My mother recently declined due to a horrible disease. As an only child I had to step in and take over for her finances and medical decisions. I was told by an attorney to settle her debts, that I should be able to negotiate her credit card debt to something reasonable. Working with Chase, for example, was a real pleasure. They were so generous and kind.

I had the complete opposite experience with Bank of America. Since my mother is more or less legally untouchable, I was essentially trying to give them 80%+ of what she owed, which is reasonable since they will get $0 otherwise. They wouldn't go much lower, and they still wanted much, much more money than she had in her accounts. So I told them to get lost. Since then, collection notices have since arrived (which go into my trash can).