This may be the only time this happens in my life, but I have some cash in hand to settle a debt right now. This will really be the only time I have to settle a debt. I don't want to dispute the validity of the debt anymore, and I am interested in moving forward.
(sorry I got cut off.. I AM A NEWBIE!) So I have medical problems and lots of $$ going away to pay for medical costs, I am upside down in a home, I live in a depressed economy and I am not employable right now, and I simply cannot afford the accord and satisfaction offer they made to me of $5K. I do, however, have a check for $3.5K which I WOULD LOVE to have make the debt go away. I wonder who, if anyone, has had any luck settling a debt for pennies on the dollar, between 35% and 40% of the debt. The CA who is handling my case is in Houston but I forget their name. I also am anxious just to call the CA and run this up the flagpole but it really is my BOTTOM LINE offer to settle... the cookie jar is empty after this check for $3.5K. Thanks for your responses!!!
With all your financial woes, are you sure you want to send it out the door? Are they hounding you, threatening to sue? etc. I'm not telling you not to pay the bill! But if you are upside down, ill, and unemployable, that 3.5 may come in handy.
i agree with jlynn. i had a lump sum of money at one time and decided to pay off some credit cards -- before reading this board. yikes!! paid off cards but derogs still on report. then other things more pressing happened (car died, health issues, etc) and the funds weren't available. read these boards and make sure you have all bases covered before letting go of that kind of money. i hope things work out for you.
I am interested in how to negotiate, although your thoughts on "do I really want to negotiate?" are helpful, although back burner issues to me. Thanks for thinking of me though. Has anyone been able to negotiate a bill they wanted to pay to 40% of the credit card balance? How was that accomplished?
How much they will settle for depends on how much they think they can get from you. If you have been unemployed for a while and do not have any prospects, and no money, then they will settle for less. If you have a job, and money in the bank, they will settle for only a large amount. It is your job to convince them that you are hopeless and have no way to pay. I helped a relative settle $75,000 in credit card debt. Some accepted nothing (Penneys); others wanted it all. Sears settled for 80%. On average, we settled for 20%. Another thing they look at is how long you have owed this money. If it is a recent debt, they will probably not be real interested in a low settlement. If it is very old, they will take less. Also, the CA matters. Some are real buttheads (can I say that here?). It would help if we knew who it was. If you tell them you have $3500, that is as low as they will go. In fact, they will treat that as your opening offer and will try to get more. So don't even think about telling them how much you have. I agree with the others. Hold on to your money for food, housing, and medicine. I only answered your question because you wanted an answer. If you absolutely want to do this, I would wait for them to call. Then tell them you cannot do it unless you sold your refrigerator and the kids bike. They will tell you that is a good idea. Then, get it in writing that they will delete the negative tradeline from all your credit reports. They will want to mark it "paid". That does you no good at all. It must be deleted. And get them to agree in writing that they will accept this as payment in full and will not sell the deficincy to another collection agency. Before you go any further, make sure the debt is still within the statute of limitations. If they cannot sue you, it makes no sense at all to pay them.
Karen, your message made a lot of sense and I appreciate it. Since there are obviously trade spies from CA's on this link--and this question is an ongoing thing---I am keeping my eyes open. There are a lot of things I am reading about here on this site that don't yet quite sink in but I am trying. The one thing that is bugging me about the collection account right now --the one that I have $$ for right now--is that I have never had bad credit before this, maybe just a couple of late charges that soon went away, and the reason I incurred the collection account was really really unfair. More later.
