Whether we like to admit it or not,debt has become as American as apple pie or hotdogs on the 4th of July. In fact,the average US household has $7,149 in credit card debt alone and an average total indebtedness of $15,587.
Are you a slave?
Has it gotten so out of control that you’ve become a slave to your debts? By this I mean do you feel you’re working mostly just to pay it off and that all the fun has gone out of your life? If so,you’re probably wishing you could find debt relief.
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How to achieve debt relief?
How could you achieve relief? There are some partial answers such as a consolidation loan,consumer credit counseling or balance transfers. However,I consider these to be only partial answers because they do nothing to eliminate your debts short-term. A debt consolidation loan might take you seven years to pay off,while the debt management plan you would get through consumer credit counseling would probably take five years to complete. If you were to transfer the balances on your high interest credit cards to one with a lower interest rate,you would get some debt relief but again it would likely take you three to five years to pay off the amount you owe on the new card.
Why debt settlement equals true debt relief
A second reason why I say that the debt relief plans described above provide only partial relief is because none of them will do anything to actually reduce your debt. They are just ways of moving it from one set of creditors to another,and having more time to pay it off. In comparison,a debt settlement program can bring true debt relief because it would reduce your debt and help you become debt free in 24 to 48 months.
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How debt settlement works
Without getting too many details,the way this works is that the debt settlement company contacts your creditors and negotiates with them to reduce your interest rates and balances,which would likely save you thousands of dollars.
Once all your creditors sign off on the settlements,you would be presented with a payment plan. If you accept the plan,you would start sending the debt settlement company a check once a month instead of paying your creditors. The money you send the debt settlement company would be deposited into an FDIC-insured trust account and eventually used to pay off your creditors.
Not for everyone
While debt settlement can bring debt relief to many people,it’s not for everyone. First,the only debts that a debt settlement company can settle are unsecured debts and not those such as a mortgage or auto loan.
Second,you need to owe $7,500 or more and you shouldn’t have made any payments on your debts for at least six months. Third,debt settlement will have a negative effect on your credit score. This is due to those six months when you didn’t make any payments on your debts. This was reported to the credit bureaus and will definitely ding your credit score. However,it will not have as serious an effect as if you had filed for bankruptcy.
So the net/net is that debt relief programs are a fact thanks to debt settlement. But before you leap into one of these programs,do your homework – make sure the company is ethical and reliable – and requires no upfront fees.-