Keep a journal of all calls made and include,dates, phone#s department names person’s names, their titles, etc, etc. Also, dont take the first offer you get, ask for their supervisor, and then that person’s supervisor….try to hit at least 2 higher ups. and Finally, if you are able to come up with an agreement that you feel will work for you GET IT IN WRITING!!! WORD FOR WORD WHAT THEY STATE THEY WILL ACCEPT FROM YOU AS PAYMENT IN FULL OF THE DEBT!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe this is all stuff you know….but just in case…..

You have a point there. I wasn’t really thinking about your home also being a business. But there have been changes in laws.

From what I’ve been reading here it sounds like Citi Bank doesn’t work with people. I heard that they won’t do the reduced amount either. Is that true?

When I got behind with Citibank they told me I could get on a hardship plan that lasted maybe 6 to 9 months. I can’t remember. They reduced the interest during that time and didn’t charge the fees they had been charging.

There was never any mention of a settlement for a lower amount, until they sold the debt , which was all interest and fees. I didn’t even realize that for a long time though. Paying Citi was just part of my life and I was in a real fog about my finances at that time. The debt buyer said if I paid the total amount they would reduce it, but just had I had not been able to pay the balance with Citi, I unfortunatly made an agreement with the debt buyer to make monthly payments.

Big mistake since they were charging their own interest and keeping me in the dark about it.

No they don’t want to work with people. However they will take less, They have been offering me less on 2 bills provided I pay up front. Of course its money I don’t have. They told me that they don’t usually sell there accounts. But they are quicker to try and sue you so they get their money. They did try to sue me, but it must not have worked, because its been 4 months and I haven’t heard anything and they are trying to settle with me.

I felt this way too, but in reality, we have the responsibility to look closely at our bills. I see most companies now actually ‘bold’ or capitalize the words ‘Finance Charge’ on the bills we get.

The ones that do not do this are shadier than an oak tree in your yard, and you can actually demand a rundown of their interest charges.

I had a JUNIPER (:-P) account, and they kept to their end of ‘$37.00 a month, but…. had I not looked at the actual bill rundown, I would have failed to notice their FINANCE CHARGE was in fact $39.87 so I was going deeper by $2.87 a month. When I saw that, I doubled their payment!

Same when I kicked up about the interest on a collector’s bill. They tried to say ‘tough noogies’ but I said, ‘cool. Take me to court then because I’m not paying any more without being let in on what you’re doing in this scam’.

They then applied all the payments I made to the principle and lowered the future payments. I kept the payments the same though, it put more on their (Now lowered) interests, and my balance. I got free of them in April this year, 1 year earlier than the agreement.