I want to try and negotiate a settlement with Providian. We haven't paid on our credit cards in almost 2 years. I have been agonizing over bk for that long. We were able to refinance our home and came out with enough to pay off Providian. Our credit limit was $5000, but with interest and late fees and such it is up to $9000. I would like to pay them closer to $5000. Our credit is shot anyways. Does anyone have any experience dealing with them? Do I call them, or mail them a letter with my offer? If I can get them down, I will have enough left to do the same with Capitol One. What do I want the letter for pay off from them to say? I know they can hit me with a 1099 at the end of the year. But I don't want them to be able to come back later for the rest of it. Any guidance to do this right, or at least leaning in my favor would be greatly appriciated! Thanks, Pat The title company sent me a check for the $9000 made out to providian, but I understand that I can negotiate with providian and send the check back with a pay off letter and they will reissue the check with the difference to me.
If you are looking at having to file Bk due to financial reasons, unemployment etc. and your credit is shot, why would you pay anyone that chunk of money when you can use it to help pay your mortgage rent etc. Bk fees? That sounds one sided right now, by me, but we did that "wait and try to work it out thing" for almost a year and we kept paying, credit went in the toilet anyway doing hardship programs, phone calls and we still ended up having to file, and could have been using that money to paying on utilities, mortgage etc. Talk to at least 2 attorneys to find out what your options are. I am not advociating Bk, but it is there for a fresh start. With all of the info on these boards, repairing your credit will be easier than you would have thought, and rebuilding your credit will take less time. You can start right now. I am not 1/4 as experienced as many of these users, but I have gained so much info and am using it. It just gets better and better, there are crummy days, everyone has them, you get to read about them here, LOL, but I 'll let you in on a secret, after we filed Bk7 and started repair, we could sleep at night, buy groceries, pay the utilities and house payment, and looked forward to conquering the credit reporting bureaus any way we could. And guess what, it's working!!! So keep that chin up. do a bit more research, don't pay anything until you have consulted with at least 2 attorneys, and good luck to you.........
Thank you for your reply. I have considered all that you have mentioned. I've been doing research on bk for almost 2 years. It is still a consideration. But now I have a check for $9000 made out to providian, so I think I have to pay them. I just want to pay them as little as possible. Any suggestions? Pat
See what this does for you: I, YOUR NAME HERE, will pay your company, CA NAME, the amount of $XX 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 $XX 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. The alleged debtor, YOUR NAME HERE, does not admit liability for the claims made by COLLECTION AGENCY. The purpose of this settlement is merely to avoid the potential future costs of litigation. Both parties agree that this settlement for X% of the disputed debt shall be confidential and in no way an admission of liability or acknowledgment that the debt is valid. Both parties agree that no future reporting or verification of the alleged debt shall be provided to any credit bureau. 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 have any concrete written agreements been exchanged. Creditor's Authorized Signature: ____________________________________ Date:
If the original debt was 5000 start out about 1600-2000. If you have to pay more than that insist the account be marked paid as agreed or deleted from all CRA reports. Do as much reading and research here as possible BEFORE you contact them in ANY way. You definately want the written agreement to state the account will be considered paid and WILL NOT be resold. Good luck.
Thank you! I will read some more before I contact them. So I should start that low? I do owe them $5000, but they also don't have any scruples about running up late fees and interest faster than I could ever dream of keeping up. I'll be so glad to get these settled. Then I can work on clearing up my credit. I will never own another credit card. I have my mortgage and that's all I need.I might like to refinance for a lower rate in a few years. We're both 50 and disabled, we've raised 5 kids and have never had an extra penny to rub together. Right after we decided to give credit cards a try, my grandaughter was born 3 months premature and spent 5 months in the hospital. We lived on those credit cards for the first 3 years of her life. I don't know what I would have done without them. They allowed me to be there for her and my daughter. I guess that's why I don't mind paying what I owe. 3 years ago my husband was laid off after 13 years at his job. We moved to Fl and he had to take a pay cut. Then he got sick and it's been down hill from there. We were 2 weeks late and they wrote and wanted $500, 3 times our overdue payment, now, or they would close the accounts. Close the accounts, fine with me. But the charges added up so fast, the little that we could pay would have been thrown down a hole. My husband had to quit work in July, so the refinance was more to get extra cash to hold us over, but it included paying providian. So I am trying to hold onto as much of that money as possible and still pay them something. Thanks for all of the info and the words to use with them. That is mostly what I was looking for. Pat
