Nationwide Credit, Inc. - low settlement offers

[Thebookmark]

It’s been two or three years since I’ve last made a payment to Chase bank for the two cards I had with them. Each card (after fees and other random add-ons) tacked up to about $4,000 each. $8,000 total. 
 

I’ve heard that Chase bank has been very soft in their collection efforts for quite some time. As in, they haven’t sued anyone for old credit card debt in years. 
 

I’ve received letters from Nationwide Credit, Inc. over the last few months. In each letter I’ve received better and more tempting options for settlement. Today I received an offer to settle one card for $350 and another for $350. That’s a $700 settlement for what they’re saying is an $8,000 debt. 
 

I’ve dealt with Calvary and Gurstel before and a few other places as well. However, I’ve never been offered close to something like this from anyone. 
 

Any insights as to why this could be? Does anyone here believe that Chase will become more aggressive in their collection process (suing) soon?

Thanks!

[BackFromTheDebt]

Nobody has a clue what Chase will do in the future.  Banks, like any big companies, have their policies.  Someone high up in the company makes a policy.  Everyone below has to follow it.  Policies can change 180 degrees for no rational reason. Or not.  

Think of this as a gamble, or as insurance.  If you pay the $700, less than 10% of what you owe, you are buying insurance against Chase changing their policy while the account is within SOL.  If you don’t pay the money, you are gambling $8000 to avoid paying $700.  

Can you afford the $700? If so, it may be worth the $700 to get this debt cleared.  

Note that at some point you will have to pay taxes on either the $7300 saved or the full $8000, unless you are insolvent at the time the debt is excused.  If you are insolvent now, but might not be insolvent in a few years, the tax savings by paying now could be worth more to you than $700. 

[Thebookmark]

19 minutes ago, BackFromTheDebt said:

Nobody has a clue what Chase will do in the future.  Banks, like any big companies, have their policies.  Someone high up in the company makes a policy.  Everyone below has to follow it.  Policies can change 180 degrees for no rational reason. Or not.  

Think of this as a gamble, or as insurance.

Can you afford the $700? If so, it may be worth the $700 to get this debt cleared.  

Right. This all makes perfect sense. I don’t want to beat myself up later.

 

but why such a low offer?

[nobk4me]

Does Chase still own the debts, or have they been sold to a JDB?  Settlement offers that low sound more like a JDB.  But I did get some very low settlement offers from an OC (not Chase).

That OC never sued.  I ignored their offers.

 

  This sounds like Hail Mary; they are desperately trying to get something from accounts they have written off and consider a totally lost cause.   Chances are Chase won't sue either.  But you never know.  Is arbitration an option here, if they did sue?

[Thebookmark]

1 hour ago, nobk4me said:

Does Chase still own the debts, or have they been sold to a JDB?  Settlement offers that low sound more like a JDB.  But I did get some very low settlement offers from an OC (not Chase).

That OC never sued.  I ignored their offers.

 

  This sounds like Hail Mary; they are desperately trying to get something from accounts they have written off and consider a totally lost cause.   Chances are Chase won't sue either.  But you never know.  Is arbitration an option here, if they did sue?

From what I’ve heard, Chase hasn’t sold their debts to a JDB or sued on delinquent credit card debts in years.

 

With that in mind, trying to figure if I should just send the $700 or bide my time and wait for the statute of limitations. 

[Goody_Ouchless]

Only time I've seen numbers like that is when Statute of Limitations has run - either in your state, or the arbitrary number that some creditors use in order to keep things simple (for example, I've received letters saying they won't sue, due to age of debt, even though the debt isn't time barred in my state.)

 

[Thebookmark]

15 minutes ago, Goody_Ouchless said:

Only time I've seen numbers like that is when Statute of Limitations has run - either in your state, or the arbitrary number that some creditors use in order to keep things simple (for example, I've received letters saying they won't sue, due to age of debt, even though the debt isn't time barred in my state.)

 

It seems so strange to me that an OC or JDB would send a letter saying they wouldn’t sue. Do you have any context for that story? I’d love to hear. 

[Pericles]

Chase has been offering these sorts of settlements via Nationwide for years  At least going back to 2013, as far as I can remember.  All instances that I remember were within statute.

Usually they'd send a series of de-escalating offers, 30%, 20% and then around 10% or even less.  I specifically remember <10% settlement offers on debts as large as 10k-20k.

Usually the instructions would indicate to make the payment payable to "Chase", so  Chase still owned the account and Nationwide was just acting as a collection agency for Chase.

You're correct that Chase doesn't sell many debt portfolios or even sue very often.  But that could change at any time.  If you're not close to statute, your guess is as good as anybody else whether or not they'll change their approach,  When Chase withdrew from the Canadian credit card market, they just decided to forgive all of the debt rather than sell it to a bank or another buyer.   

Whatever percentage is forgiven could have tax implications.

[Goody_Ouchless]

44 minutes ago, Thebookmark said:

It seems so strange to me that an OC or JDB would send a letter saying they wouldn’t sue. Do you have any context for that story? I’d love to hear. 

Most were from Midland, but also a few from Cavalry. Basically letters saying how awesome they were for "helping" get the debt behind me. I think the "we won't sue" language was the result of settlement with a State, or States, where they would trick folks into making a token payment in order to restart the SOL. Some of the letters we got even said that the debt was so old they couldn't even report it, even to report it paid.