Well, I received settlement offers for two of my Premier credit cards yesterday. Neither of these is a huge debt, which is why I can foresee actually paying the settlement: One settlement is $258.01 (I owe $573.35), the other settlement is $332.03 (I owe $737.84) Of course, if pay these by the due date of July 19, I won’t have the $1k emergency fund done until August. However, I’ll be out of debt a month sooner than I originally thought and pay 45% of what I actually owe. I know this doesn’t look good on a credit report, but that’s OK with me and they will be paid off and I can scratch them off my list — no more $10 payments a month, no more bills in the mail.

More than likely, I’ll receive settlement offers soon for the other two Premier cards. Of course, depending on when the due date is I may not be able to pay them. However, I if I pay the first two and call to talk to them, perhaps they’ll extend the offer (if it’s made).

I really struggled with this decision, as I know it’s important to have $1k in savings ASAP, but I feel that this is important enough to pay those settlements first. The really good part about this is that I’ve received such offers in the past but could never take advantage because I was so behind on all my bills and robbing one to pay the other. There was no way I could spare a few hundred bucks for something like this. Now, it’s a matter of switching some things around a little, but it’s totally reasonable without a lot of gnashing of teeth.