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For the Chase accounts, I would highly recommend looking at all of the collection letters they are sending you. My spouse and I have both settled our Chase account for A LOT less than what we owed. The offers we both got were sent in letters, proactively from the collection agencies collecting on the debt. Chase still owned both of our accounts, but the collection agency was in charge of calling/writing us on their behalf.   I settled my original balance of $9500 for about $1,150. It was about 2 and a half years past due at the time, as was my husband's. My husband settled his original balance of $6950 for about $695. You can get good settlement deals with Chase, so if this seems like something you want to do, then I would start looking at those letters. If none of the letters offer something you can afford, then you might consider calling the collection agency to try and negotiate a deal. I would aim for about 20% and explain to them that you are unemployed and that a low amount paid in a lump sum is all you can afford to do. The Amazon card balance is smaller, so I would not expect too much of a savings on it, but the higher balance would be easier to get a good discount on. What if you could settle both of these for a total of $1,500? I am just saying, it is possible.   P.S. I just saw your post saying you are dealing with Nationwide Credit about the Chase account. Those are the folks I settled our Chase accounts with that got us an amazing deal. I would not hesitate to get them on the phone and negotiate. They hold onto the account for about 4-5 months, in my experience, and the letters they send progressively offer a better discount. If you call the and offer about 15%, they might just go for it, assuming you have the money.   As far as AmEx goes, I was in a similar payment plan with them a couple of years ago. The only way to make any changes on it is to call them up and speak to their Indian reps who specifically deal with folks on a payment plan. That's why you couldn't change your account online. Anyway, I would maybe just try and pay them in full. It's a small amount and they might offer you the opportunity to get into their Optima Oasis program, so you can rebuild a relationship with them in the future. My guess is you will need to google the AmEx collections department phone number, assuming they have not sold your debt to a debt buyer.

Ok, so just to clarify, I should be writing this UNDER the endorsement signature line.  “ for deposit only to the account of such and such” and sign my name next to that? . Sorry I have have little experience with money orders. 

Thanks  guys, I called but couldn’t reach someone. Just thought I’d ask.     The automated system just asked a series of verification questions in order to speak to someone.   After I verified the questions they said they will send me “something in the mail”   I don’t know what that something is.

https://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?/topic/569679-lexis-nexis-freeze/&tab=comments#comment-5490793   IIRC L/N lets you freeze the risk report but not everything but it sounds like (in the above thread) others have gotten everything frozen.    

AMEX shows the name for each issued card (they all have unique numbers).   This is the only card that I have that does this.