If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Here's the situation. I've owed roughly $60,000 on 7 different credit cards (Amex, Discover, Chase Visa, Bank of America Visa... you name it) for the past several years. Despite the high interest rates, I've always been able to pay at least the monthly minimum without being late, ever. But I lost my job several months ago and now it's just impossible to me to make any more payments. I was taking out cash or doing balance transfers to cover one card/bill from another. But now they are all maxed out and my job prospect is still bleak. I'm out of funds. So I simply stopped making payments to any cc. It's been about 40 days now since my last payment and they've been calling me left and right. I would still like to save my credit if possible, by settling with them. I know I can't borrow $60,000 from friends and family but perhaps I can beg very very hard and borrow 20-30k. Do you think I'll be able to talk down to the various credit companies to settle for approximately 30-50% of what I owe to them? Or do you think they'll say that's too low and just sue me or charge my account off and sell my account to a collection agency? If they do sue, I've no real hard assets. I rent, I've no job at this moment, no luxury car or anything of great value. Anyways, my impression is that I can eventually settle with a collection agency years down the road. But by then, my credit rating will be messed up and in addition, many collection agencies are notorious for accepting a settlement but still not remove the bad marks off a credit report. Or worse yet, they will take your payment but still come after you or sell your account to someone else. I've heard many horror stories so I would like to try to settle with my original creditors (the credit card companies) first. Anyways, my sad story turned out to be quite long. So thank you for reading it and I would appreciate any feedback. I'm so so stressed and worried these days...
