Credit Card Issuers Slashing Balances To Settle Accounts
The banks were bailed out last fall, the automobile companies last winter. For Edward McClelland, a writer in Chicago, deliverance finally arrived a few days ago.
Mr. McClelland’s credit card company was calling yet again, wondering when it could expect the next installment on his delinquent account. He proposed paying half of his $5,486 balance and calling the matter even.
It’s a deal, the account representative immediately said, not even bothering to check with a supervisor.
As they confront unprecedented numbers of troubled customers, credit card companies are increasingly doing something they have historically scorned: settling delinquent accounts for substantially less than the amount owed.
- “Credit Bailout: Issuers Slashing Card Balances”, The New York Times, June 16, A1
If you’ve racked up some big balances on your credit cards and dug yourself into a hole, this might be a good time to call up you credit card company and make them an offer to settle your account. You might be surprised when they say “Yes”.
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I went the route of debt settlement. I put over $200,000 into a business that didn’t return the investment as I expected, leaving all of that debt on credit cards. I was paying nearly $4000 a month in interest, burning through savings and looking at destitution. I wasn’t interested in the companies that wanted to make me think I needed them to settle my debt and charge me for it, so I jumped in myself. I successfully reduced my credit card debt from $212,000 to $30,000 in six months and saved well over $100,000 in written off debt. I’ve written a book that describes the entire process of going up against six, major U.S. banks and winning! It’s called “The Do-It-Yourself Bailout.” You can check it out at my website, http://www.SettleYourCreditCards.com, and ask me questions on my blog there.