Collections- settle?

[Anonymous]

Hi! My husband and I had good credit until I decided to return to school last year as a full time student. After originally being told I qualify for financial aid, I was then denied. Long story short, I fell behind in my credit card payments and it’s spiraled out of control from there. My score has dropped almost 200 points. I have three accounts in collections:

Chase bank: ~ $2,500
Chase bank: ~ $ 4,600
Citibank: ~ $ 2,100

I received tempting settlement offers from all three of them. Considering we would like to sell our home in the next year and purchase another one- should I try to pay these in full even if it takes many months, or should I settle the debts and pay them off in 6 months or so? If I decide to pay the full amount owed, I cannot really make significant payments on them until I graduate and take my boards in December (I have already secured a good job contingent upon passing boards). If I make small payments on each debt until then, would this prevent them from taking me to court? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I tried to better my family but now I feel so defeated.

[simplegirl]

Hello if you make payments consistently that can prevent you from going to court and being sue also prevents it from being brought by a collection agency. I would say do what you can afford don’t mess up your finances by trying to overpay. I say its better paid in full when it comes to credit cards and to someone that is looking for a house. Also I’ve seen people settle with credit cards and they update the account with the difference between the settlement amount so yeah i would pay in full if you can and if it requires a payment plan i would go for it.