Question:
Dear Steve,
I was sued by Citifinancial over an unpaid loan amount. I did not receive credit for some of the payments I made so I stopped paying on the loan.
They eventually took me to court which resulted in a judgment against me.
I’ve had trouble over the years trying to rectify this situation.
How can I quickly resolve this situation via a settlement?
RB
Answer:
Dear RB,
Well, let’s not lose the opportunity to learn from a situation and do better moving forward.
I understand you felt irritated by the payment application issue. That would piss off just about everybody.
However, stopping payment would not be my recommended solution. That’s only going to wind up in you defaulting on the debt, getting sued, losing, having a judgment against you, and that’s a real shot in the gut to your credit report. That should be reported for seven years from when that account went delinquent.
If we could rewind the clock, and an alternative path would have been to attempt to work with Citifinancial to remedy the payment posting issue. If you were unable to make any progress with Citifinancial you could file a complaint with your states Attorney General and/or Department of Banking if they are regulated by your state.
This will typically get to the bottom of a payment posting and accounting issue.
Now that the creditor has a judgment against you the only motivation to terminate the judgment is if they can get paid quickly.
You can certainly negotiate with the judgment holder and offer a lumpsum payment to satisfy the current balance of the debt. Remember, the balance now is going to be much higher than it was when you defaulted. It will include additional interest, penalties, court costs, and probably attorney fees.
You can certainly offer a percentage of the balance owed as the satisfaction of the debt. But keep in mind, if you are not insolvent, the part of the debt that is forgiven can be taxable at the same rate as if you earned that money.
Bottom Line
If you want all this to end quickly, pay the full balance off in one payment.
If that’s not an option and you want to try to settle the debt and the possibility of paying additional taxes is not a concern, then either learn how to settle your own debt.
If you decide to settle your debt, keep in mind, you are trying to negotiate with a creditor or debt collector that has a lot of experience in doing this stuff. Only they know what they will accept and you are at a disadvantage in the negotiations.
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
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Settlement question asked.
Answered.