Need some advice Chase settlement

[Anonymous]

So I have been in the Chase balance liquidation program for about a year and a half the original debt started at $18 or $19,000 and it is now down around $10,000. They have me at 0% for 5 years but the payment is pretty high and I have been struggling to make it but always have. I  have the opportunity to borrow some money from a family member and was thinking about offering a settlement, I was in contact with them and they said a settlement was an option and it would show on my credit report as settled. The problem I am having is that I do not want to damage my credit too bad right now I am sitting at a 708 so my credit is not bad by any means. I have never had a late payment or derogatory remark on my credit. How would the settlement effect my fico? What about my other accounts? I do have a few other credit cards that are in good standing with decent credit lines they all have little or no balance. The Chase account has been haunting me for years and I would love to be done with it. Any advice or information would be helpful 

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I have been in the Chase balance liquidation program for about a year and a half the original debt started at $18 or $19,000 and it is now down around $10,000. They have me at 0% for 5 years but the payment is pretty high and I have been struggling to make it but always have. I  have the opportunity to borrow some money from a family member and was thinking about offering a settlement, I was in contact with them and they said a settlement was an option and it would show on my credit report as settled. The problem I am having is that I do not want to damage my credit too bad right now I am sitting at a 708 so my credit is not bad by any means. I have never had a late payment or derogatory remark on my credit. How would the settlement effect my fico? What about my other accounts? I do have a few other credit cards that are in good standing with decent credit lines they all have little or no balance. The Chase account has been haunting me for years and I would love to be done with it. Any advice or information would be helpful 

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A settlement on your report would ding your Fico pretty good in the short term as you have a totally clean report now, its impact would lessen over time, its not something to be done in haste. It is also possible that a settlment would trigger AA on your other accounts. I would advise that you try to refi the whole balance and get a lower payment. You could try a local CU, there is also Prosper and the Lending Club, these organizations are going to charge interest but the lowered payment may fit better into your budget. If you do go with the settlement the FCRA would allow it to remain on file for up to 7.5 yrs (7 yrs + 180 days) from the DoFD. I wish you good luck and welcome to MyFico

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info! My biggesst worry would be with my current accounts, I want to keep them how they are, do you think there would be AA? And when you say ding my fico pretty good like 50-100 points?

[Anonymous]

In general I caution people about 'borrowing' from family. It often causes family rifts that can take many years to heal. Always go into such borrowing plans with eyes wide open, and terms spelled out *clearly* in advance.

Is the Chase account currently being reported as "paying as agreed" with no lates and no charge off status? All other things being positive, as long as the account is not marked as a Charge Off,  I do not believe that being marked as 'settled' is something that would affect you scorewise - however I could be wrong there. Be aware though, that it could be viewed poorly in a manual review.

[RobertEG]

+1

I am not sure that the CRAs even have codes for recordation of settlement terms on an account in good standing.

Settled for less codes and special comments normally pertain to terms of discharge of a delinquent debt.

[TRC_WA]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In general I caution people about 'borrowing' from family. It often causes family rifts that can take many years to heal. Always go into such borrowing plans with eyes wide open, and terms spelled out *clearly* in advance.

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Tell me about it...

Made the mistake of letting my family know I won $10k in the lotto back in '03...  brother poor mouthed his way to borrowing $1700 and I've never seen a single cent of it.

It's all good though... he can call his bank next time. 

[Anonymous]

Correct the Chase account is reported as "paying as agreed" with no lates and no charge off status.. I guess I will try making a settlement and see what happens it would be nice to be done with this debt I have learned a lot since charging up that card and being dumb

[coterotie]

Don't forget they will 1099 you on the settled amount.  So you will owe taxes on that amount.  Have you tried talking with them about the payment?  We had the same deal with MBNA, then BOA took over and honored the deal with MBNA, but then went back retroactively and changed everything to not paying as agreed when they wanted us to do a settlement.  We kept making the payment and paid it off.  They will push you for a settlement, but then make it a bad deal by reporting it as a charge off.  Be really careful.

[Anonymous]

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@coterotie wrote:

Don't forget they will 1099 you on the settled amount.  So you will owe taxes on that amount.  Have you tried talking with them about the payment?  We had the same deal with MBNA, then BOA took over and honored the deal with MBNA, but then went back retroactively and changed everything to not paying as agreed when they wanted us to do a settlement.  We kept making the payment and paid it off.  They will push you for a settlement, but then make it a bad deal by reporting it as a charge off.  Be really careful.

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You *may* owe taxes on it. A 1099-C is not an automatic tax liability, there are a number of ways to negate it.