Should I give out bank info?

[willwinoverdebt]

I am almost 120 days late with Discover. They have offered me 0.99% interest, will erase all late fees and charges and I am required to pay $100.00 a month for five years to pay off a $6000.00 CC.

However, they will not put anything in writing until we have entered into an "agreement" which means me giving them my checking account information so they can automatically withdraw their money each month.

Is this safe? Do I need something in writing with them before I give out my account info to the OC? Thanks!

[willingtocope]

Therotically, you should be able to trust an OC to do what they say they will do...but...

If it were me, I'd open a separate account at a different bank, and use that solely for them to draw from. The last thing you need is for them to make a "clerical" error and drain your main account.

[outofdebt2010]

I'm not a lawyer and I'm in the same boat you are. But I wouldn't give them back access if they aren't going to give you a guaranty in writing. A lot of companies have taken out more money than they promised. Leaving you without any money to pay your bills. I would be very careful about this.

Therotically, you should be able to trust an OC to do what they say they will do...but...

If it were me, I'd open a separate account at a different bank, and use that solely for them to draw from. The last thing you need is for them to make a "clerical" error and drain your main account.

[BrokeBob]

There is nothing wrong with the above advice. However, I DID something like that with Discover, and they only took out what they had agreed to, and stopped when I told them to. Just my experience, YMMV. It is ALWAYS better to get everything in writing, and it isn't a good idea to have too much money in the account.

[rippedoff]

I made a deal with citi, they sent it in writing, and I followed through. At the end they put all the fees and unearned interest back on anyway. And that's a long time to be sure you always have the money there on time to avoid bank problems too. Tread cautiously and like someone else said, use a different account. Something I did for a while was have an attached savings account that could be drawn from. That way I could transfer in just the right amount, didn't require a balance and make sure the bank doesn't have a policy of covering overdrafts there, and put a specific alert on that account to reject overdrafts as unauthorized transactions.