idonthaveaname

It’s been a rough few years, but after many challenges, I finally managed to get approved for several credit cards. During the pandemic and the last few years, however, I accumulated over $30,000 in credit card debt. Several months ago, I got a decent-paying job and developed a plan to pay off my debt, which I’ve been following closely. I haven’t had a late payment in years. I’m 41 and really want to avoid bankruptcy. Since I’ll likely need to move to a more affordable city and get a car, I can’t afford to deal with the long-term consequences of bankruptcy. I have some savings that I’m currently using to pay rent until I can find another job. I could sell all my stocks and dip into my 401(k) to try to pay everything off, but that would wipe out my safety net. Plus, I’d have to pay taxes on the early withdrawal, though the total might be less than what I’m paying in monthly fees. I’m also unsure if I could get approved for a personal loan, and I worry about getting trapped with a new obligation that I might struggle to pay off. Will any companies settle my account for less than the full balance if the account is still current? How much will this hurt my credit score? On one hand, my score is already lower because of the high balance, but I’m also on joint accounts that aren’t used and have high limits. If I enroll in a non-profit debt management program, will that automatically close my accounts? If not, will it still lower my score? I plan to call each company directly. I have more credit cards than I need, so if even one is willing to settle, that would be a big help. Any advice? I’m feeling a bit worried.

Thanks this is helpful. I was going to look it up this weekend. Well I guess I'm about 4 months away from amex sol ending

Oh I apologize I wrote that when i was very tired. The years are 5-5.5 in age from the point of major delinquency

Based on this it would be on the 3 year mark 6 YEARS Section 213 (2) of the CPLR states that the statute of limitations to commence an action upon a contractual obligation or liability, express or implied, except for residential rent overcharge, certain transactions described in the Uniform Commercial Code, or warranties on new homes, must be brought within 6 years after the cause of action accrued. This statute of limitations includes all “consumer credit transactions,” such as credit cards, and is calculated to run from the date of the last transaction (either the last credit purchase, or the last payment made, whichever occurs last in time). 3 YEARS New York’s highest court, the Court Appeals, has recently held that in a debt-collection law suit, if the creditor to which you originally owed the debt is located in another state, then the place where the injury occurred to the creditor is that other state. In such cases, New York’s borrowing statute, CPLR 202, is invoked and the statute of limitations of the creditor’s home state will apply. Major creditors, such as Citibank, American Express, and Discover Bank are almost always based outside of New York. As such, these creditors, and the third-party debt collectors that purchase their delinquent accounts, are subject to the statute of limitations of the home state of the creditor. The most common state in which creditors incorporate is Delaware, which has a 3-year statute of limitations for debt-collection lawsuits (10 Del. C. § 8106). So, for example, if you had a Discover Bank credit card that you stopped paying on January 1, 2012, and Discover Bank transferred your delinquent account to a third-party debt buyer, such as Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, then since Discover Bank is a Delaware Corporation, Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, would have until January 1, 2015 to sue you for the debt. Since Discover Bank is a Delaware Corporation, a 3 year statute of limitations would apply to your New York Discover Bank credit card debt, even if your credit card debt is transferred to a local third party debt collector, such as Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC. Both creditors and debtors are frequently uninformed as to this rule, and often proceed to litigation under the assumption that New York’s 6-year statute of limitations applies, when, in fact, it might not.

Haha thank you this helps very much. I'll ignore and wait and then see what the actual impact on the scores are

That makes sense even though overall it can be a little bit ridiculous. I get that an old account thats a high balance charge off could bring the overall age down I would think that the removal of that high charge would be better. Thank you for the information. What was confusing to me is that none my information on my report has changed.

Its really strange. My vantage was going up and positive events happened on my credit report and fico moving the opposite direction. Anyways its free to check so I do look at it just to see some of things you mentioned such as report balances,etc.

Thanks this is helpful. I guess I was surprised since the disputed items are credit card charge offs. Maybe you are right that the length of the derogatory matters. I guess I thought charge offs got the same weight for the whole timeframe they are on the report. As far as CK I know its not an accurate score and they are trying to sell you stuff. I don't take the score super serious I guess I was concerned about the dispute and score issues which happens in all the scoring methods. Thanks for answering that.

Hi, I've read a lot of about the credit repair process and have implemented a lot of those tools. What question I have is if I should just wait for these to drop off versus getting on payment plans. I really didn't want to do this, since I can't really afford it at the moment and can't settle. I know there is always a risk of being sued, though. Getting on a payment plan would also mean that it would change the date of the last payment, and many of these cards would take a long time to pay off. It is really not something I can afford. Capital One, Amex are some creditors, which means I'm probably blacklisted. I have my own $5,0000 with no balance in case I need credit, some store cards, and an authorized /joint user for other cards totaling another 80k in credit. I know I owe them this debt, but worried I'll just be wasting my money at this point. Not looking to file bankruptcy at this point. Just curious to get some opinions.

Oh I agree and appreciate it. I guess they are most helpful just to see things are reported but for scoring it's not helpful. Curious what do you do just buy the fico scores when you think you might need them?

Ya I know they aren't used by lenders but still can give some insight. Also I can't afford $30 dollars a month to get my fico scores all the time

I actually got a letter like this and then i paid the amex card off and I never got a paper application for the optima. When I called up they said they never sent it to me

I agree with people saying that most lenders use fico but I don't think they are useless. They can provide various information that help you to see how things are reported on your credit report. I'm curious have you checked your fico scores ? Did they go down as well?

Hi, So I have a bunch of negative charge offs from credit card companies on my account. I disputed the date of the last payment. So now I see my score dropped 39 points after they validated the transaction. I don't get why this is. It says remarks added to the account. It was already on there to begin with so why should this hurt me even more? Some of the other disputes it looks like they put a temporary freeze while its being investigated. Would that hurt?

Thank you for the well thought out post/response. Personally I don't really get too much into the ethics. Like you said friends/family are a different story. I don't have an entitled mentality at all but these are big companies who has all this factored into their pricing. If its between not paying a debt or disputing something have it come off my report I'm all for that. IT would help my family and my situation far more than for them. I don't plan on taking out a mortgage any time soon as I owe thousands in student loans. My Credit utilization is fine . Right now these charge offs are about 3 years old so will take a long time to charge off. I just had thought there would be a quick but small /bump if I paid/settled them versus doing nothing. I have no problem doing nothing but was just surprised paying does nothing. I know New York has a purge law for unpaid collections after 5 years but when disputing with the bureaus it is almost as if they don't know these rules and still by a 7 year date.