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Erin wrote to me and asked the following question.

“Dear Steve,

I am a student, owe AMEX ,500….am in a full time graduate accelerated program for next 14 months, cannot work & cannot pay the minimum payment, my mom has been helping me but cannot do it anymore..I called AMEX to try & get some help but all they offered was a low interest rate

My mom is willing to try & settle the bill for less than I owe but AMEX will only give a 15% discount…is there anyway to get a better settlement.

Erin”

Dear Erin,

You could fall behind about 90-120 days and then see what settlement offer they come up with but be warned, that will trash your credit report and American Express is a particularly tough creditor to deal with and they might just sue you when you default.

Outside of that, American Express is trying to recover as much of the money that you promised them to pay and you should expect them to be hard nosed and tenacious about it.