One creditor has been auto-calling me daily for a long time, so I decided to pick up this time. I must have shocked the computer or something, because they ended up hanging up on me before speaking. I called them back, it is one of the 4 credit cards outstanding and they of course wanted $1944 to bring the account just current and around $4300 to settle the ~$6K balance. I ended up making a $300 hardship payment to keep them satisfied for the month and we'll see at the end of next month about making a $300 payment then. The collector actually disclosed a fair amount of information to me, such as they accept 70% as settlement, that the payments made can be used in negotiating a smaller settlement, etc. I know, it's not in writing, so don't believe everything you hear.
I've got two more credit card creditors to contact this month to see if we can put them at bay so we don't have them go to court like Chase's hired creditor wanted to.
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2 comments:
How were you able to extract that information from the creditor? Did they "let it slip" or perhaps they're obligated to answer those questions? I'd be interested in knowing more specifics about your methods during the conversation.
The steps I go through are:
- Keep every piece of paper you get from a creditor that makes an offer. Just because they say it is only good for 30 days doesn't mean they won't accept it after that.
- When you call them, ask right away if they will accept a settlement. Very often they will then go into the specifics of what they can offer (at least their first offer).
- If they won't go into specifics, start tossing out settlement numbers less than 50%. This will at least get them passing counter-offers.
- If your just able to only make a payment, ask them how that payment will benefit you and if it can be applied to a final settlement in the next couple of months.
It all depends on the creditor. This one I talked to was relatively ok (compared to other creditors) and after we got to the acceptance of a set payment for that day, they were open to answer any questions I had.
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