Here is my situation.....I am not really sure what to do. I have 6 accounts that I am paying through CCCS (I know, I know), for just over 2 1/2 years. Sears Premier $1,594.28 21% Sears Plus $2,390.91 21% Providian $1,893.63 17.74% Best Buy $433.99 9% The Associates $219.33 12.99% Discover $3,468.28 9.9% Total $10,000.42 The discover is a charge off account, and they have a settlement against me. They have agreed to take $2100, but I am still negotiating for deletion, I have not committed to anything or signed a thing. The adjusted total, if Discover agrees to delete for $2100 is $8,632.14. The other five accounts are all current and have no derogs. My dilemma is I have $7300 to settle all of these debts. I took a loan against my profit sharing, I am paying the loan back to myself at 5.5%. This loan was kind of a no brainer for me, pay the above companies an average of 16.5% or pay myself 5.5%. Would it be worthwhile to try and settle any of the other accounts (besides Discover) for a lesser amount? With these accounts being current with no derogs wouldnâ??t I be hurting myself by trying to get "good" accounts deleted? If I negotiate a lower payoff amount will the companies report it as something other then paid as agreed/Paid in full? Should I try this over the phone or by mail? Should I just pay off what I can with the loan money and make payments on the rest,( hopefully double or triple payments since most will be paid off)? I am anxious to be out from under this debt, we want to buy a house next year, my wifeâ??s credit will be the major project. Thanks for the advice, Crile I have several questions about CCCS that I will post in another thread
I'm still thinking - but I will put some thoughts out there. 1. You don't want anything to read "settled in full for less than full balance". Lots of reasons; it is a negative, and some shady CA is liable to come after you one of these days for the balance. Lets assume Discover will delete. (I don't have any experience with how tough they are or aren't. That would leave you $5200 to play with. So, you pay off the two @21% interest = $3894. Now you have two complete paid off positive tradelines. You take the other $1300 and pay off most of the 17% interest loan. When I was in CCCS, my payment never changed, and I could "select" where I wanted leftover monies to go. So you pile everything on the $600 you have left on the 17% cc, and minimums on the other. What is your minimum payment to CCCS? How much longer would you have to remain in the program to enjoy the cheap interest and finish paying off the debt? Or were you thinking about exiting, at which point your interest rates would likely go up? And, how much is that loan going to set you back each month? I don't know how willing any of these cc's would be to settle for less since you are current with them. You could always ask. But you definitely want nothing less than paid as agreed on all the ones that have no derogs now.
I personally wouldn't recommend trying to settle any of the others for a lesser amount. If these are all positive tradelines, you will actually be hurting yourself by having them listed as a settlement rather than paid in full. If you put all of that money toward the other cards, similar to jlynn's recommendations, you will be well on your way to being cc debt free and still have all but one as positive accounts. indigo72
I agree. Pay the highest interest rate first, pay off what you can. Then what you have been paying on those accounts you pay on the highest rate of the ones left. Keep adding the amount you were paying on paid off accounts to the next one, so as you pay off a card you're paying more per month on the next one. You'll soon see progress, and you'll keep all of those accounts in a positive status.
