topic Re: Amex Suing me in Rebuilding Your Credit

Amex Suing me

maliblue34 — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 19:59:46 GMT

Good Afternoon, I need some guidance on an situation I have with Amex.

I fell on hard times about 2 yrs ago and wasnt able to pay my cc bills, then I started working with a debt settlement company (which was a waste of time and money). Fast fwd to now they are suing me for the balance owed (approx $7900 plus court costs that bring it over 8K).

Amex has contacted me stating that I had an excellent history of paying, and they want to help me resolve the issue instead of going through with the court case. The "help" they offered was to pay $1100 by January 27th, and make $300 monthly payments until the balance is paid off.

Is this an agreement that I should accept? Is there anything I can say/do to get them to lower the balance?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Re: Amex Suing me

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 20:35:18 GMT

Are they going to reinstate your card?

You definitely want to avoid a judgement regardless. I would probably take it if offered and I had the money.

ETA: you could try to negotiate, but they have you and they know it. Wouldn't hurt to try. At least try to get the card back.

Re: Amex Suing me

maliblue34 — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 21:03:29 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner I'll have to ask about the reinstatement, the rep didnt mention this yesterday. Altho when I spoke to someone last month he said they would offer me another card.

Re: Amex Suing me

pizzadude — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 20:58:53 GMT

I agree that you'd want to avoid having a judgement against you. Assuming they're not charging you interest, you'd have around 2 years worth of monthly payments.

Do you have any other outstanding balances with other creditors ?

Re: Amex Suing me

maliblue34 — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 21:03:04 GMT

yes I do @pizzadude ,but Im making payments with them

Re: Amex Suing me

DJRobbieD — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 21:35:49 GMT

@maliblue34 wrote:
Good Afternoon, I need some guidance on an situation I have with Amex.

I fell on hard times about 2 yrs ago and wasnt able to pay my cc bills, then I started working with a debt settlement company (which was a waste of time and money). Fast fwd to now they are suing me for the balance owed (approx $7900 plus court costs that bring it over 8K).

Amex has contacted me stating that I had an excellent history of paying, and they want to help me resolve the issue instead of going through with the court case. The "help" they offered was to pay $1100 by January 27th, and make $300 monthly payments until the balance is paid off.
Is this an agreement that I should accept? Is there anything I can say/do to get them to lower the balance?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I went though something similar with them over a decade ago where they sued me, but settled out of court with a payment arrangement. I would take their offer if you can manage the payments over having the case proceed in court. I didn't ask about getting a new card after the payments are completed (at the time I didn't know that was a thing), but it sounds like that's something Amex will do once you make them whole. As you can see from my signature, I eventually got back in their good graces

Re: Amex Suing me

pizzadude — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 21:16:16 GMT

If you can afford the monthly payment then it's probably worth accepting. If you want to try and negotiate the payments, you might be able to leverage your previously good payment history with them to increase the number of payments and lengthen the payback time.

Re: Amex Suing me

DONZI — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 05:46:45 GMT

Hi @maliblue34

I recently learned a few things about a similar situation from @Anonymous

They may chime in here or maybe you could PM them.

For reference you can check the thread here.

Re: Amex Suing me

jmw1 — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 17:02:19 GMT

@maliblue34 wrote:
Good Afternoon, I need some guidance on an situation I have with Amex.

I fell on hard times about 2 yrs ago and wasnt able to pay my cc bills, then I started working with a debt settlement company (which was a waste of time and money). Fast fwd to now they are suing me for the balance owed (approx $7900 plus court costs that bring it over 8K).

Amex has contacted me stating that I had an excellent history of paying, and they want to help me resolve the issue instead of going through with the court case. The "help" they offered was to pay $1100 by January 27th, and make $300 monthly payments until the balance is paid off.
Is this an agreement that I should accept? Is there anything I can say/do to get them to lower the balance?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I think you might be in more trouble than you realize.

Amex is one of the quickest creditors to sue. If you get sued by one, plan on being eventually sued by many of your other creditors as well in the next year or two as you approach the statue of limitations for your state. The SOL is the creditor's deadline to sue you. They all use the same guidelines as far as whether to sue a debtor. Your problems are likely to multiply with additional lawsuits since you mentioned you have multiple CC bills and tried using a debt settlement company. Can you afford similar "help" simultaneously from your other creditors who are about to sue you with the same lump sum and monthly payment request? It will eventually be a race to the courthouse to file lawsuits and get default judgments.

I'm a little disturbed that this thread is talking about getting a reinstated Amex. Your finances are about to get wrecked by the other creditors in the next year or two. Who cares about getting an Amex card back.

Instead of sending a dime to Amex and the other creditors who will probably sue you soon, you may want to consider bankruptcy instead since you probably can't afford multiple payments. Use that money to hire a BK lawyer. Nor can you afford a wage garnishment of 25% of gross pay and having your bank account involuntarily zeroed out. Just about all bankruptcy attorneys give free consultations. Whenever someone mentions working with a debt settlement company, the actual correct decision is to file bankruptcy instead. Bankruptcy is how you reduce those all of those balances to zero in one shot when you are way over your head. Almost everyone who filed BK only regret not having filed sooner and wasted money on debt settlement companies and draining 401k accounts to pay minimums. There are some folks here who have gone through BK and thrived afterwards if you need some encouragement.

Good luck.

Re: Amex Suing me

maliblue34 — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 17:31:19 GMT

@jmw1 wrote:
@maliblue34 wrote:
Good Afternoon, I need some guidance on an situation I have with Amex.

I fell on hard times about 2 yrs ago and wasnt able to pay my cc bills, then I started working with a debt settlement company (which was a waste of time and money). Fast fwd to now they are suing me for the balance owed (approx $7900 plus court costs that bring it over 8K).

Amex has contacted me stating that I had an excellent history of paying, and they want to help me resolve the issue instead of going through with the court case. The "help" they offered was to pay $1100 by January 27th, and make $300 monthly payments until the balance is paid off.
Is this an agreement that I should accept? Is there anything I can say/do to get them to lower the balance?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
I think you might be in more trouble than you realize.

Amex is one of the quickest creditors to sue. If you get sued by one, plan on being eventually sued by many of your other creditors as well in the next year or two as you approach the statue of limitations for your state. The SOL is the creditor's deadline to sue you. They all use the same guidelines as far as whether to sue a debtor. Your problems are likely to multiply with additional lawsuits since you mentioned you have multiple CC bills and tried using a debt settlement company. Can you afford similar "help" simultaneously from your other creditors who are about to sue you with the same lump sum and monthly payment request? It will eventually be a race to the courthouse to file lawsuits and get default judgments.

I'm a little disturbed that this thread is talking about getting a reinstated Amex. Your finances are about to get wrecked by the other creditors in the next year or two. Who cares about getting an Amex card back.

Instead of sending a dime to Amex and the other creditors who will probably sue you soon, you may want to consider bankruptcy instead since you probably can't afford multiple payments. Use that money to hire a BK lawyer. Nor can you afford a wage garnishment of 25% of gross pay and having your bank account involuntarily zeroed out. Just about all bankruptcy attorneys give free consultations. Whenever someone mentions working with a debt settlement company, the actual correct decision is to file bankruptcy instead. Bankruptcy is how you reduce those all of those balances to zero in one shot when you are way over your head. Almost everyone who filed BK only regret not having filed sooner and wasted money on debt settlement companies and draining 401k accounts to pay minimums. There are some folks here who have gone through BK and thrived afterwards if you need some encouragement.
Good luck.

Thanks @jmw1 Im already paying back a few creditors that went to debt collection agencies.

I just wasn't sure if there was a way to get AMEX to lower the debt without working with a 3rd party.

Re: Amex Suing me

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 17:49:16 GMT

Hi, guess you found out the hardway of debt settlement company being waste of time and money.

Settling yourself with Amex lawyers goes like this:

You: " Let's settle for less"

Amex lawyer: " We'll knock off $50 for inconvenience and no interest if pay in full now"

The end.

Your other option is to hire a lawyer to negotiate for you. Will cost you $1k -$$1500 upfront. Lawyer will advise you they won't guarantee anything, but usually will settle for 50-60% paid at once. If you do payments, expect it to be 80%.

Re: Amex Suing me

Red1Blue — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 18:13:16 GMT

With Amex you can setup installment plan. They will give you upto 24 to 36 months to pay it off. If you settle for less than full amount they might not give Optima card. If you get Optima Card after 12 months and you'll be able to get back in with Amex. It is some thing to think about it to make it easier for your self. From my experience Amex is very easy to work with in the settlement and repaymets.

Re: Amex Suing me

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 09:08:04 GMT

Hey @maliblue34
Read my post on my profile. I basically went through the same thing you did but slightly different. In my experience and the extensive reading I’ve done try to work with Amex as much as you can. If you can afford the 1100 and 300 monthly then do it. Do more if you can. If you can’t be upfront about it. The more respect you show Amex the more respect they show you. And always PIF. but yes ask them about reinstatement. Dm me or write back with any questions. Platinum member since 2015 up until 03-04/21. Currently going through reinstatement process.

Re: Amex Suing me

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 09:11:29 GMT

And on wether you should accept or not. I think you should. Especially if they offer some type of reinstatement. They don’t just say that stuff to get ya to pay up. I’ve heard the craziest stories of accounts/cards being reinstated.

Re: Amex Suing me

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 09:14:29 GMT

Also, if you file bankruptcy on Amex. They’ll blacklist you. Most other creditors don’t have a blacklist or a memory like Amex.