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I have a question that I know may have been addressed somewhere here already, but the search I did did not yield results that answered this specific question.
Several years ago we were drowning in credit card debt. We were advised to declare bankruptcy but instead talked with many of our creditors and had arrangements set up. This was the case with a single credit card company that we had four cards with.
They had a company handling the monthly payments and all was ok for a while, but apparently early in 2013 they changed companies. It was a few months before we noticed that money was now being taken out of the account to pay for that debt. At the end of 2013, realizing we were likely going to get a decent sized tax refund, I opted to wait and call them when I got said refund and offer a settlement. This had worked in the past with 2 other cards and I thought it was a good idea.
HOWEVER, today I got several letters (one for each account) saying the debt had been discharged and I would be getting a 1099C with an effective date of 12/14/13. So, said discharge has already happened without input from me and without a settlement taking place.
I'm not entirely sure what this means. Is this a settlement? Is the debt considered satisfied? I don't see how it could be. Would it still be worth it to contact the company and offer a settlement? Is it too late? Is it possible they'd still sell the debt and another collector would come after me?
I'm not worried about the tax issues...that's only fair and I would have had them on a settlement anyway, but I guess what I'm curious about is the impact on the credit report (which would have been substantial with a settlement too...but is this worse?) and if this debt gone with this type of discharge the same way it would be with a settlement?
I've read before of people settling with credit card companies with the settlement to include the deletion of the account from the credit report. However, it sounds like your debts have already been written off, so perhaps it's too late for that.
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