How to Gain Leverage Over Credit Card Companies

[janemei07]

Credit card debt negotiation tips:

1. Do a financial analysis to ascertain monthly budget. This will help you in negotiation as your ability to pay a minimum every month can be calculated.

2. It is always better to start with card having lowest balance. Negotiate with creditor to clear the cards in ascending order, from lowest to highest.

3. Instead of asking creditors to quote their offer, present them with your settlement offer according to your affordability.

4. Clearly explain your goals, if you wish to repay in full & improve credit score. Once they understand your goal they will be more encouraging to your offer.

5. Make the creditors know your intention, it is important to make creditor aware that you intend to repay their money.

6. As far as possible try to maintain polite conversation. Negotiation is all about how two people communicate to each other, so your behaviour will take you a long way.

7. Explain your creditors how this negotiation will be beneficial to both the parties.

8. Once refused doesn't mean that your chances are over, try contacting them again for a fresh negotiation process.

9. Whether going for negotiation or dealing with collection agency, always know all your right as a consumer. In case anybody violates the law, you know where to go.

10. Be precise on your conversation; if possible record all the conversation so that there are no discrepancies later on.

11. Negotiate for "paid in full" or "pay for delete" status to avoid any negative impact on your credit score.

These credit card debt negotiation tips are found to be very useful for anyone seeking debt relief.

Debt settlement is clearly a better alternative than bankruptcy and due to the massive amounts of consumers in debt, creditors are agreeing to very generous debt settlement deals. To compare debt settlement companies it would be wise to visit a free debt relief network which will locate the best performing companies in your area for free.

[FuzzX]

Listening to some of these programs of slice where the people have accumulated 50 to 80,000 dollars in consumer debt and it's going to take them 6 to 8 years to pay off.... I think it's better to pack up and leave the country, move all funds into an offshore account and declare bankruptcy...

it's not responsible but its a shorter/faster route to starting over...

anyway I liked your post, I'm never going to have a credit card or be in any sort of debt again but there are tons of people out there that could benefit from that.

[ladislav]

I have found an overseas solution to my debt problems- generous tax free salaries in other countries. I ran up huge bills twice, each time over 25K- all for good reason, with money spent on most necessary things, and then I went to Japan and Saudi and paid them down/ off and still took long vacations, lived a good life and gallivanted with young girls.

Average American salaries are great for Mexican migrants and Indian programmers but not for average US citizens who have no place to send their money to. I am not going to get rid of my credit cards at all. I will keep them. They are a great tool. If you know how to use them wisely.

Recently my ATM card was blocked- I did call my bank to let them know that I was traveling, it is just that you need to call them again after some time and again remind them that you are still traveling. In other words you have to keep reporting to them where you are. European banks apparently do not put you through this.

But I have credit cards and I went and got a few cash advances. These are expensive but if your salary is good, you should not care. You pay for the convenience of being able to borrow money any time you want.

Credit cards are great, they give you enormous flexibility and increase your buying power many-fold. Then you go to the desert for some time and pay them all off.

[Think Different]

FuzzX, just how do you get your money (legally) offshore? When I leave, I don't know if it's best to leave the money in US bank accounts and withdraw from overseas, or just open foreign accounts and have it "close to me". Thing is, the IRS is always wanting to know how much you have and where. That's OK with me, so long as they let me take it all with me, and don't "fine/penalize" me for taking it overseas. I'm not talking about tax evasion; I'm talking about convenience and limited withdrawal fees.

[ladislav]

FuzzX, just how do you get your money (legally) offshore? When I leave, I don't know if it's best to leave the money in US bank accounts and withdraw from overseas, or just open foreign accounts and have it "close to me". Thing is, the IRS is always wanting to know how much you have and where. That's OK with me, so long as they let me take it all with me, and don't "fine/penalize" me for taking it overseas. I'm not talking about tax evasion; I'm talking about convenience and limited withdrawal fees.

My understanding is that there is nothing illegal about having accounts overseas. You just need to report this to the Department of Treasury if over $10,000 every time you file for taxes. How you transfer? Once you have an account, you should just go to your bank and transfer the money, I think.

[Rock]

FuzzX, just how do you get your money (legally) offshore? When I leave, I don't know if it's best to leave the money in US bank accounts and withdraw from overseas, or just open foreign accounts and have it "close to me". Thing is, the IRS is always wanting to know how much you have and where. That's OK with me, so long as they let me take it all with me, and don't "fine/penalize" me for taking it overseas. I'm not talking about tax evasion; I'm talking about convenience and limited withdrawal fees.

My understanding is that there is nothing illegal about having accounts overseas. You just need to report this to the Department of Treasury if over $10,000 every time you file for taxes. How you transfer? Once you have an account, you should just go to your bank and transfer the money, I think.

Its completely legal to wire your money offshore. If its a significant amount, it may very well get noticed. But that's OK as long as you report the max balance in the account the following year.

There are 2 basic requirements for offshore accounts if you are a so called 'US person'

1. File FBAR forms to Dept. of Treasury in Detroit to be received by June 30 of the following year. Info will include account numbers, max balances, financial institution name and address, etc.

2. File cap gains/losses, dividend income/losses, and interest income/losses from these accounts on your tax forms due April 31 of following year (can be extended to October 31). For people in Asia, the IRS office is the one in Austin, TX.

If you want the money to leave the US reporting systems, convert it to physical gold, travelers checks or cash and stuff it in a safety deposit box in an overseas bank. You can also invest in non-income producing real estate. But eventually, if you sell the asset and make any sort of gain in US$ terms, you will be required to report the gain on your tax return. Of course, you would not have this problem with USD cash or travelers checks.

[Think Different]

"If you want the money to leave the US reporting systems, convert it to physical gold, travelers checks or cash and stuff it in a safety deposit box in an overseas bank. You can also invest in non-income producing real estate. But eventually, if you sell the asset and make any sort of gain in US$ terms, you will be required to report the gain on your tax return. Of course, you would not have this problem with USD cash or travelers checks."

I assume by this, you mean wire it overseas first (report it) and then later cash it out or convert to gold, once you're overseas with an account there, right? I can't exactly cash out the money here or put it in gold bullion and walk through airport security. $X00K+ in cash tends to raise alarms in customs.

[FuzzX]

I know there was a bank in Mexico that allowed foreigners to open accounts. Also I put a lot of my money into Canadian travellers cheques, I prefer them over using a Credit/Bank Account. You can also marry or have your wife/gf open an account for you (I did that in PV). One of my friends sinks all his money into Mexican small businesses and buying small business equipment and classic cars.

[Rock]

"If you want the money to leave the US reporting systems, convert it to physical gold, travelers checks or cash and stuff it in a safety deposit box in an overseas bank. You can also invest in non-income producing real estate. But eventually, if you sell the asset and make any sort of gain in US$ terms, you will be required to report the gain on your tax return. Of course, you would not have this problem with USD cash or travelers checks."

I assume by this, you mean wire it overseas first (report it) and then later cash it out or convert to gold, once you're overseas with an account there, right? I can't exactly cash out the money here or put it in gold bullion and walk through airport security. $X00K+ in cash tends to raise alarms in customs.

Yes that is exactly what I meant. You will have to report it one time, even it if it is only in the overseas account for a day or two. But in subsequent years, you are home free. You could have just as well spent it.

Also don't try to be cute by having your parents or someone you trust wire amounts of just under US$10K each time and making the conversion before the next wire to avoid reporting requirements. This is illegal and will likely get noticed, especially if they use the same bank each time to make the transfer.

[momopi]

* HSBC bank has 8,500+ branches world wide in 86 countries & territories. You can go to a HSBC branch near you and talk to an employee about accessing your funds overseas.

* If you have bad credit, hire a credit repair company and let them do the work.

* If you have a lot of CC debts, you can shop around for a good debt consolidation company, or do your own debt consolidation by getting a peer-to-peer loan from companies such as prosper.com (up to $25,000). Depending on your CC interest rate, you may be able to get a better rate from a peer-to-peer loan.

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Hmm. Let me think about this.

When you wire funds overseas, you have to pay a service charge.

Why should you pay when you can have someone else pay you.

I'm not sure if this would work (have not done it), but if you want to move chunks of $$ overseas, you could invest the funds with a peer-to-peer lending company, then have the repayment sent to a different bank overseas? That way you'd make a profit in interest from moving your $$ arouond.

Before anyone start dumping chunks of $25k into peer-to-peer loans, please start with smaller loans to learn the system first...!