I only paid 1/3 of my creditcard debt and became debt free!

I believe in paying my bills. That seems to cheat the company that extended you credit. Of course they cheat you daily with all that interest. You entered into the agreement and so should pay it all. Not sure what Promo meant. Also if you couldn't pay since no job, where did you get the 10 thousand? Consolidation is a better option.

Those credit card companies are good at trying to scare the life out of a person,but really all they can do is report you to the local credit bureau..They will very often send you a letter asking you to settle your debt with a big discount...They still come out ahead because most of what they charge is late fees and interest fees and they can add up really fast...Sometimes people can get themselves in trouble with debt, and really they do not do it on purpose,they can be short on funds or lose their job,many things can happen to you,every day brings on its new worries...I am happy for you that you are able to settle this debt and not have to pay so much money..Yes i do think that it is a very good promo,and I am very happy for you....

Wow what a lot of money you owed at that particuloar time, however you were extremely lucky that they had a prmotion and saved a lot of money I would of taken the option that you did as well, we do have a debt company in Australia where you can apply to stop any interest going on your credit card when you are suffering hard ship and this saves a lot of money they do it all the time.

I had four credit cards in 2001, lost my job and was uanble to pay them off, so I shredded them and paid them down below the maximums. After paying them down to below the maximum, it left with me with about $100 dollars of available credit. When My unemployment benefits were depleted I called each company (in 2002) and explained my situation. I still had no work, but was actively seeking a job. I was unable to continue my monthly payments. On two of the cars I had been paying $7.95 a month for insurance that woould help me pay the minimum payment monthly. After mountains of paperwork, I was turned down by the insurance company because a) I had not contacted them during the window that was available to me, and b) because my unemployment compensation had been depleted. I was so frustrated. I was paying for insurance that I was assured would make payments for me when I lost my job. And here I am being refused for something that I had paid for! I didn't see that they had an option to actually pay. The insurance was sold to me under the impression that if I lost my job, this would help pay payments! Anyway, I have since watched my credit accounts be closed, then sold to other collection agencies. I have received the frightful lawyer letter offering me a settlement for up to half off the ever-growing amount. I am sorry but for four cards (3 of which only had $100 credit maximum and one with $500 worth of credit), with my current employment situation, they will just have to do without my paying them off. I now owe over $3000 for $800 worth of credit. Since I informed each company of my situation and asked the accounts to be closed, I feel it is unfair that they continue to add interest and other fees to it. When they make the offer, the collection agency is making a killing because they bought my debt for pennies on the dollar and are trying to make me pay them enough so they can make a profit! The way I see it, unless I get a job making what I was when I could afford the cards, then they are just going to have to continue to accumulate their fees. If they are fortunate, I will get a job soon and begin paying them back.

not me personally but my sis owed alot of money and ended up paying off two thirds of her debt..so she saved around one third..which wasn't too bad in my opinion..congratulations lol..

A friend of mine was in this situation too. He owed about $32,000. He was offered a deal for repayment, I can't remember what the amount was, but he didn't have the money and nobody he knew could lend it to him. Unfortunately, now, 4 years later, he's still struggling to pay them back - all thanks to his ex wife who totally cleaned him out when she left.

I think that there is a catch to this promo if you ask me but if it helps you in the short term then it is a good thing. I would be careful about all the interest or finance charges that you might get from this promo and make sure you read all the fine print in case they pull a fast one on you. We do not have such a deal here though we can get debt consolidation loans that can save us money by transferring our credit card debts to these loans.

Do you have to pay taxes ont he amount that they wrote off? Because I know here, if you only pay a portion of your debt to settle your account, the company reports it as lost income and the government looks at it as money you received as a gift, so they tax you on it. Otherwise, if you don't have a job, it's great that the company settled with you. I have quite a bit of debt as well, but I don't think the company would settle with me. Also I don't want it to go on my credit report.

ok thats good i think u shuld go with some more credit card and do the same over thereeeeeeeeeeeee lolololo

Yeah lots of credit cards companies do that. They slash off like half or a third of it because these are just penalties, late charges and finance charges. What they let you pay is only the actual debt you owed the establishments. I owed Citibank like 14k pesos (with the penalties, interests and late charges of course) I can not pay it coz I didn't have job that time,just like you. And then I read their letter again stating about compromises and to call thier number. I called them and they offered me like half price slash off. No choice but to pay it from my savings. It was only last year that decided to get another card, because i am employed again. Yaaaahoo!!!

It wasn't a promo, it was a collection agency. They bought the debt for about 25% of the total amount so if they got more than that from you, which they did, they made money on the deal. The credit card company wrote off the debt and showed it as a loss. Check your credit report, I am sure it is listed there are a non-paid debt until you contact them and have everything resolved. Even then, it will still show that it was written off and could mess with your credit rating.

hey where are u frm?? how come u got this chnace?? did u declared urself bankcrupt????i must say one thing about ur lawyer frnd " a friend in need is a frnmd in deed".

I am confused withthis story, do you will to say that you have not to pay that amount in future, I think you have to pay rest amount with intrest in future, please say me. If not it is like gambling

That is a story out of this place. We hope and pray that the Shylock credit card companies in the UK will borrow a leaf from your country.It will go a long way to help the 3/4 of adult in this country that are indebted to one credit card company or the other. Happy ending for you mate!, Stay out of debt NOW!

You are a lucky chap.. to get away with the debts so easily but it rarely could happen unless the company was n loss and had taken enough precautions while issuing the cards. Anyway lucky people will get luck in any form and from anywhere.

Well all I can say is that you were extremely lucky and that some really good luck was with you that you managed to avail the promotion and became debt free. I haven't been in debt till now, so I really have no experience of promotions or anything.

I have had a couple of debts from when I got divorced and they offered me a similar deal of paying a certain amount that is considerably less than the original amount. However, I didn't have the money to do that. My credit sucked so I couldn't get a loan to do it and I sure didn't have the money lying around. If I had $5,000.00, I would be making my payments. :)

I have to much on credit cards too but not that much. So what kind of prom was that to get out of that much debt. That would be great to do.

You really are truly LUCKY,imagine you have all the luck in the world you could find. You have cleaned up your debts,and what could be your best luck is your friend. You seldom found someone like that nowadays. Is it okay if you can introduce me to him,i had exactly the same problem like you do,maybe i can ask for an advised im an hsbc card holder too. By the way can i add you as a friend???

Nice deal I must say! We have to take advance of this types of promotions! Never happen to me thou.