I bought some furniture about a year ago and it got free financing till 2010 on a citi credit card. I've been making the minimum payment since but today I was thinking about paying off the balance. What do you think the chances are that if I called them up and found the right person to talk to, that I could convince them that if they mark the balance down from like $1600 to $1000, I'll pay the whole thing off now. Think they'd go for it? I know a lot of times if a bill goes to collections, the collector will be willing to negotiate something like that. If they went for it, would it negatively affect my credit, or would the loan be considered paid in full, with Citi just writing off the rest. And I guess I'll throw in the, even if i can do it, should i do it question.

edit: would the current financial crisis make this any more or less attractive to them?

[Edited on October 8, 2008 at 8:42 PM. Reason : and clearly i'm not desperate for the 600, but hey, i sure would like to buy something else with it]

10/8/2008 8:39:02 PM

it costs what it costs, man

10/8/2008 8:40:09 PM

Quote :

"wtf fuck that I just live"

10/8/2008 8:40:33 PM

wut

10/8/2008 8:41:43 PM

epic fail

10/8/2008 8:42:35 PM

no, because they want to make money off the interest in the hopes it'll take forever for you to pay off.

Only way to get them to mark it down is to threaten bankruptcy

10/8/2008 8:42:51 PM

call them and find out

but be sure to wear a fake mustache when you're on the phone so they don't know it's you in case it all goes south

10/8/2008 8:42:57 PM

no harm in trying i guess, but in your collections example, i think the debt is usually bought by the collections agency after the credit card company has given up hope of you paying. so the collections agency knows how much you owed the cc company but is willing to take less because they paid less for it. i've never heard of a cc company doing this, though i guess it's on the same principle. i think they'd have to worry bout hagglers with plenty of money doing this if they made it a practice.

[Edited on October 8, 2008 at 8:43 PM. Reason : *]

10/8/2008 8:43:10 PM

the current crisis is not going to help you in any way

10/8/2008 8:43:43 PM

just wait 64 damn days and tww will pay that shit off.

10/8/2008 9:04:29 PM

wait wut?

10/8/2008 9:06:53 PM

Washington Mutual offered me to settle my card for 45% of the value the other day. (about a thousand off the balance) It is not in collections but has gone late a few times.

I think they need the money right now.

10/8/2008 9:07:00 PM

shit, i would take that and run if you can

10/8/2008 9:08:04 PM

thx for ruining out economy, dipshit!

10/8/2008 9:08:05 PM

If you have a perfect payment history they probably will not play ball, they know if you have good credit you are the type of person that does not want to ruin that.

If you have missed payments or your credit has gone to crap they will play ball. Once they let an account get charged off then they get very little (like less than half) of what is collected. Most companies are smart enough to take what they can before it gets to that point.

I think WAMU needs the cash flow because I do not know why they would have offered that settlement when I had not even said I could/would not pay the card.

10/8/2008 9:16:41 PM

[Edited on October 8, 2008 at 9:18 PM. Reason : wrong thread...haha]

10/8/2008 9:17:30 PM

that's what i was gonna buy with the $600

but not for you, for punchmonk

and black, not red

with white polkdots

10/8/2008 9:18:12 PM

get her a black dress... and then jizz all over it. it'll be cheaper

10/8/2008 9:19:00 PM

i have a black dress with white polka dots

10/8/2008 9:19:05 PM

$600 for a dress?

10/8/2008 9:20:03 PM

^^ i know

10/8/2008 9:20:21 PM

alternatively, i could buy 100 cans of cashews?

[Edited on October 8, 2008 at 9:21 PM. Reason : 100 cashes too]

10/8/2008 9:20:39 PM

10/8/2008 9:23:54 PM

that looks a lot like Maya's head

so it's settled then. i'll spend the $600 on a dress, some cashews, and a wig for maya

10/8/2008 9:25:36 PM

See if you can find the loss mitigation dept.

10/8/2008 9:28:11 PM

: Carl Face :

10/8/2008 9:32:38 PM

i knocked 60% off

10/9/2008 10:51:25 AM

nice

10/9/2008 10:54:03 AM

are you serious?

10/9/2008 10:57:11 AM

players gonna play
ballers gonna ball

10/9/2008 10:59:51 AM

You will be taxed on the settlement money I believe, ie the difference between what you paid and what you actually owed. You may wanna look into it further....

10/9/2008 11:00:17 AM

i don't pay taxes so it's cool

10/9/2008 11:00:50 AM

Quote :

"i knocked 60% off"

LIES

10/9/2008 11:01:32 AM

ok, 62.5%

10/9/2008 11:01:58 AM

LOL

10/9/2008 11:07:49 AM

Quote :

"If you have a perfect payment history they probably will not play ball, they know if you have good credit you are the type of person that does not want to ruin that."

btw, why do you mean by "free financing till 2010"?

10/9/2008 11:09:14 AM

so wait a minute, they havent made a dime off of you yet and they wanted to take a loss right away

that person should get fired for accepting that deal

10/9/2008 11:09:48 AM

no interest on the credit card if you make all payments and pay the whole thing off by 2010. if you don't pay it off by then, they back-add all the interest

10/9/2008 11:10:10 AM

i should try this on my LASIK payments then

i have no interest for 18 months on 4k so ive been making double payments to get it done in 16

10/9/2008 11:17:42 AM

doesn't it go on your credit report as not paying the full debt?

10/9/2008 11:21:30 AM

usually it does.

10/9/2008 11:22:57 AM

well then nevermind, i like my FICO the way it is

10/9/2008 11:24:02 AM

Quote :

"doesn't it go on your credit report as not paying the full debt?"

I've never heard of this. Details?
Even when talking about accounts that have already been sent to collections.

qfred, you will pay taxes on the amount forgiven. The amount forgiven will be treated as income.

[Edited on October 9, 2008 at 11:26 AM. Reason : dflkj]

10/9/2008 11:25:55 AM

nah, I lied about the whole thing anyways

I still might give them a call to inquire

I'll let y'all know how it goes

[Edited on October 9, 2008 at 11:31 AM. Reason : stupid autocorrect]

10/9/2008 11:29:40 AM

^^ It shows up as a line on your credit report as "Settled for amount less than owed"

What it actually does to your score, I have no clue... But if some actually looks at the report as well as the score, the settlement may hurt chances of having credit granted.

IE, hypothetically 2 people could have the same score and account history. One has paid everything in full, one has settled for a lesser amount on an account. The lender would be more inclined lend to the first person and they would get better terms.

10/9/2008 11:42:36 AM

Right.

But like I said: I've never heard of that happening with accounts that are in good standing with the original creditor.

Of course, that's probably since most settlements like that are done with collection agencies. At which point, 'amt settled for less than owed' isn't the biggest mark against you

Got any sources?
(I'm not doubting you; I'm trying to learn the ins and outs of this)

Also, he can ask (and should get this in writing) to have them not report it as such, but have them report is as 'paid as agreed'.

10/9/2008 11:49:24 AM

Quote :

"no interest on the credit card if you make all payments and pay the whole thing off by 2010. if you don't pay it off by then, they back-add all the interest"

ok thought so. putting this whole thing of negotiating it down aside (don't think that's likely but I dunno), it makes more sense to leave the balance on there until you have to pay it off. obviously, don't let it rollover and get fucked with the interest, but that's money you could be investing in the mean time (lolol, srsly though. even if it was just in a cheap ass savings account)

10/9/2008 11:49:26 AM

lol

10/9/2008 11:51:21 AM

yeah i mean i guess if you get it in writing that they will report it "paid in full" you can't go wrong

10/9/2008 11:51:59 AM

^^^^I was a finance manager for 2 years in auto sales, then did commercial financing for 2 years with several banks. Yes, you can settle for less than owed when you are in good standing with a creditor. I honestly don't know if it hurts your score or not though. I also don't know about the paid as agreed line - I do know that it's not the same as "Account is in good standing" though.

[Edited on October 9, 2008 at 11:56 AM. Reason : d]

10/9/2008 11:56:17 AM