Posted on May 21, 2010 at 7:55 am Hi, what's the relationship with letting the creditors write off my credit card debtand me being debt free? Somebody suggested that I stop paying and then wait for collection calls. And then wait for them to offer? I did not understand the suggestion.Can you help?

Posted on May 21, 2010 at 8:01 am Write off credit card, debt free - Hi Chuck, the IRS law dictates that original creditors write off consumer accounts if they're unpaid for somewhere between 5-6 months. The creditor, of course, loses income that way, and so most of them turns over these accounts to third party collection agencies, to at least get portions of the debt. They would call you and call you until you pay. If you refuse, they can sue you for judgment. It's their job to get you to somehow pay.

Posted on May 21, 2010 at 8:06 am Write off credit card, debt free--- Hey Chuck, regarding you stopping your payments altogether? It has something to do with debt settlement and the collection agency, as Stephanie's mentioned. If you want to settle your debt with the original creditor, you might have a tough time convincing them to let you pay off your debt for less than the full amount - if you're still current. So you'd have to stop paying for months and hope they don't sue you. They, however, might agree to settle if you have 75% of your total debt amount ready to hand over to them.

Posted on May 21, 2010 at 8:08 am interesting..what is debt settlement? and what is the judgment? if i stop paying and then i get a judgment, then what?

Posted on May 21, 2010 at 8:15 am Chuck! Debt settlement is a professional program that negotiates your total balance down to more or less half. This program runs for 1-3 years. In this program, your settlement company would guide you to save (on either your savings account or an escrow account) as they negotiate with each of your creditors. Regarding judgment. It is a court procedure. Before one is handed down to you, there would be a hearing. It's not an instant sentence for you to cough out payment. And even in such cases, some debt settlement companies can still negotiate terms with your creditors, if not, some consumers file bankruptcy to avail of the automatic stay. Professional debt settlement may require you to have a total credit card debt amount of $10k.

Posted on May 21, 2010 at 8:21 am That would be professional debt settlement, but if you're interested in doing it yourself, you can read up here, http://settleonyourown.com/

Posted on May 21, 2010 at 8:26 am Speaking of collectors and creditors, settling on your own or professional debt settlement, you may also want to read about the letters that you may need or encounter in the process- http://www.payingpaul.com/debt-collection-letters.php, http://www.debtfreedestiny.com/category/sample-letters/

Posted on May 22, 2010 at 8:55 am Basically most creditors will offer settlements on accounts 90 or more days delinquent, at about 180 delinquent they charge-off the accounts to third party debt settlement companies.  In most cases they sell these accounts for pennies on the dollar, you can either negotiate a delinquent unsecured credit card account with the original creditor or wait for it to be sent or sol to a collection agency.  This does not mean you are debt free, unless you can get the collection agency not to verify your debt.  In this case as soon as you receive the first written correspondence from the collection agency you have 30 days to validate the debt, this is done by sending them a validation letter, there is a process involved and you can find more info on the net regarding validation of an unsecured credit card debt.