judgement, it will affect you when you sell. You may want to talk to a lawyer.
Re: need help on settlement 4 cc accts thanks for the info. These accounts went bad when I lost a job. I am now back on track & if these oc/ca settle for about 25% on each balance I can pay in full now. Is this realistic? Would you reccomend this?
Re: need help on settlement 4 cc accts How much they will settle for depends on how much they think you can pay and how long ago you defaulted. Also, they will consider the equity in your home that they can go after if they sue, and will want to know how much you make in case they decide to garnish your wages. In other words, should they take 25% now, should they sue, or should they just wait? Your default was not that long ago, so they are not in any hurry to settle because you may have more money in a year or two or three. Keep in mind that when you offer to settle, they will know as much about your finances as you do. When I had a problem, the collection agency knew (to the penny) how much was in each of my accounts. If your settlement money is in a bank account now, you need to move it out before you even talk about settling. Also, they do not look at the problem the same as you. If they see the settlement money, they will feel that you should use all of it to pay them - forget the other creditors. They want their money.So if you say I have enough to pay each creditor 25%, you have screwed yourself. Each creditor will want it all. Tell them you have a little money to pay a bill and want to settle one account at a time. You have enough to pay them 15% - no more. Be willing to go to 25%, but moan and groan and let them know that you will have to borrow the money from your dying mother. Tell them that if they cannnot help you, you will try another creditor. They usually will not take the deal at first. Be willing to wait. That being said, when I settled about $75,000 in charged off credit card debt for my father in law, the average I paid was about 20%. He had no cash, was elderly, and had no way of getting cash, so they knew anything I gave them was more than they could get in the future. So there was a big incentive for them to settle. His house was protected by state law from creditors, but we needed to sell it. The proceeds would not be protected from creditors, so we had to settle before selling the house. He had a very large account with Sears who does not do well negotiating. If it had not been for this account, the average settlement would have been under 15%,
Re: need help on settlement 4 cc accts Thanks for that excellent info. Should I expect the mbna & discover that were sold to 1st select to show up as seperate collections? 1st select is not on any cra of now.
