topic Re: 50% settlement offer in Rebuilding Your Credit

50% settlement offer

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:34:16 GMT

My husband got a 50% settlement offer on a $10K judgement. Should he settle for that or ask for a lower offer? How low is too low? I'd love to offer them $2500 with a paid/satisfied status.

Re: 50% settlement offer

Shogun — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:05:20 GMT

Make the offer, see if they counter.

Re: 50% settlement offer

HindSight_20_20 — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:50:16 GMT

@Shogun wrote:
Make the offer, see if they counter.

Re: 50% settlement offer

RobertEG — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:19:12 GMT

As for subsequent credit reporting, if settled for less, the furnisher has the option to report an additional special comment of "Paid for less" to the consumer's credit file/report.

That comment is always a negative to those who may subsequently pull the consumer's credit report, as it notifies them that, in the past, the consumer did not fully pay the entire debt they incurred.

While it may be pushing your settlement offer a bit, I would suggest attempting to also get agreement that they wont report that special comment. Absent that special comment, the debt would look the same in the consumer's credit report as if it was paid in full.

Re: 50% settlement offer

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:27:00 GMT

RobertEG wrote:

As for subsequent credit reporting, if settled for less, the furnisher has the option to report an additional special comment of "Paid for less" to the consumer's credit file/report.

That comment is always a negative to those who may subsequently pull the consumer's credit report, as it notifies them that, in the past, the consumer did not fully pay the entire debt they incurred.

While it may be pushing your settlement offer a bit, I would suggest attempting to also get agreement that they wont report that special comment. Absent that special comment, the debt would look the same in the consumer's credit report as if it was paid in full.

I wrote up the settlement offer and requested that it be marked paid on the credit reports with no further negative remarks. Hopefully, that will do.