sentry1170 Posted December 8, 2003 Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 Hi people.I am completely clueless on how to pursue my debt situation. I have a debt of around 25K for about a year. I was laid off from a tech job last summer. Actually the whole company went down. At the end of last year I decided that i would file for BK chapter 7. I had about 6 credit cards and some time after stoping making payments i started recieving letters from collection agencies. But what I noticed that only some of the credit cards used collection agencies. Some of CC still kept sending me statements. Anyways, all this time went by. I never answered collection agencys calls, I let my answering machine deal with them. But today I stumbled upon this wonderfull site. I honsetly dont want to file for BK. I would rather settle the money I owe for a smaller amount, after all I did borrow that money. I got a few letters from CA that said that creditors are willing to settle for less then half of the original debt. Can someone please direct me as far as what steps I need to take to settle debt with my credit cards. Do I have to talk to CA or can I just talk straight to my credit cards and have them get CA off my back? Do i have to validate my debt with anyone? There is so much information here that I am lost Please HELP!!!Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolo Posted December 8, 2003 Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 Hi people.I am completely clueless on how to pursue my debt situation. I have a debt of around 25K for about a year. I was laid off from a tech job last summer. Actually the whole company went down. At the end of last year I decided that i would file for BK chapter 7. I had about 6 credit cards and some time after stoping making payments i started recieving letters from collection agencies. But what I noticed that only some of the credit cards used collection agencies. Some of CC still kept sending me statements. Anyways, all this time went by. I never answered collection agencys calls, I let my answering machine deal with them. But today I stumbled upon this wonderfull site. I honsetly dont want to file for BK. I would rather settle the money I owe for a smaller amount, after all I did borrow that money. I got a few letters from CA that said that creditors are willing to settle for less then half of the original debt. Can someone please direct me as far as what steps I need to take to settle debt with my credit cards. Do I have to talk to CA or can I just talk straight to my credit cards and have them get CA off my back? Do i have to validate my debt with anyone? There is so much information here that I am lost Please HELP!!!Thank you.Well, I tried talking straight to my credit cards but all they did was glare back at me. Seriously though, you should read, read and then read some more. This site has some great links. (top of the page) Read the FDCPA about ten times. Read everything here about debt validation. There are lots of different approaches and you will need to figure out what you want to do. Settling all of your debts for less than half what you borrowed sounds real good but it's not that simple. It will be easier for people to help you when you better understand the basics and can be more specific in your questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sentry1170 Posted December 8, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 I guess what I need to know is what should be my first step to resolve my debt issue without filing Ch 7. Do I need to send DV letters to each agency, or can I just call/write letters to credit cards to negotiate some sort of settlement as well as making sure that they remove all negative feedback from my credit reports and getting those CA hyenas of my back.Thnx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sentry1170 Posted December 8, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 Another thing, CAs sent me several letters over a period of time and I never asnwered any of them. How does that affect me? Did CA assume debt to be valid on their part? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadynRed Posted December 9, 2003 Report Share Posted December 9, 2003 Yes, the ASSUME, and that's it. It does not mean you can't still send them DV letters. You're in NY - it has a long SOL of 6 years for credit cards So, any creditor would have another 5-5-1/2 years to sue you.Settlement means negotiation - all in writing - do NOTHING on the phone. PAY nothing w/o a written, signed agreement FIRST. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sentry1170 Posted December 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2003 Thanx Lady.I guess I have to wait for new letters to come in so that I know where to send them. I kept on throwing them away I wish I found this site much much earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghacorp Posted December 13, 2003 Report Share Posted December 13, 2003 Sentry,If you can afford to do so, hire an attorney to mediate the debt for you if you are ready and able to settle. If not, then you can probably just ignore the bill collectors, but unfortunately they won't just disappear. If you DO have the resources to settle with creditors and they know you do, then you should be in contact with the original creditor, not the CA! (Debt buyers have less leeway here.) On the other hand, if you don't own a home, are not employed you probably should instead focus your energy on seeking employment and not bother with letters. A request for debt validation can cause a creditor to transfer the account to another agency and so on, or just turn your name over to a local law firm for a consolidated civil suit. The less you have the better. Bankruptcy should only be filed as a last resort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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