That would be to posture yourself as an amicable, good person trying to overcome the aftermath of negative circumstances through negotiations. In other words, you are trying to go back and, to the best of your ability, historically undo a very difficult time in your life. If secured, that means that the creditor has possession of an asset, or title to an asset belonging to you. The creditor can just seize and sell your asset in most cases. If the debt is unsecured, then it's a whole different ball game.
Most consumers overestimate the risk involved with overdue debts.
They worry about possible repercussions such as wage garnishment and property seizure by their creditors. The fact is very few creditors will push all the way to a garnishment on a small unsecured debt. Garnishments and seizures are most often used as mental leverage to gain an emotional edge over the debtor using fear to help collect past due debt. The reality for creditors is they are expensive and time-consuming. Even if the creditor went all the way to recover the debt, they probably wouldn't be able to recover enough to offset their collection costs.