My name is Mr. Joe Sellers and I am helping people that are in arrears with their credit cards for a considerable amount of time and am aware of the effect it has on someone’s life. When you have credit card debt and believe that the situation is no longer in your hands, you must make a decision and make it fast. You should not put it off until it is too late. As many of you must already know is that the collectors are not very easy to deal with when you call them with complaints with your statement. It’s pretty fascinating the way they work because when you first get the card they are pretty nice people when you talk to them. Then if you contact them to dispute a late or over limit charge and try to have it removed they act like they don’t care about your situation. It is bad enough you were barely maintaining payments with 8% or even the 7.9 % interest that they were charging on your credit cards. How are you suppose to cover the elevated payments now? This is the reason U.S. consumers are searching for other options such as credit card debt settlement vs. credit counseling, or bankruptcy. If you do not know much about these options then I will offer you a little information on them.
Bankruptcy
Up until late 2004 bankruptcy was to be used for families who were fighting through serious financial troubles. Regrettably it was misused by far too many U.S. citizens who wanted to avoid paying their credit card debts. They didn’t want to be accountable for their misgivings. The credit card industry was sick and tired of this so they petitioned to have the bankruptcy legislation changed. It is now referred to as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection act of 2005. This would make it harder for most consumers to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should only be made use of as your very last choice after you have considered every conceivable option. Also you should think of the consequences that will come back later down the road. You would have to hire an attorney, go to court and that could run you a substantial amount of money. There is also the negative effect of it being on your credit history anywhere from 7 to 10 years. When you filling out any significant application or document you will always have to say yes when inquired about your previous bankruptcy, so this does have a very negative long lasting effect on your ability to obtain future credit.
Credit counseling
In each direction you look, either on TV or the radio, you will hear about consumer credit counseling. A credit counseling agency will try to get the credit card companies to reduce the APR on your credit accounts. You then make one monthly installment to the consumer credit counseling agency and they then pay each one of your creditors for you. The downside to this method is even though they reduce the interest rate on your credit card balances you very well may still pay back as much as 140% of what you currently owe.
This is because on this sort of plan you will still be paying back what you owe plus some of the interest for around 4 to 7 years. Almost eighty percent of the consumers that are in credit counseling don’t graduate from the program for one reason or another. Another problem to credit counseling is that if you have a cash flow problem and are miss your monthly payment they will kick you out of the program straight away. They will also bump up your interest back up and the creditor could keep you off for a minimum of one year and sometimes even longer. This might put you right back to where you began, if not in a worse predicament.
Credit Card Debt Negotiation (also known as credit card debt settlement, or credit card debt relief)
This is the avenue which can save you the largest amount of money. A ethical debt settlement company will save you at least 40% of what you are said to have to payback. The 40% should include all the fees as well. Just as with consumer credit counseling, you will hear a lot of TV and radio advertisements all the time. These organizations are popping up all over the United States. Some of these companies try to make it appear like they have a magic wand and are going to make all your debt disappear overnight.
There are even many companies that try to use religion to obtain the trust of debtors. Whatever organization you are going with it is your responsibility to due diligence on them. You can always start with the BBB (Better Business bureau). You will be able to uncover a lot about a company from the BBB. If you soon realize that a company has only been in operating for a short time and has a slew of complaints towards them, then you know to avoid them. One more thing to look for is how much time has the company been in business. Some organizations only survive a short time before they go out of business or get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Then some of them only stay around to make as much as possible and close down just to open up down the streetwith a different name] and will continue to do this until the FTC sues and jails them.
You need to feel secure with the individual you are speaking with as well as the credit card debt settlement company. If they are very pushy and trying to get you to sign a contract within the first 10 to 15 minutes of the call you need to watch out. This is not a decision you want to rush into head first. Really, how can a company be sure they can assist you without going over your situation first? There are way too many organizations out there that only tell you all the good aspects about debt settlement. They tell you not to be concerned about anything. This is a very easy procedure and nothing negative can ever happen to you. That is a crock of you know what. It is not a very easy procedure and it is not right for everyone. Some Americans still get duped by them because that company sugar coated everything and did not fully disclose everything. For a lot of debtors credit card debt settlement can really get you back on your feet and out of debt in under three years, while saving you thousands of dollars off your balance.
One more issue to think about is a majority companies make all their fees within the first six months of the their program. Now consider this, what incentive will that company have to negotiate the best possible deal on your behalf if they know that they are’nt going to make any more money off of you? There is none! So you see, if that company knows that why would they keep working on trying to get you a better settlement. This happens very frequently. They really could care less at that point. They take anything your collectors’ offer, in turn meaning you put out more of your hard earned money You need to seek out a company that earns its fees the old fashion way, by earning it. Make sure they answer all your debt settlement questions. I hope this has given you a better understanding of the various choices you have to becoming debt free. Thanks and have a goodnight.
Joe Sellers is a credit card debt analyst with the US Consumer Advocate, which practices in credit card debt reduction.