American Express cancelled my card and the collection agency won't take payments!?

Question

I called the collection agency to setup payment arrangements and they lady I spoke with wanted a payment of 800.00. She said she couldn't accept any payments. My bill before was 70.00 a month and I obviously couldn't make that. How can I afford to drop down 800.00? I have no idea what to do. She said they would settle for a lump payment of 2100.00 which is 55% of my balance. (I owe like 3800.00) If I could get that money that would be great but I can't. She told me to ask my husbands family members for a loan. I can't do that. They don't have the money either. I lost my job due to a medical reason and I can't go back to work until after I have the baby. My husband isn't making enough to pay our house, car and other bills let alone a big payment such as 800.00! Please help with any advice.

Answer 1

Please do NOT do what the previous answer said.  Sending a payment without a written agreement is just about the worst thing you could do.  Not only does it keep the Statute of Limitations moving, but you have no way to know if the payment you are sending is actually doing any good.

What you do need to do is send them a Certified Letter with Return Receipt.  In the letter state the total amount you are going to pay and the amount of each payment.  Also include that the payments will be by Money Order only and that they need to delete the collection account from your credit report once paid.  The final thing is to not sign the letter just type your name.

In the offer you could start at about 75%-80% of the balance if you need to make payments.  But even with payments they are probably not going to accept an arragement that goes much over a year.

Only when you have a written agreement from them that you can agree with do you send them any money.  But once you do have this be sure to follow through with the agreement.

Answer 2

The collection agency will ALWAYS say they can't accept the payment as a means of trying to get you in a corner. Just send them a payment for what you can afford in money order form ONLY. Keep your copy....always keep a copy. If they're really serious, they'll send the money order back (not gonna happen), once they accept the payment, they agree to it.

Just keep paying what you can until you're done. When you're nearly done call them and negotiate a pay for delete, again in WRITING only. They'll feign amnesia if you don't get it in wriing.