Credit Card Debt Settlement Letter

My husband and I recently purchased a house. Right before our purchase we found out about a delinquent credit card. To make a long story short, it was a credit card that was in my husband's name that he was to use when he was in college that his mom was supposed to be paying for. My husband had no idea that there was a delinquency until we were notified by our lender. The account has been closed since 2002. It states on his credit report that the "account closed at consumers request, charged off account, bad debt; placed for collections; skip." We do not want to bother his Mom about this. After no communication with Discover, for 5 years, we have now received a letter from Northstar Location Services, a collection agency (not from Discover), for a settlement amount which is 40% of the debt. What should we do, contact Discover, deal with the collection agency, or something else? I realize everything needs to be in writing beforehand, but can anyone advise me on this at all?
I will check out your other posts, Studly, thanks...as far as my concern with it, it is mainly because of the recent contact with the collection agency now after so many years. We were still able to get the loan for our house, so I am not really concerned about that part of it. Since it "technically" wasn't our debt, but my mother in law's, the bank didn't really care. Actually the amount was pretty significant, $3000 with an offered settlement of $1200, which is why I'm extremely surprised that we were not contacted before about this. I believe the statute of limitation on credit cards is 3 years in our state. I know they can still take us to court over it but its probably unlikely since the statute of limitations has run out. I just don't want to settle on an amount and still have it show up on our credit history for another 7 years. I think this just may be a last ditch effort by the collection agency to get some money and I just want to make sure we make the right decision.

If it was a charge off that means the company tried to collect and wasn't able to so they wrote it off. This is just probably one last attempt to collect. I'd contact Discover and see if they sent this to the collection agency. 5 years is really too long for them to wait to send it to collections. That just sounds fishy to me. Like a private agency trying to collect, on a creditors charge offs.

2007-06-05 14:46:11 by Randa

HIDDEN TRUTHS ABOUT THE CREDIT CARD Business! 1) Ever heard of the illustration that the house for eternity wins? The credit card companies make ...

I have received a debt settlement letter from a credit card company that I owe $6,000 to. The settlement is for about 50%.

If I were to settle with them, would I still be eligible to use their credit card again? Or is my credit card completely shut off forever?

That credit card would be shut off to you. The account will be closed upon receipt of payment.

2009-07-13 12:04:18 by Enon N

Desperately trying to negotiate a credit card debt and pay it off with a settlement. Card it grossly past due and was just written off as bad debtlast week. I know my letter will probably accomplish nothing but I am looking for help in writing a letter to my creditor (Chase) and telling them I am willing to make a ssettlementwith them and I would prefer to work with them directly rather than a collection agency.
Long story cut very short our account was referred to collections (not sold) and that company is harassing me and violating all my rights under fair credit and refuses to try to negotiate.
Again, I know this is a long shot that Chase will settle but I feel I need to try. I am not a letter writer and am having an impossible time getting my thoughts across. Anyone know any good sites? Has anyone written a good letter in the past they can share?
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!
~Desperate in NJ :)

CAll on the phone. I work in credit and collections. My company not a credit card, has this program. What you need to do is call the basic customer service rep. THen tell them what you want to do. They will get a supervisor on the phone. WE have a program that will give you a settlement and there are tiers. If you pay in 10 days, will be x dollars. If you pay in 15 days y dollars. And 30 days is another pay off.
It is very simple and call them.
I am ex NJ person. Hope it works for you.

2009-03-08 05:49:49 by jerseymom

I recently suffered an illness, lost my job, have several credit card balances, could not keep the payments up, tried to work an arrangement with the credit card companies, but that did not work out either. Now they are all in collections, my credit score is trashed, and short of filing bankruptcy (I do not want to do), I am getting offers to settle for half of the balance. I do not own real estate, but have recently came into some money, not a lot, but if I settle with the collection agencies, I was told that I should request they send me a paid in full as agreed letter first for the negotiated amount, and will help my credit score.
Is there proper way to do this that will eventually help my credit report??

pay em

2007-11-23 18:55:22 by gssmm

I am young and went a little over on my credit cards. I have about four credit cards and it equals up to about $4000.00 they are already in collections and are closed. Due to me being out of work and having some other personal problems I wasn't able to pay anything for several months. I was lucky and was able to save a little over a thousand dollars from working two jobs. I want to call them to try and settle one company already sent me a letter saying I could settle for about a hundred and I owed six hundred. How should I go about settling with the other credit card companies?

Send letters. Don't use the phone, email, or fax. Make a settlement offer of about 25% to 30%. The older the debt, the more likely they will settle for a lower amount. Lump sum gets the best deals. Payment plans have to be short term. Ask for written acceptance of the settlement. Do not give them access to your bank account. You can ask for delete of the item on your credit report for payment -- some will, some won't.

Paying old debt does not restat the reporting period. The reporting period is 7-1/2 years from the first deficiency. Nothing restarts the clock. This is governned by the FCRA.

People often confuse and merge the reporting period with the Statute of Limitations (SOL), the timeframe to bring lawsuit. This varies from state to state and is based on the last activity or paymement. Payment does restart the SOL.

Forgiven debts of $600 or more may generate a 1099. The amount would have to be claimed as income for tax purposes. However, the taxes on the forgiven amount are much less that paying the full amount.

2008-02-04 10:14:07 by England Chick