Ultimate guide to settling by professional debt negotiator

[Anonymous]

Guide has been taken down for publishing elsewhere by the author.

[Anonymous]

See parameters and people to look for or avoid below

NOTE: THESE PARAMETERS ARE ALL SUBJECT TO CHANGE BY THE INDIVIDUAL CREDITOR.

Original creditors:

	Name	Percentage	Notes
	JPMorgan Chase	25%-40% in 12 Pays	CHASE IS MOST LIKELY TO DISCHARGE. SETTLE THEM LAST
	Bank of America	35%-50% in 12-24 Pays	THEY ARE STICKLERS FOR HARDSHIP AND FINANCIALS.
	Wells Fargo	60% in 12 Pays	Will not move off this
	Citi	25%-45% in 12 pays	they will mail you the settlement letters.
	PNC	35% in 12 Pays	Easy
	American Express	70% in 1	Litigious - likely to sue
	Discover	See Below	Very likely to sue
	Synchrony	See Below	Not very likely to sue.
	Barclays	35-50% in up to 12	they typically charge off early
	USAA	50-80% in up to 12
	Capital One	50% in up to 24%
	US Bank	50% in up to 14	They will try to play games
	Elan Financial	50% in up to 14	They will try to play games
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----------	------------------------	--------------------------------	COLLECTIONS AGENCIES---------------------------------------------------
	Name	Parameter	Note
	Second round	See Below	Mostly synchrony accounts
	URS/Alltran	40%-60% in 12 pays	aim low to start
	MRS	10%-30% in up to 24 pays	Primarily chase. settle an account if it is placed here.
	Monarch recovery	25% in 12 payments
	LTD Financial	See Below	Pretty easy to work with.
	Phillips & Cohen	40% in 1 / 43% in 8 pays	Set Parameter
	Icon Equities (Affiliated CS)	20%-45% in up to 24 Pays	very flexible. especially with chase.
	Gatestone & Co	40%-50% in up to 24	mostly boa
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----------	-------------------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------	LAW FIRMS-----------------------------------------------------------------------
	Name	Parameter	Notes
	Cooling & Winter
	Rausch, Sturm, Israel, Enerson & Hornik	50% in 12 pays	Very easy to work with
	Blatt, Hasenmiller, Liebsker & Moore	50%-75% in 12
	Meyer & Njus	65%-80%	Aggressive
	Zwicker & Associates	See below	Commonly only synchrony or discover.
	Zarzaur & Schwartz	60%-70% in up to 12
	Zakheim & Lavrar	65%-80% in up to 6
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LAW FIRMS

If you do not have a summons or court date, you can typically settle much lower. most law firms will be 50-80% over 12 payments. if you have received a summons or have a court date, the average will be 65%-90% in 12. if they have a judgement, it will typically be 85%-100% over as many pays as you need.

NOTE ABOUT SETTLING LITIGATED ACCOUNTS - They will have you sign a stipulated judgement. if you miss a payment or break the settlement, you will then owe the balance in full and the creditor will have a judgement and can collect through legal means. do not take legal settlements if you cant pay them.

MORE SPECIFIC PARAMETERS

Discover

Pre-Charge - 40% in 1 payment

Charge off - 70% in as many payments as you need ($5 minumum)

Second Round

30% in 1 pay

38% in 2-12

40% in 13-24

43% in 24+

LTD Financial

Discover - 60% in up to 24

Everything else - 25%-50%

synchrony

150-180 - 35%

180-204 - 30%

after 204 - 25% in 1 payment

If there are any creditors not here (im going off memory), please comment and i will add them.

Thanks and good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much for posting this. I know it will be very helpful to everyone. Do you have any experience with law offices of Lavrar, Flynn? They are representing capital one on my charge off case.

[Anonymous]

Yes they are on the aggressive end. 60%-80% in 6-12. Have your hardship ready

[Anonymous]

Very helpful thread. Thanks for taking the time to share it. 

This seems like a prime candidate for sticky or added to the helpful threads list. Mods???

[Headpin2010]

Any feedback on Portfolio Recovery. Also in general where do u start with medical collections?

[RobertEG]

Why are you suggesting that one wait 180 days after becoming delinquent, and thus have a charge-off to then deal with?

[Anonymous]

Robert, charge off is discussed in the thread. It has to charge off before most creditors will negate a settlement. For Pre-charge off accounts, the creditors will only settle in up to 3 payments and at way higher percentages if they settle at all. Settling IS dealing with the charge off and unfortunately there's no way around it.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for this! Book marking it..

[MauiMan85297]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Robert, charge off is discussed in the thread. It has to charge off before most creditors will negate a settlement. For Pre-charge off accounts, the creditors will only settle in up to 3 payments and at way higher percentages if they settle at all. Settling IS dealing with the charge off and unfortunately there's no way around it.

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This is totally false, a creditor will settle the account as low as 60 days past due but at a higher % of the balance.  Waiting 180 days till CO likely will get you sued (depending on creditor).  Companies or attorney based models take the easy way out and tell you that it needs to go to 3rd party because they know they get better settlements from them as they buy the debt for pennies on the dollar.

Simply put, if you have the ability to save money before contacting the creditor and want to settle on your own then the creditor wants their money right away and if it's a larger amount of settlement they will typically give you 3 months max to make payments (holds true for debt being with OC).