Settled In Full

So, with the new year and the changes it has brought, the focus of my blog is a bit more broad these days.  Of course, I'm still trying to find my style and get organized, but I also need to sort through my financial house.

It's been an ongoing battle, finances.  Once upon a time I was good with money and good at saving.  As I aged and many things in my life changed the grip I had on my finances slipped away.  Bad decisions, unfortunate situations and a million surprises all contributed.  So, for the past few years we've been working on being better, doing better and fixing our past mistakes.  It's more important now then ever, because the future is so uncertain.  For the last 15 years, even though times were rough, we knew he had a job and we had a place to live.  Now, with less security, it's imperative that we focus on how to make life work with the resources we have.

Yesterday, I received in the mail, a settlement offer for one of the bills I've been paying.  I've been paying it religiously, for a good long while.  They have offered me, in the past, settlement offers and I've wanted to take them, but never had the money when they made the offers and of course, they always have a time limit.  This one, like the others has a time limit and it's short.  I have less than 10 days to make the decision.  Because I have paid so religiously the offer they made this year, is much lower than last years and it seems possible that I can get the money to them.  This would free up a few dollars per month going forward and that certainly is a good thing.  I have a couple of questions about whether or not they can, or will, sell the "forgiven" portion.  If they do that, what's the point in taking the offer?

Either way, I'm on the fence about this.  I'm guessing that with the amount of interest that's been paid as I pay this off, they've recovered more than the original amount I owed.  If I don't take the offer, I'll be paying it off for another 2 years (interest charges and low monthlies are killers!), I believe that it will show as "settled in full" on my credit report which some would argue is bad for my credit, but honestly, it's in shambles at the moment now as it is, I can't see this making it worse.  We'll see how it goes.