Comments on: Credit Card Negotiation vs. Doing Nothing?

By: Batlise

Batlise — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:14:59 +0000

I can help you – please send me an email.

By: Studly

Studly — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:28:38 +0000

The credit card companies are not going to put your debt on hold for several months. Can I assume that you can’t even make the minimum payments during this time?

As for bankruptcy…not sure about that route either. I need to research it, as I am not sure they take pending insurance settlements into account.

After 3-4 months the credit card companies will charge off your debt and send it to a collection agency. At that point those rodents will offer you a settlement of 20%-30% discount. But in order to fix your credit you would need to convince them to delete this from your credit report.

Without knowing your current situation I can’t give you much better advice. But the collection agent option seems best to me.

By: Bill P

Bill P — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:56:12 +0000

Don’t wast your money on those rats.

File bankruptcy? Go to the clerk of the court and they will give you everything you need. You can get information about it on the web.

Don’t wait it only gets worse, look at all your options.

Any other questions?

By: Nicholle

Nicholle — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:03:45 +0000

Contact the creditors again, and see if they will lower the interest rate, if not, ask them to stop any other fees you are paying, if they are still not willing to budge, ask them to lower your minimum payment or to put your account in a program to rehabilitate the account if it is in bad standing. If none of this works, ask for a supervisor and go throught the list of options again. Remain calm and professional and just let them know you need help and you do intend to pay very soon.

I would not suggest paying more money to get out of paying the first amount of money, plus, you already know that things will change in another year.

Finally, you may want to find a credit card with a 0% interest rate offer and transfer the debt over so that you are not penalized further with interest.

By: John Bradley

John Bradley — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:41:31 +0000

By doing nothing do you mean continuing to make payments or not even that? Because if you stop making payments, you credit will be trashed anyways and eventually they may sue you, specially if you are expecting a settlement.

If you can continue to make at least minimum payments, and you are certain that you will receive a settlement, then continue doing so.

Bankrate.com has articles about these debt settlement companies, and their opinions of them generally aren’t very good, even of the “reputable” ones. I would not use them unless I am already in serious trouble and haven’t been making payments.