How to negotiate Discover collections account?

[WhovianPixie]

Hello everyone, needing some advice. I received a dunning notice from a collection agency/law firm regarding a charged off Discover card account. It's around $5k+. From what I've read around, Discover is litigation happy and this lawfirm isn't shy about suing/garnishment. 

The account is well within my state's SOL and only Discover is showing reporting monthly CO my reports far as I can tell. 

I don't have a lot to offer them, maybe $2000 at best.

Has anyone had success settling with Discover for a reasonable amount? If so how did you go about it? I'm worried sending a debt validation letter will make them not want to negotiate as much. Any advice is appreciated!

[gdale6]

In all reality being still inside SOL the most they will typically reduce it by is 25%. You can arrange monthly payments if you cant pay the entire settlement at once. If you know you owe it skip the validation as this might not make them pliable for a settlement. I would make the offer to the CA by phone and if they accept it you want the deal in writing. I would offer 50% to start.

[WhovianPixie]

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@gdale6 wrote:

In all reality being still inside SOL the most they will typically reduce it by is 25%. You can arrange monthly payments if you cant pay the entire settlement at once. If you know you owe it skip the validation as this might not make them pliable for a settlement. I would make the offer to the CA by phone and if they accept it you want the deal in writing. I would offer 50% to start.

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Thank you for your response! I was thinking the same, the only thing is they seem difficult to reach by phone. But I will try. Hopefully they can do settlement payment plans. Do you have any advice on what I should say to begin negotiating without admission to the debt which could bite me later? I get nervous on the phone and have never negotiated before. I expect them to try and trip me up, ask for employment and banking info etc but I don't know how to answer them.

[mfinsmi1]

I had a lawsuit from discover for 4k - a law firm came afte me in court i never showed up and never made payments (at that time i didnt care and they weren't garnishing my wages luckily) a couple years later i got a call saying they are willing to settle the 4k for more than half the amount - i immeditaely agreed paid my debt for way less than i owed and got the collection deleted from my credit reports .... fast foward a year later and im already back in with discover 

my advice - dont be afraid to ask for a settlement offer with the law firm thats contacting you