Amex 'Oasis' offers

[MrShush]

So back in my early 20's I had an AMEX Optima and was irresponsible with it to say the least. It was stolen and I took my time calling it in as I had no idea the implications of bad behavior. The account was charged off because I refused to pay for charges that I did not make. Fast forward 12 years and I have cleaned up my credit pretty well and have become a prime, home-owning, customer. I frequently get offers from AMEX but they abruptly stopped until the other day. I get a letter from them to settle for 60% off of the 'alleged' balance or $50 a month for the next 15 months and I'll be paid in full. First, I know if I affirm this debt, I'm probably screwed restarting the clock for collection activity, second, my EX file is junk because of 2 junk BMG fraud collection attempts, and third, I really don't know what the implications of accepting this offer will actually do for me.

Has anyone ever accepted there offer of forgiveness? If I were to accept this, would I be reissued a card for the the amount owed and if so, wouldn't it be maxed out from the get go? What's really the deal with this? 

[Creditobsessed12]

If you were a victim of fraud I would never DV.  You should keep disputing until they take it off! 

[manyquestions]

Search the board for "Oasis" lots of us have done it.  The way it works is after you have paid the charge off  in full you get a guaranteed application for an Optima card that will have a credit limit that is equal to one half of the amount you paid off or $500 whichever is more.  It is a pretty straight forward deal.  No tricks or anything.  Thay just want your money and as an enticement to pay an old charge off they give you a new card with your original membership date.  It is a good deal if the amount of the charge off is not significant to you and if your credit report could benefit from adding a positive tradeline that is the age of the original card. So it is a good deal for those with very old charge offs of low amounts who currently have a very short credit history (i.e. Charge off amount = $500, Original membership date 20 years ago, current oldest account reporting and average age of accounts are less than a year old).