I had maintained a CIBC VISA that has gone to third party collections here in Ontario. Amount owing is slightly < $25K.

My current situation is that I am self employed (incorporated), but have not had any income over the last eleven months, hence the cc finally going to an outside party. My last payment on the cc account was in June however the bank had exercised their right of offset on one of my joint accounts in mid December.

I have no significant assets aside from joint title to a house that would be more or less underwater (give or take 5-7K depending in the day) once RE and legal fees were taken into account upon sale. I have no intent of selling the house unless forced into it.

The outside agency has recently asked me to fill out some sort of financial capacity form with CIBC letterhead which to me seems like a lot of digging with a number of extraneous questions like how much I pay to get my hair cut every month. My thought is that they are looking for one or two key areas to exploit. I haven't actually talked to the agency over the last month since it has been assigned - the form was received by mail saying that a "conditional settlement may be possible if I qualify".

I have a few key questions that I would like to throw out to the experts,

i) should I fill out the capacity form? I have no interest in gaming them, but my circumstances are what they are currently

ii) should I propose a settlement with CIBC? Given my current financial state, it wouldn't be any more than 10% owing as that is what I have stuffed under my bed.

iii) should I be worried about court as my funds are extremely limited and for all intents and purposes, I (and not my spouse) am technically bankrupt.

Any and all comments / feedback are welcome and I welcome any insight that can be provided.

Thanks in advance...