I am helping my dad with his finances and one of the first things I want to do is try to settle his $50k in credit cards debt. I posted in a different thread about his options and I read a lot of posts here about settling with banks for a fraction of the debt.
Out of his $50k in debt, he owes the most to AMEX ($14k) and Chase ($16k). What are your experiences settling these two banks? How would he initiate a settlement? Looking at his credit report, all of his accounts with AMEX and Chase have been closed and charged off.
He tried talking to Chase but I think he was told the debt was sent to a collection agency, so in that case should he insist on settling with Chase or should he settle with the collection agency? Same for AMEX. What should he ask for in a settlement? A letter confirming settlement terms I assume ... but anything related to removing the accounts from his credit reports?
I have perfect credit so I have no idea how to help him .. please excuse my naive questions.
Depends on who owns it. Whoever has a balance. They own it. If Chase said call the CA and theres no balance listed. Deal with the CA. Start at 30%. Which is low. See what the counter offer is. You'll have to check your states SOL. Once past that they cant go legal. CO's wont be removed from reports after its settled. Just got to call and see where it goes. Good Luck!
I received a text from Chase concerning two charge offs. The text said to go online and check out my options. I didn't bother for a while because I thought it would trigger more aggressive action on their part, and I thought I couldn't afford to settle. My balances totaled about $15K. I finally did go online to look, and they were offering to settle at 10%! I jumped on that and settled quickly for $1500. I had to pay the settlement within two months. It wasn't easy but it wasn't impossible like $15K would have been. I never had to talk to a person, did it all through the website. Once the deal was in place I did call them to update my address so I would receive the final settlement letters. I've seen others on this board (not everyone) that also were able to settle with Chase for 10%. If your Dad previously set up an online account, perhaps you can sign in and see if Chase is offering to settle.
My charge offs were about 2.5 years old, and the accounts were approaching 3 years DOFD in a state with a 6-year SOL.
(This all happened recently, June 2022)
His DOFD is fairly recent - 7 months ago. Does that make it harder to settle?
So far he has been dodging all of their phone calls which worries me they might sue ...that is why I am pushing him to call them and settle. He still has his online access but I don't believe they're offering him a settlement there .. when he called they just told him to call the CA.
@CreditPacMan wrote:His DOFD is fairly recent - 7 months ago. Does that make it harder to settle?
So far he has been dodging all of their phone calls which worries me they might sue ...that is why I am pushing him to call them and settle. He still has his online access but I don't believe they're offering him a settlement there .. when he called they just told him to call the CA.
If the account only very recently went delinquent and got charged off, then yes, unfortunately it'll be very hard to settle for much less since the SOL just started and they know it.
Ouch. If was much older then a better settlement offer might have been in the works. Being so recent they may go for full payment. Just a hunch. And those 2 wont let it go in the night. Get it in the past. Sooner the better.
Okay gotcha.
Yeah that will make it very hard for him. He can barely save up 10% for each and that is what his ability will look like for the next year. But if he continues to dodge their calls, isn't there a worry they will sue?
@CreditPacMan wrote:Okay gotcha.
Yeah that will make it very hard for him. He can barely save up 10% for each and that is what his ability will look like for the next year. But if he continues to dodge their calls, isn't there a worry they will sue?
Definitely. His only real choices are to keep avoiding their calls and just hope they don't sue any time soon, or answer and try to work something out with them, but because the debt is so fresh, it would most likely be a repayment plan for the full amount or very close to the full amount.
