Would a Credit Card Company Be Willing To Do This?

[HopefulInOhio]

I have 4 credit cards...the biggest being a total of $10,000 and I am currently with a balance to pay by next month of $900 due to being behind. There is no way I could pay that.

Has anyone ever flat out told the CC company that you're having difficulties...mine is loss of hours at work, plus a dissolution starting...and ask for a couple months of no interest charges...or even admitted to being close to bankruptcy, only to have them work with you on a better interest rate/payment/finance charges? Is it wrong to tell them you are close to filing bankruptcy? I've heard of some people actually getting lucky and having the CC company actually say they would collect only half the debt from them..struck a deal with them so they wouldn't lose out on all the money owed.

Does any of this sound normal or possible? Thanks all!

[anonymuse]

Can't hurt to ask--nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[Minnymouth]

Doesn't hurt to DREAM...................... but most DEALS ARE CASH UPFRONT.........

DO NOT TELL THEM YOU ARE FIXING TO FILE BANKRUPTCY...... they will rush to get a judgement against you............

You can call and get an extension or work out something about catching the payment up with the next payment if you can....

BUT if your fixing to file BK, there's no sense wasteing your money, save it for the attorney fees........

They will still add on penalties, late fees, etc. no matter what you do..... that's how they make a lot of money.................

Keep us posted.....

[NowOrNever]

When I finally came to grips with the fact that I could no longer pay the minimums to our CCs back in January, I wrote letters to all of them explaining the fact that I could not pay the new minimums (since they all doubled in January due to that new law or whatever that regulation is). I asked if they would be willing to lower the interest rate, lower the minimum, anything to help.

The ones that bothered to send a response all said the same thing....TOO BAD! Send us the payment, can't work with you, blah blah blah.

Now that I haven't made a payment since January, I'm getting sympathy letters saying how they understand that everyone goes through difficulties, call us to work out something, blah blah blah....TOO LATE!

[SinkingFast]

When I finally came to grips with the fact that I could no longer pay the minimums to our CCs back in January, I wrote letters to all of them explaining the fact that I could not pay the new minimums (since they all doubled in January due to that new law or whatever that regulation is). I asked if they would be willing to lower the interest rate, lower the minimum, anything to help.

The ones that bothered to send a response all said the same thing....TOO BAD! Send us the payment, can't work with you, blah blah blah.

Now that I haven't made a payment since January, I'm getting sympathy letters saying how they understand that everyone goes through difficulties, call us to work out something, blah blah blah....TOO LATE!

Dittos!!

Same thing happened here. Tried to work with the CC's and our Mortgage Lender. The Mortgage Lender at least tried. CC's didn't.

We got the same responses as NowOrNever. No help to start, now falling all over themselves being icky sweet.

[Anj]

so - our mortgage company did everything in their power to make my "repayment plan" so difficult we would fail - they laid out a "plan" that was far more difficult than the our 13. They took our budget and then decided if we had enough extra to meet their criteria - then the took EVERY extra penny we had for 24 months on top of their DOUBLED mortgage payment. We failed on the first payment by mailing them a personal check instead of a money order. Even now, they continue to jerk us around by changing our amount each month - each month I call in to make my payment and they won't accept it because our payment amount has changed. Until the get the "offical amount" they won't accept a payment.

My point to all of this - working out a "plan" can sometimes be far more painful than filing - For us it only caused 10K in fees - TEN THOUSAND dollars of fees - it is mind numbing and I consider it criminal - but they can do it... I was only $2400 behind - but I owe them $14000 in fees in addition to the 300 extra per month I am paying now.

GL to you - really...

[bkbiker]

Dear Anj,

That really sucks what that mortgage co is doing, shameful

Yep, same thing here with creditors, hostile phones call, wouldn’t give an inch, funny how there language change after 4 months of not paying them. They were ready than with great deals. Too late, chapter 13 was a welcomed relief, and than the phone became peculiar quiet.

Good luck,
bkbiker

[brokemommy]

If credit cards negotiated, what message would that send to the other billions of dollars in A/R? Look at the message that would portray.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Has anyone ever flat out told the CC company that you're having difficulties...mine is loss of hours at work

My biggest single creditor was citibank, and all the medical bills I had rolled onto the card and then not being able to find any work after 9-11, for years. Then I was 1 day late on a payment. They raised my interest rate from 7.65% to 26.9%, which doubled my monthly payment from 2 hundred and change to over 500. I was previously able to pay the 2 hundredish payment working odd jobs and living with my parents for free, but without regular employment I knew I could not in any way pay 500+. I made it very clear to them that if they are quadrupling my interest rate I would be unable to pay it. And interestingly enough, in the 2 years before I could even afford to file bankruptcy and paid nothing on the card, THEY DID NOT GIVE ME EVEN ONE COLLECTION CALL. You see, through all the begging and pleading that I did with all their supervisors and associates, they believed me and knew that I couldn't pay. They simply decided they didn't want their money. After about a year they sent me an offer to settle with a 50% cash lump sum payment, which was simply impossible or else I would have done it. So what I am telling you is chances they won't negotiate anything reasonable with you, unless you have the cash to pay at least half, at once.

[bkbiker]

[GoingDown]

When I finally came to grips with the fact that I could no longer pay the minimums to our CCs back in January, I wrote letters to all of them explaining the fact that I could not pay the new minimums (since they all doubled in January due to that new law or whatever that regulation is). I asked if they would be willing to lower the interest rate, lower the minimum, anything to help.

The ones that bothered to send a response all said the same thing....TOO BAD! Send us the payment, can't work with you, blah blah blah.

Now that I haven't made a payment since January, I'm getting sympathy letters saying how they understand that everyone goes through difficulties, call us to work out something, blah blah blah....TOO LATE!

It has been my experience that the original creditor simply goes through the motions of sending out form letters, jacking up the interest rate, and adding huge amounts of late fees and over the limit fees until it reaches the point of charge off, and then they either send it to an attorney to file a lawsuit against you or they send it on to an outside collection agency. For the most part they will not deal with you in a meaningful way at all. They will offer to settle the debt for an amount slightly less than what is owed on it, but they want that amount paid in full within a certain set time limit, usually just a few weeks after they offer to settle. It is simply too little, too late to do any good. If I could afford to make such a huge lump sum payment to them to pay it off, then I wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

The only reason they want to get you on the phone to talk to them is to find out information about your job and assets, and to try to verbally force you into paying them something, and to get some damaging information about you-- such as the fact that you ran up a lot of charges in the last few months without having a job, or without having any way to repay your debt. Never make the mistake of thinking they are your friend or that they are trying to help you in any way. The best thing to do is to never talk to them at all, and don't send them anything in writing either. They will just try to use it against you. Get caller I.D. and don't answer calls from anyone you don't know. Or if you have a cell phone, whenever a creditor calls, save their phone number in your contacts list and then assign them a silent ring tone so you won't even hear them when they call.

[anonymuse]

I had a creditor reduce my rate down to the original after three consecutive payments were made on time--they will negotiate a little.