3 ms·

Logistically extremely challenging. A thing you can do, quite successfully, is say “I will offer you $20, in full satisfaction of this $200 debt and anything y

Logistically extremely challenging. A thing you can do, quite successfully, is say “I will offer you $20, in full satisfaction of this $200 debt and anything you are tacking onto that. Give me that in writing and you’ll get a check via courier.” (I long ago had a hobby of getting people out of consumer credit situations by writing letters, and this is one genre of the letter. Note that it won’t always work; the firm can’t make a practice of selling debt at basis, obviously, but something beats nothing and you can often convince them that those are their two options.) It is very, very important that if one does this one gets the deal in writing, otherwise it has a bad tendency to a) be treated as a payment rather than a pay-off and b) guarantees they and other creditors will call you harder because you’ve signaled that you are in the N% of accounts willing to pay.

PopeDotNinja 7y ago
This can be tricky. You can end up being liable for income tax of the debt that's been forgiven.
hanoz 7y ago
> I long ago had a hobby of getting people out of consumer credit situations by writing letters... Whilst you're here, I must thank you for the wonderful advice in your article on that subject, which was posted in this place some years ago. If I were to distil it down to a single phrase I think it would be "present as if you're collecting a paper trail". This was hugely helpful in helping me help my wife dispense with an egregious parking charge last year, and I feel it has put me in good stead to handle similar matters in the future. I owe you a drink. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-reports/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...