How do I approach a credit card company to pay off a bad debt?
Credit Card
Ivan R asked:
I owe Discover Card some money and have been charged off for a while now. I have some extra money now and want to pay off the debt. I’d like to try to at least have it look better on my credit report. What’s the best way to approach this? Do I have any leverage to negotiate?
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I owe Discover Card some money and have been charged off for a while now. I have some extra money now and want to pay off the debt. I’d like to try to at least have it look better on my credit report. What’s the best way to approach this? Do I have any leverage to negotiate?
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March 23rd, 2009 at 11:50 am
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I’m not really sure, but perhaps this website could help. I’ve looked up articles here that give advice on credit and debt. Look at the finance category. Good luck!
March 24th, 2009 at 12:30 am
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Teel them you are thinking of declaring bankruptcy and want one last try to fix your debt and that you have a lawyer and almost ready to file but want to see what kind of settlement they can offer you.
March 26th, 2009 at 8:02 am
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The best thing you can do is call them and tell them you want to work with them to pay this bill. As long as you show that you want to work with them, they will usually work with you. I believe that as long as you pay them something (the original person you owe) that they can’t sent it to collections.
But I don’t understand. You say it has been charged off. That sounds to me that they are taking the loss and your credit is already affected. If that is the case, just calling them and paying it off isn’t enough. You need to start by calling them, get more info. For example, can you still work with them or do you have to work through a collection agency? Then you need to find out, no matter who you are working with, if they will remove the bad mark on your credit if you comply with the agreement you make.
I did work with a collection agency and paid it off and they offered, without me asking, to take it off of my credit. Worked out great. Shows you what a phone call and cooperation will do.
March 26th, 2009 at 8:11 am
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It depends how long your card has been in rears, they likely could have passed it on to a collection agency in which case you will have to deal with them. Call the 1-800 number on the back of the card and find out the status of the account. You have no room to negotiate, after all if someone owed you money would they have any? i think no
March 28th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
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just call, ask for a collections account manager, ask for the best offer they can give you to clear it, right then.or offer an amount yourself, say from 60% or what you have. shucks all they can do is say “no thanks”.
But here is a idea, offer to resume payments, at a higher minimum, a lower interest rate, and payoff within a specific period.
This will show them you have given considerable thought to working this out. stress the fact you would like to salvage it, and keep the card, and improve your rating. just be nice and respectful, you never know……
card companies often will take an account of out of collections and resume posting positive rating’s ! this is way better than collections payoff, even if you dump the card later, you’ll have improved your score a few points. That will save you a lot more than the small penalty you’ll pay now.
April 1st, 2009 at 4:44 am
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Before you make your decision, you need to know a few things.
1) Debts can not be reported on your credit history for more then 7 years, beginning on the date of the delinquency.
2) Debts do not have to be paid back if the Statute of Limitations has expired. Most states SOL is 4-6 years.
3) Paying off a debt does not remove negative information from your credit history. Instead of showing “charged off” or “in collections”..it will show that it is now paid. But it still will have notations that it was in collections or had late payments. It’s still a negative mark on your credit history, even though you paid the debt back!
4) As debts get older on your credit history, they are not given as much importance when your credit score is calculated. Recent debts and activity do! By paying off your old debts, you now turn your debt into “recent activity” status and it will actually hurt your credit.
Therefore, after taking in all of these facts, my first question is “Are you trying to fix your credit or just clear your guilty conscious because you have an unpaid debt”.
Let me answer the second part of this question…..when you stopped paying on the debt, the creditor gave you a choice. Pay your bill or they will ruin your credit for 7 years. You didn’t pay, so now this debt has been ruining your credit history. Why on earth would you want to pay them twice?
But if that’s what you want, here is what to do.
Send them a letter (NO phone calls, you want everything in writing). In it, make this proposal:
1) Agree to pay $xxx.xx amount. Negotiate something, and start at 40% of the balance. For example, if you owe $1000, offer to pay them $400. they will certainly counter-offer, so find an amount that you can afford to pay back.
2) If you plan to pay this back all at once, that is a benefit to them! Make them pay something back in return.
3) Demand that in exchange for this payback, they must agree IN WRITING to DELETE any negative information from your credit history regarding this debt. Remember, you want your credit fixed, and paying this bill will NOT accomplish that.
4) Demand IN WRITING that once you have paid the agreed upon amount, it will constitute “payment in full” and the unpaid balance will not be sold or transfered to another collection agency.
My opinion…if this debt is more then 5 years old, and you are not trying to fix your credit due to a major purchase in the near future, don’t pay it. Let it drop off after the 7 year period. It is very unlikely they are going to sue you after all this time (but it is possible).
Good luck.
April 4th, 2009 at 11:20 am
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There are several ways to approach this. Here is some additional info. Hope this helps.