Discover Card debt settlement programs.

While Discover Card has a reputation of being difficult to get credit card assistance from, they do offer some hardship and debt settlement programs. Discover will aggressively pursue unpaid bills, and will often send the balances to collection agencies, in particular Zwicker and Associates and a few others.

That being said, find below some examples of how people are receiving help from Discover Card debt settlement programs. While they will strictly enforce the terms of your credit card agreement, you can negotiate with them. In addition some other ways to get assistance from Discover can include a lower interest rate, or debt management plans. Learn more on Discover card hardship program.

Examples of Discover Card debt settlement programs

• One customer had two accounts. They started the debt settlement process and program during the fall of 2008. While it was not possible to get some of the debt waived, they did come back and offer a hardship program. The program is to last for a period of one year. It was a great offer in that it reduced their minimum monthly payment by about 50% and it also lowered the interest rate down to 5%. While it wasn’t their top goal of getting the principal reduced, cutting the rate down and the monthly payments was a tremendous help.
   
• Another example is someone who was having difficult with Discover. They tried to negotiate and other approaches, all with no luck. So they hired a credit counseling company to help settle their unpaid balance. When all is said and done, they ended up getting a deal that required them to settle for 39 cents on the dollar. Especially if they send it to collections, a lawyer may be the best option.
   
• A customer was having difficulty negotiating. They stopped paying, called multiple times, spoke to supervisors, and more. They had a 24.99% APR after missing a payment or two. After the multiple calls and attempts, they were eventually put on a debt management plan and offered an interest rate of 15.99%.

 

 

 

• A consumer used the services of a third party settlement company. When they joined they were told Discover would not work with them, however he asked the company to try regardless. What ended up happening was surprising. They turned out to offer the person the best deal, better than the other card issuers they were trying to work a deal with. The fact is they provided the best deal, even though they may not be the easiest to work with. The original credit card debt was around $5,000, then they want ahead and added all sorts of late charges and fees, which ended up bringing the total to over $6,000.  Unfortunately the debt settlement company they were working with would only negotiate on the original starting balance of $5,000. The end result was an greed upon settlement of just over a thousand dollars.
   
• Another story was a customer saying that as far as negotiating APR rates, you might as well forget it. As long as you are paying your monthly bills, they are gonna keep charging the interest rate and won’t budge. Find some tips to negotiate credit card debt.
   
• Discover card did offer me a hardship, or debt settlement program that had terms of a one year deal and time period of of reduced payments and also a 9.9% interest rate.
   
• After trying to negotiate over several weeks with Discover, and after being a few months behind on my bill, we received a certified letter from Discover Card to settle my debts at 30%. I was struggling so much that they even sent a calling card for me to use to contact them because our phone was disconnected. While 30% was great, I learned about a person who also received a 20% settlement letter. So while I received a great deal, 20% was obviously even better.
   
• Another person received a settlement letter from Discover Card that was offering to settle and reduce my debt for 40% of my unpaid bills. I called them up after I received this, told them I could not pay the entire amount all at once, and we negotiated for me to pay a set amount on the agreement for 4 months.

 

You can work with a debt settlement organization or try yourself. Discover can be contacted at (866) 567-1660.