Re: Settle? If I may add...

Posted by MomOfTriplets is back! :) (205.188.209.12) on April 09, 2003 at 17:41:52:

In Reply to: Re: Settle? posted by Confused on April 09, 2003 at 14:10:58:

Hi there...Not sure if anyone remembers me or not, but I left the board for a few months while I got my life back together (Name should remind you) and I have missed you all very much. Thankfully, I am able to breath again and begin my journey of debt free living. I did peek back in once in a while to update my brain with the knowledge and encouragement this board offers. If I may add some insight on the settlement letter stuff for Confused...

I agree with Lady about initiating the terms for settlement in writing yourself, send CRRR and keep your receipts. You should hear back from them in good time after you get your receipt and if you don't it might help to keep contact with them only my mail and don't answer the phone or call them. I say this because it worked for me big time. After 2 months of being litteraly "hard-to-get", they were more than willing to talk to me when I called them back. In fact, I think I might have given a few of them a heart-attack! lol
Wait about 2 weeks and send the letter again, same terms. After the second rejection, stay in the dark for a while.

I am not sure who you are dealing with but these are the ones I have settled and expierence with:

I settled with 3 of my ORIGINAL creditors earlier this year. With the three of my cases, two of them waited until the last week, just days before the offer was set to expire (and charge-off) before even sending me a fax of the darn letter thing. If I may say...MBNA settled to my terms and was quick to get me the letter in the mail and no funny business, 30-day grace period for payment and settled for the lesser percentage to my terms, only agreed to "paid", but that is OK. They removed the late marks so it is a positive thing. Discover claimed to have sent my letter 3 weeks before deadline. but I didn't get it in the mail until after the agreement expired. Luckily, I was able to get a fax 3 days prior to the deadline and make a phone payment with an account opened only for settling in someone else's name and now closed. And CHASE...what slime! Don't get me wrong, I had them for about 8 years, never paid late until bad things happened to me and I had to let some things go...and I have no complaints about them in general. Their settlement department SUCKS though! I called them every day for 30 days to get a darn letter from them, said they sent it 3 times in the mail. Each time..."We will have to pass this letter on to blah-blah department for approval and you will get it in 5 days". Never got em'. Then I talked to a "higher up" and said to get me the damn thing or forget it all together and I will use the money and pay off another credit card in full! Oh the promise of getting that letter went trash. I had to get a fax the night before the offer expired and pay by phone with this one too. And the gal I talked to barely knew English, didn't know what she was doing, saying the payment will be put in for the following Monday (3 days late). I said OH NO IT WILL NOT! Checked with the bank before closing the account and it did post for the correct day. I never received POO in the mail, except for another statement.

If I would have had time, patience and a printer that worked, I would have sent Settlement letters myself or if money would have allowed I would have hired a willing bankruptcy lawyer to send them for me using his letter head. I was just running out of time. SAVE YOURSELF TIME AND SEND THE LETTER YOURSELF! Calling them will only make them feel important. (In some cases anyway)

By the way, the above 3 creditors settled for 32%-38%. Of course, it took many months and right up to the last few weeks before charge-off to get them to go for it. In my opinion, they could not get what I didn't have to give them. Of course, I did take 2 hits on my credit report as I was not able to negotiate my credit reporting in time, but my score was 825 before my life changed the end of last year and it is now 760-743. Even with settlements and late marks posted. What I think helped was paying off a few high-balance cards and my vehicle in full and all other debt on my report to "0" balances after everything was settled. I know my score may end up worse in due time from the settling...but not too sure. In my situation..my credit can't get me what I don't already have and thanks to the support of this board, I was able to protect everything and will continue to do so and live again! That is what is more important. LIVE AGAIN!

Last Feb. Our fridge went out and 3 one-year-olds with no fridge is hell, so I contacted one of my other large credit card companies (CitiBank/Associates) that I paid off and asked them for a lower rate because I was making a large purchase..they agreed to 14% from 19% and we put a fridge on it and made 2 monthly minimum payments. ($1100.00 was the total bill.) When my hubby got his tax return this month, we paid it off as we intended to do, so there is still hope for repairing your credit after settlements. You have to start somewhere and just have to know when to stop!

After all of this debt stuff, I was actually able to get a new $13.00 pair of Tennis Shoes. I could have gotten them before, but I didn't think I deserved them because of how low I felt over this stuff and put everyone else first. We no longer have to budget Laundry Soap into our lives, we just get it when he run out. I am now saving up a little each month to buy a 3 passenger stroller so I can take my 3 girls out for a nice summer walk and show them there is life beyond these walls and also to put a headstone on my father's grave! Finally! LIFE IS GOOD! :)

Thank you everyone and GOOD LUCK!

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