tips to negotiate with BofA?

[monacho]

I have a friend who is about 170 days delinquent with 2 B of A credit cards totaling $22,000 and she called up and said that if they will accept some lower amount she can get family members to help her pay it off.  They told her "we don't do that" and that she will have to wait until after it is charged off because she was already in some kind of a negotiated payment plan with them that she did not keep up with.

 

She also owed Chase like $6,000 and they immediately accepted an offer to pay it off for 50% of the balance due.

She keeps calling B of A to try and talk to someone but gets the same story.

Is there anything she can do?

She has been told it will be charged off at the end of the month.

[centex]

If she had not already been ON a plan, there likely would have been wiggle room.  But a payment plan ON TOP OF a payment plan is simply not a reasonable request. 

[monacho]

3 hours ago, centex said:

If she had not already been ON a plan, there likely would have been wiggle room.  But a payment plan ON TOP OF a payment plan is simply not a reasonable request. 

I agree with you 100%. It's completely unreasonable and she never should have accepted the plan that her ex-husband set her up on with them. He signed up for the credit cards in her name without her permission so she expected the judge to order HIM to pay them off in the divorce but the judge assigned all the accounts in her name to her even though she didn't open them.

Does anyone know if B of A is going to sell the charged off debts to a collection agency or just keep trying to collect themselves?

[centex]

9 minutes ago, monacho said:

I agree with you 100%. It's completely unreasonable and she never should have accepted the plan that her ex-husband set her up on with them. He signed up for the credit cards in her name without her permission so she expected the judge to order HIM to pay them off in the divorce but the judge assigned all the accounts in her name to her even though she didn't open them.

Does anyone know if B of A is going to sell the charged off debts to a collection agency or just keep trying to collect themselves?

Sounds like she needed a better divorce attorney. 

 

As to the charge off and sell versus keeping in-house, it used to be driven by where one was located.  In some jurisdictions, BofA keeps their paper and litigates within the year.  Other places, they sell it and wash their hands of involvement. 

[RehabbingANDBlabbing]

23 hours ago, monacho said:

I have a friend who is about 170 days delinquent with 2 B of A credit cards totaling $22,000 and she called up and said that if they will accept some lower amount she can get family members to help her pay it off.  They told her "we don't do that" and that she will have to wait until after it is charged off because she was already in some kind of a negotiated payment plan with them that she did not keep up with.

 

She also owed Chase like $6,000 and they immediately accepted an offer to pay it off for 50% of the balance due.

She keeps calling B of A to try and talk to someone but gets the same story.

Is there anything she can do?

She has been told it will be charged off at the end of the month.

A few years ago, I had a BofA charge-off I was dealing with. They were the most difficult creditor to deal with, as far as settling the debt. They never wanted to settle for a reasonable amount of money (usually 80% or more is what they wanted), then they did finally sue me after a couple of years with one of the most aggressive debt collection law firms in my area. My lawyer negotiated a settlement of 50%, which still wasn't great, but it did buy me time to get all the money together and not deal with a judgment. I would expect them to sue at some point, but it could be years. And I would not expect to be able to settle for a low amount, especially if they do not sell the debt. And $22k? I don't see them letting that go. You have a lot fewer defenses when you are sued by an original creditor, versus a debt buyer. I would recommend your friend stop making payments if she can't afford to make them and just save up money until they sue so she can arrange a settlement. That will at least buy her time, then she can hire an attorney to get hear a deal or extended payment terms on whatever else is left on the debt at that point. It sucks, but it is one way to avoid a bankruptcy.

[monacho]

5 hours ago, centex said:

Sounds like she needed a better divorce attorney. 

 

 

I agree completely.  Her husband literally took out the cards in her name without her permission after he ruined his own credit and then used the cards to live on.  

 

13 minutes ago, RehabbingANDBlabbing said:

A few years ago, I had a BofA charge-off I was dealing with. They were the most difficult creditor to deal with, as far as settling the debt. They never wanted to settle for a reasonable amount of money (usually 80% or more is what they wanted), then they did finally sue me after a couple of years with one of the most aggressive debt collection law firms in my area. My lawyer negotiated a settlement of 50%, which still wasn't great, but it did buy me time to get all the money together and not deal with a judgment. I would expect them to sue at some point, but it could be years. And I would not expect to be able to settle for a low amount, especially if they do not sell the debt. And $22k? I don't see them letting that go. You have a lot fewer defenses when you are sued by an original creditor, versus a debt buyer. I would recommend your friend stop making payments if she can't afford to make them and just save up money until they sue so she can arrange a settlement. That will at least buy her time, then she can hire an attorney to get hear a deal or extended payment terms on whatever else is left on the debt at that point. It sucks, but it is one way to avoid a bankruptcy.

 

In my own case from a previous lifetime (2008-ish) I owed B of A $130,000 on credit cards and they called me up and offered to take a settlement of $12,000 if I would refrain from filing BK7. 

Then before the time period lapsed for me to find the money they emptied the last $600 I had in my checking account which meant I got overdrawn by that amount since I had already made payments for other things with that money but they took it first before the other transfers cleared.

This is part of why I'm surprised she can't get them to take any lesser amount but it is what it is. 

I told her if she gets sued and they get a judgement that they will eventually get it all.



I really appreciate the insights on this guys.  Thank you.

 

[legaleagle2012]

Divorce decrees are family court; they have no real legal effect in civil court. I would pursue the issue of not having applied for the account; demand that BofA produce the application with her signature either physical or electronic AND proof that she personally bought anything with the card.  Depending on when the account was opened, the SOL for ID theft may still be in play. She needs to stop talking to the bank, too. Did he do this while they were still married? What state?

[jkl83]

I burned BOFA for over 17k a decade ago. The day before it was about to charge off they overnighted me an offer to settle for ~30%. I didn't have the money to pursue that at the time, but it ended up working out okay. I never ended up paying them a penny. They never sold the debt, never sued, and never even made all that much effort to collect it.