June 12th, 2008

What are your options to become debt free?

Posted in Credit, Debt, Finance, Uncategorized

Hello my name is Steve Bis and I have been assisting consumers that are in debt with their credit cards for a long time and know the negative effects it has on people’s lives. When you have credit card debt and know that this matter is no longer in your hands, you must make a choice on what to do and make it fast. You should not procrastinate until it is too late. As the majority of you must already know is that the debt collectors are not helpful when you contact them with problems regarding you statement. It’s pretty interesting the way it works because when you initially obtain the card they are the politest people while you are speaking with them. Then if you call them to dispute a past due or over limit charge and try to have it , they might let you off with one a year, if that agent is in a good mood. When it comes down to it what choices do you have? It’s not like you can discontinue making payments on your rent/mortgage or other requirements for your family to survive with day to day living expenses.

The credit card companies made over 17 billion dollars in over limit and late fees last year and it will be much higher this year. Now I am sure that it has happened to you, where you’ve gone and open your monthly credit card bill only to discover that your interest rate has nearly doubled or even tripled. It is bad enough trying to keep up with 8% or even the 7.9 % interest that they are charging on your credit cards. How are you suppose to deal with the higher payments now? It was dreadful enough to manage before the interest was raised. This is why many Americans are searching for other options such as credit card debt settlement vs. credit counseling, or bankruptcy. If you are not familiar with any of your options then I will offer you a little information on them.

Bankruptcy

Before 2005 bankruptcy was to be used for consumers who were going through severe financial hardships. Sadly it was misused by far too many debtors who wanted to avoid paying their debts. They didn’t want to be accountable for their misgivings. The credit card industry was sick and tired of this so they pushed to have the legislation updated. It is now referred to as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection act of 2005. It would make it more difficult for many debtors to file for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should only be exercised as your very last choice after you have explored every other debt relief method. Also you should contemplate the consequences that could come back later down the road. You would have to find a lawyer, go to court and that could run you a substantial amount of your hard earned income. There is also the problem of it being on your credit report for a long time. When you sign any important application or document you by law have to answer yes when inquired about your previous bankruptcy, so this does have a long lasting effect on your credit.

Consumer Credit Counseling

Everyway you turn, either it is advertised on the radio or television, you will hear about consumer credit counseling. A credit counseling firm will try to get the credit card companies to reduce the interest rate on your credit accounts. You then make one monthly payment to the credit counseling firm and they then make your payments to each one of your creditors for you. The down fall to this choice is even though they reduce your APR on your credit card accounts you very well may still pay back as much as 135% of what you currently owe.

This is because joining this kind of program you will still be paying back what the full original balance was plus some of the interest for around possibly five years or more. Almost seventy five percent of the individuals that are in these programs don’t graduate from the program for one reason or another. Another draw back to credit counseling is that if you have a income problem and are miss your monthly payment they will boot you out of the program straight away. They will also increase your interest back up and the creditors could keep you off the program for at least one year and on some occasions 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 debt settlement)

This is the option which can save you the largest amount of money. A competent debt settlement company will save you at least 40% of what you owe. The 40% should include all the fees as well. As with credit counseling, you will hear a lot of TV and radio ads all the time. These companies are opening up everywhere across the United States. Some of these companies try to make it appear like they have a magic stick and are going to make all your debt vanish out of nowhere.

There are also some companies that try to use religion to aquire the trust of people. No matter what company you choose it is your responsibility to do research on them. You should start with the BBB (Better Business bureau). You may be able to discover a lot about a company from them. If you find out that a company has only been in business for a little while and has a slew of complaints towards them, then you must avoid them. One more thing to keep an eye out for is how long has the company been in business. Some companies only make it a couple of years before they get shut down or get caught ripping people off. Then some of them only stick around to make as much money as they can 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 comfortable with the person you are speaking with as well as the debt settlement company. If they are very pushy and trying to get you to sign a document within the first few minutes of the call you need to watch out. This is not a choice you want to jump into head first. Really, how can a company know they can help you out without going over your situation first? There are a lot of companies out there that only tell you all the good aspects about their program. They tell you not to worry about a thing. This is a very simple procedure and nothing bad can ever happen to you. That is a crock of you know what. It is not a very simple procedure and it is not right for every debtor. Some debtors still get duped by them because that company sugar coated everything and did not fully disclose everything. For a lot of people debt settlement can really get you back on your feet and out of debt in three years or less, while saving you thousands of dollars off your balance.

One more thing to think about is most of the companies earn all their fees within the first six months of the their program. Now consider this, what incentive will that company have to work out the best possible settlement on your behalf if they know that they are not going to earn any more money from you? There is none! So you see, if that company understands that why would they keep working on trying to get you a better settlement. This happens very frequently. They really don’t care at that point. They take anything your collectors’ offer, which means you pay more You need to seek out a company that makes its fees the old fashion way, by earning it. Make sure they answer all your debt settlement inquries. I hope this has given you a better understanding of the numerous options you have to becoming debt free. Thanks and have a good [night.

John Smith is a debt analyst with the USCA, which practices debt relief.