Is there a point in paying now?

[NL]

Hi,

We are in Texas.

Had good credit, joined a debt consolidator who turned out to be a negotiator and misinfored us, they let all the credit card accounts go while we thought they were consolidating our debt to 1 payment.

Trying to figure out what to do from here, got about $20k in debt. We called up the creditors, only 2 of them still have it, the other 3 sent to collection agency.

By now the credit is runined, it's been 9 months since any payment was made.

1. My question is, is there a point in settling with the 2, knowing that the others are off to collection and ruin my credit?

2. The ones that have been sent to collection, is there any adventage in calling them to try and settle? or just forget it and wait until they chase me?

3. Got no assets, and no job, (I can maybe borrow money from family). I guess I am in limbo trying to figure out what to do now, is there a point in trying to do the right thing and offer to settle with everyone of them, or is it pointless cause my credit is ruined. Is bankrupcy something I should be thinking of to just get out of this mess.

Debt is from being a rackless student spender. Still young, just need to figure out what is the best course of action from here and on? Anyone?

[jcro]

REMEMBER, only settle if they agree not to put it on your cr's and if they are on your cr's to give you permanent deletion in writing BEFORE YOU

PAY UP.

It kind of sounds to me like you wont be able to pay them. if you are not

able to strike a deletion-for pay deal, dont pay anything.

You might have seven years in credit "hell" no matter if the charge- off

and collections are paid or not.

[NL]

Thanks for the reply.

But what happens if I just don't pay.

I'm guessing try debt validation first anyway right?

Also, I had a question, how do I know if I am working with the creditor or collection agency. The reason I ask this, is I call up Discover, and they forward me to their paralegal, but they say it's under Discover.

Then I call up Junipar, and they forward me to 3rd party name, but they say that they work for ONLY for junipar, all 300 paralegals. They even said "good thing you called, we were forwarding this to arbitration to get a judgement, so it's a good thing you called us".

What do I believem and how do I know if I am settling with creditor, or if the creditor already gave it to collection agency.I guess that becomes important in figuering out what will be on my credit report, but how do I know all this?

NL

[jcro]

This is kind of a tough one for me.

normally i would not say bankruptcy, but with no job 20k in debt bk might be a great option for you. there is pending bk reform bill waiting to be signed by

bush to make it harder for you to claim bk. if you do it, do it quickly. I pretty

sure the bill has not been signed yet--i maybe wrong.

A while after bk, try to dispute your way out of it and do better next time.

[NL]

Will BK be much worst on credit than just ignoring the CA and trying DV on them?

Is it a long process to do BK? or easy?

NL

[wunderwoman]

Do Debt Validation on everything (CMRRR). If they don't have the proper paperwork, you can still avoid having this on your credit report.

If you get any summons for court, make sure to do debt validation and go to the hearing. Explain your situation and try to negotiate.

You can also try to do a conditional payment plan, where you set up payment in writing, on the condition that they don't report this to ANY credit bureau. Simply tell them, "if this is going to ruin my credit, that puts me in a bigger hole, and my only option if that were to happen would be to include this in my 'pending' bankruptcy. I'd rather not do that but with limited funds, I'm really trying to work with you here"