PNC Bank offers personal credit cards and loans as well as business cards and unsecured lines of credit. Similar to most larger banks, they have multiple policies and procedures for helping their customers experiencing financial struggles. In this article I will cover all of the mainstream ways you can look to PNC for help resolving your account with them.
Much of what you will read below is fairly simple to evaluate and implement. The actions you ultimately decide to take to manage your PNC debt should be focused on what is mathematically viable for your monthly cash flow, family or business goals.
If you need professional help dealing with PNC you have options, which are covered more fully below, and in this video as well.
Getting PNC Bank to lower your credit card interest rates.
If your interest rates are in the high teens or twenties, you may benefit from following some of the interest rate reduction strategies I cover. PNC will often work with their account holders to make your payments more affordable by reducing your credit card or loan interest rates.
Depending on whether your current financial hardship is temporary, or long term, PNC may be able to enroll you in three to twelve month reduced payment plans, and even as long as 60 months reduced payments (designed to pay off your balance in full in this 5 year time time frame).
I do cover haw to approach PNC yourself to reduce your interest rates in the video above. If you would prefer to get help reducing your interest rates I would suggest talking to a non profit credit counseling agency. There are dozens of these companies around the country that offer debt management plans. All offer a no cost initial consult to help you get a grip on your finances and provide a direct quote of what your monthly payment to PNC will be reduced to. All of these credit counseling agencies typically offer the longer term payment plans that will result in PNC closing your account. That typically would only impact your credit score by a few points, if at all.
If you are already late with payments to PNC, and to the extent you are getting 30, 60, or 90 plus day late pays on your credit reports, it can diminish one of the benefits of enrolling in hardship plans (keeping your credit scores from being impacted).
Working directly with your bank to get a lower monthly payment is as straight forward as I make it sound in that video. If you have more than one bank to negotiate lower interest rates with, you may want to schedule a phone consult with me to talk about the moving parts when you are juggling high interest rates with many creditors.
Settling with PNC for less than what you owe.
PNC will typically agree to settle your unpaid credit card and loan balances for less. They are as willing to settle unsecured business debts as they are personal debts. The catch? You typically have to be several months late before they will agree to good discounts. That means a major hit to your credit score.
It is what it is when it comes to taking the credit hit in order to make your debt more affordable by settling for less. If you have the luxury of worrying about your credit score enough to give you pause when considering debt settlement, you probably are not late on payments yet, and may want to look at hardship plans as an alternative (as long as you can afford the payments).
All things considered, credit bounces back quickly after settling any unpaid debts. The key to a speedy credit recovery is to pull the money together to fund your settlements quickly. Which brings me to this….
How much can you save when negotiating with PNC?
PNC settlement parameters tend to be between 25 and 50 percent of the balance owed. There are reasons why someone can target the low end, and scenarios where you are better off planning on paying the high side of that estimate. One of the consistent contributing factors to how low you can settle will often be the timing of your negotiations, and also how long you need to pay the settlements.
People in a position to pull money together quicker can often successfully target the best savings, where someone who needs a year or two to pay their settlement should anticipate the higher negotiated pay off amount.
The key takeaway here is that you can often get a healthy amount of time to pay your PNC settlement. My experience over all these years helping people settle is that most of us need the extra time to pay the settlements. Sure you could pay more over the duration of the settlement, but it is still an option for most of us that cannot arrange to do it quickly.
Be very careful with the order and prioritization you give creditors that you need to settle debt with. You may have some that do not offer much time, or who are prone to sue quickly. You can limit or even eliminate the risks that come with accounts going into collection by being smart about how you do it.
PNC does now sue to collect on unpaid debts. They are not as aggressive as some other banks are with taking people to court to collect, but they are doing more of it now, so stacking your debts in the right order will often be paramount to your success.
PNC debts and the bankruptcy process.
Virtually all unsecured credit cards and loan balances can be discharged in a chapter 7 bankruptcy, or restructured in a chapter 11 or chapter 13. PNC debts are no different.
Chapter 7 is by far the most effective and least costly option when trying to resolve a mountain of debt. Your credit can actually bounce back faster from chapter 7 than it can from settling with PNC, depending on how long it would take you to pay your settlements. You also have to qualify for relief in a chapter 7 and each state is a little different about how you can qualify. Be sure to talk with an experienced bankruptcy attorney in your city or county about this option.
Chapter 13 bankruptcy is typically viewed as the least beneficial debt relief option. for some it could end up being the highest cost option and the longest damage to your credit (5 to 6 years). I have long held that debt settlement is a better alternative to chapter 13 for speed, cost and access to credit. That said, for those of us that will take way to long to pay our settlements with PNC, and other banks, chapter 13 could still protect us from a slough of consequences. In others words, it will suck but could still be worth it.
If you are already late with PNC payments and taken the credit hit, or you are current, but know that you can no longer afford to pay your PNC balance, I encourage you to schedule a consult with me directly below. I can review your situation and share what you are likely to experience, the amount of money you will likely need, and when. I offer initial consults to everyone free of charge. At a minimum you will walk away from that call more prepared to make a decision about how to resolve your debt with PNC. Most people hang up a call with me knowing the math of their solution and hot to implement it.
PNC and credit reporting.
Nothing special to share on this front. PNC Bank does their minimum legal requirement when it comes to credit reporting.
They will typically tell the credit bureaus you are enrolled in a DMP (debt Management Plan) when repaying your account through a credit counseling agency.
They will update your credit reports to show you have a zero balance once you complete your settlement payments.
Any PNC account in bankruptcy will appear in that section of your credit reports.
You can schedule a call with me by clicking the box below, or the “Get Help” tab at the top of this page. You can also post anonymously in the comments below and get detailed expert feedback in reply. Have at it, and best of success in your efforts with PNC!
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