Settlement Offer from First PREMIER Bank

[bmblbg]

I received this in today's mail:

With First PREMIER Bank, you may have the opportunity to settle your charged-off account for a lower amount and have that balance transferred to a new First PREMIER MasterCard Account.  The outstanding balance from your old account will be reduced to the agreed upon settlement amount upon approval.  This amount will be transferred to your new Platinum MasterCard account.  This amount will also become your new credit limit, so there will be no available credit when your account is first opened.  If approved, the new account will be available for use 12 business days after the first payment posts to the account, subject to available credit.  As you pay off the debt, you will also free up available credit giving you more ability to make purchases.  Plus, 30 to 60 days after you make your first payment, your old account will be reported as settled to the major Consumer Reporting Agencies. 

The benefits of this offer include: (1) Settle your outstanding debt for  lower amount, which will be placed on your new First PREMIER Bank Platinum MasterCard account (2) 0% introductory APR for the first year, giving you a way to pay your balance without the burden of interest (3) Your charged-off account will be reported as settled 30 to 60 days after you make your first payment.

I have the money to PIF, and so if I did do this "balance transfer" I could essentially pay the full amount or full settlement amount to keep it from instantly posting as a maxed out CC on my report.  I wish they could reopen the original account instead of creating this new TL.  And I know they are not great with GW, but I wonder if I offered to PIF instead of a settlement amount if they would be willing to delete the previous TL.  From what I've heard, I'm thinking no.... 

 On one hand this offer sounds great, on the other I see so many ways this can mess me up.... Thoughts??

[Shogun]

This is often done with accounts that are past the SOL and they have no legal course to collect.  By moving this debt to a new TL they reset the SOL and CRTP of the debt.

[traveler2005]

Do you really want another first premier card??????   A settled charge off is no different than one that is not paid, how old is this debt? Is it past the SOL for your state?

Do you really need another account opening up which would decrease you average age of accounts on any accounts that your might already have.  

First Premier will not good will a charged off account, paid or not, and if you send too many GW letters, they will send you a letter that states if you send them another GW that you will be sued for haressment.   Beware!    Best wishes    Make wise decisions,  PIF if you want to, may decrease your utilization a bit, but probably wont make much difference in score. Would look better under manual review by creditor if PIF but FP won't delete.

[injustifiiable]

This is laughable! Don't do it!

[Isaiah2990]

First Premier is HORRIBLE..there APR and fees are a killer..Don't do it!! 

[windupbird]

There was an old post on this topic, you can find it here:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Settle-First-Premier-charge-off-with-new-cred...

I went back to re-read this because I have two FP charge offs on my CRs.  One is paid, so I will attempt to GW.  I will PIF the second charge off but I remember reading something about this program a while ago.  As someone pointed out in the old thread, opening a new account for the amount of the charge off would immediately max out the card and screw up your UTIL.  Needless to say, I am going to PIF the second account and try really hard to GW both accounts.

[mjf9730]

What if you did the program and was able to instantly paid off the balance on the new card.  Then you would have a new line of credit with low utilization right?  I've got a PFD letter i just printed and was going to send to FP tomorrow. I can pay in full, and would be able to pay down the new card right away.  How is AAoA weighed compared to open accounts and utilization?

[BattBoy06]

Hey!

I just got the same agreement in the mail. I called and offered to PIF, with $100 today.

I juuust opened a different secured card with another bank and am scared that I will be denied as I applied for a CapOne secured and was denied. 

My score has gone up 40 points as I've been slowly working my way out of the hole and this was after opening the secured card I was approved for just about a month ago. The woman I spoke with on the phone said that I would get a letter with a new card in it or a letter with my payment schedule as I've agreed to pay the full amount (sadly, it has over 2 years left for SOL).

Did you ever get your card, is so how is it going?!

Thanks!

[bmblbg]

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@BattBoy06 wrote:

Hey!

I just got the same agreement in the mail. I called and offered to PIF, with $100 today.

I juuust opened a different secured card with another bank and am scared that I will be denied as I applied for a CapOne secured and was denied. 

My score has gone up 40 points as I've been slowly working my way out of the hole and this was after opening the secured card I was approved for just about a month ago. The woman I spoke with on the phone said that I would get a letter with a new card in it or a letter with my payment schedule as I've agreed to pay the full amount (sadly, it has over 2 years left for SOL).

Did you ever get your card, is so how is it going?!

Thanks!

---

I did not accept their settlement offer.  After some thought I thought it was best to NOT get another card with them- as they were not my favorite company in the world.  So I PIF, and am working on GW.  It just wasn't worth it to me to deal with getting another card through them.  I got a couple of secured cards from different companies 6 months ago- Capital One and Open Sky- and am working on getting those aged and established.

[bmblbg]

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@BattBoy06 wrote:

Hey!

I just got the same agreement in the mail. I called and offered to PIF, with $100 today.

I juuust opened a different secured card with another bank and am scared that I will be denied as I applied for a CapOne secured and was denied. 

My score has gone up 40 points as I've been slowly working my way out of the hole and this was after opening the secured card I was approved for just about a month ago. The woman I spoke with on the phone said that I would get a letter with a new card in it or a letter with my payment schedule as I've agreed to pay the full amount (sadly, it has over 2 years left for SOL).

Did you ever get your card, is so how is it going?!

Thanks!

---

Ooops- I just noticed you said you'd been denied by Capital One.  Try Open Sky- there's no HP for the application.  Also- on Capital One, go back to their site occasionally as your score improves and there's a link where you can see if you're pre-qualified (pre-approved? I can't remember what they call it).  I did this a couple times and then one day it matched me with the card.  Doing it that way, there was no HP for the "inquiries" when it said I wasn't matched with any offers. 

Good luck!! and Congratulations on the +40!