Negotiating Credit Card Debt

Submitted by tawana1956 on Mon, 04/14/2008 - 05:22
Forums

I have yet another question!!!
I haven't seen this addressed but I'm still going through old posts. My husband had a credit card that he defaulted on. He finally made arrangements to pay them $50 a month. However, his original balance was 450.00 now we are paying off over a thousand. They offered to settle for 715.00, is there a letter to offer them a lesser amount something more realistic since he only owed 450.00 in the first place?

Thanks again all for the useful information. You are are all a wealth of knowledge.

This is when you use a validation letter--you want a breakdown of how the balance comes out to $1,000+, and I believe the debt forums have a template of a settlement letter.

Mon, 04/14/2008 - 09:29 Permalink

If your husband stopped making payments on the card all together then the balance owed might very well be around $1000 with all of the crazy late and over limit charges that have probably been assessed. How long ago was it that he went bad on the card? Sounds to me like you might be well off taking their settlement of $715. You might want to request they remove the credit item entirely if you pay it in full. Not all companies will do this but some will which will really help his credit.

Tue, 04/15/2008 - 00:43 Permalink

I have an Imagine CC. The payments were coming out of my bank account. However....fell on a bit of a 'rough month'. I tried to get on their website and tell them I couldn't make a payment right now. They had 'payment options' I could choose from. One of them was 'financial hardship...cannot make payment'. Ok...I clicked on that. But...when I try to go back into the website, a window popped up, reading 'You no longer have an account with us.' That's NOT what I wanted to do. I tried to call the Customer Service number. I explained my situation, and the woman said, "she couldn't help me because I don't have an account in her system with them. Any suggestions on how to handle this?

Tue, 04/15/2008 - 11:52 Permalink

Ask to speak to loss prevention/mitigation/whatever...maybe you can convince someone to reopen your account.

Tue, 04/15/2008 - 12:28 Permalink

I would like to see hopw this worked out for the OP. I also think most people before offering to settle a debt should always have them verify the debt first and breakdown the charges. It is at least some protection.

Sun, 04/27/2008 - 01:47 Permalink