<prompt> Human: Five years ago I signed up for a Capitol One no-hassle card in a misguided attempt to build good credit by using it for simple necessity purchases such as gas to be paid off at the end of every month. This worked fine for about 6 months. During this time I went the extra step and enrolled in their Payment Protection Plan an additional 4 and change per month. The PPP was supposed to act as a fail safe in case I had a sudden loss of income due to unemployment or other financial hardship.It did not work the way it was intended. When I lost my job I had allowed the card to get to 450 50 shy of my credit limit at the time. I immediately contacted Capitol One, explained my situation, and requested to utilize my PPP. They said no problem. Three months later my card was cancelled and my interest rate was hiked up from 9 to 23. Im not the only person whos gone through this. There was a class-action lawsuit against Capitol One specifically based on the Protection Plan. Unfortunately, the eventual payout of the lawsuit was between 15 and 63. I had opted in for this lawsuit when it first got off the ground, but so far I have received nothing. Im not overly concerned with the settlement. I was unemployed off and on for 3 years following my unemployment. They repeatedly refused to reduce the amount owed. I would have been happy to pay the original amount or even the full credit limit of the card at the time 500, to recap. I am not pleased by the notion of paying off the full 3k now that I do have a steady source of income. I have tried speaking directly with the company and they are unwilling to negotiate. They offer to take payments, but the juice is still running on the original principal. The interest is simply growing. How screwed am I?  <response>: Hopefully other people will see this and realize that when you play with snakes credit cards you can be bitten. Im sorry this happen to you but hopefully youll learn credit card companies are not there to help us.Anyway, What you need to do is, assuming you havent paid them in a while is one of 2 things.1. Pay them the full amount. You legally owe it and you signed up for it. Just consider it stupid tax.2. Save up cash and offer them a lump sum to pay off the debt. Start with 500 since thats what you originally owed. You can settle this debt for between 500-1500 if you offer them a lump sum. Now it isnt easy and you will have to put up with their crap but they will do it. Most importantly, get some form of proof letter, email saying that if you pay XX then account is settled in FULL.Good luck 