First Reviews

My name is Mr. Joe Sellers and I have been working with people that are in trouble with their unsecured credit card debts for a considerable amount of time and know the effects and frustrations it has on their lives. When you have credit card debt and believe that this matter is no longer in your hands, you must make a decision and make it as soon as possible. You do not want to put it off until it is too late. As many of you must already know is that the debt collectors are not helpful when you call them with problems with billing. It’s like dealing with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. because when you first get the card they are very polite people while you are on the phone with them. Then if you contact them to complain about a late or over limit charge and attempt to have it waived everything changes from being polite to having no compassion for your situation. It can be aggravating enough trying to keep up with 9.9% or even the 7.9 % interest that they are charging on your credit cards. How are you supposed to manage coming up with the money for the higher payments now that the interest was raised. This is why many U.S. citizens are searching for other options such as debt settlement vs. credit counseling, or bankruptcy. Better yet if you do not know much about these options then I will offer you a little bit of a rundown on them.

Consumer Bankruptcy

Before 2005 bankruptcy was to be used for families who were having serious monetary problems. Sadly it was abused by thousands of U.S. citizens who were trying to avoid paying their credit card debts. They did not want to be accountable for their actions. The credit card companies were sick and tired of this so they petitioned to have the bankruptcy legislation changed. It is now known as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection act of 2005. This would make it more difficult for the majority of consumers to file for help. Bankruptcy should only be made use of as your last resort option after you have tried every alternative method. Also you should contemplate the negative aftereffects that very well might come back later on down the road. You would have to find a lawyer, go to court and that could cost you a lot of money. There is also the issue of it being on your credit history for a long time. When you are signing any important application or document you will always have to answer yes when asked the question about bankruptcy, so this does have an extremely long lasting effect on your credit.

Credit counseling

Everywhere you turn, either on TV or the radio, you will hear about consumer credit counseling. A credit counseling firm will attempt to get the creditors to lower the interest on your credit cards. You then make one monthly payment to the credit counseling firm and they then pay each one of your creditors on your behalf. The downside to this option is even though they lower your APR on your credit card balances you very well may still pay back as much as 140% of what you actually owe.

This is because with this kind of plan you will still be paying back what you owe plus some of the interest for around 4 to 7 years. Almost 75% of the debtors 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 an income problem and are cannot make your monthly payment they will boot you off of the program right away. They will also raise your interest back up and the creditor will not let you back on for a minimum of one year and sometimes even longer. This will put you right back to where you began, if not in a worse predicament.

Credit Card Debt Settlement

This is the debt relief method which can save you the most amount of money. Experienced credit card debt settlement companies will save you at least 40% of what you owe. The 40% should also cover all of their fees. Just like credit counseling, you will hear a lot of TV and radio ads about 10 different companies one day and a couple weeks later they disappear. These companies are opening up all over our beloved country. Some of these companies try to make it seem like they have a magic button and are going to make all your debt vanish instantly. There are also many companies that try to use religion to acquire the trust of consumers. Whatever company you are speaking with it is your responsibility to due diligence on them. You can always start with the BBB (Better Business bureau). You should be able to find out a lot about a company from the Better Business Bureau. If you realize that a company has only been in business for a short time and has a high number of complaints against them, then you must avoid them. Look to see how long has the company been in business. Some companies only make it one or two 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 right next door under a different name and continue on doing the very same thing as before.

Warning very important information (Do not be mislead)

80% or more of the companies you see on TV, internet or hear on the radio are not the companies you will be working with. They are lead brokers that sell your information to other companies, which is why when you call they tell you someone will contact you back shortly. If you fill out the application over the internet you should get a call from that company that day or at latest the next day and not some other company a few days later. So you need to remember with who and where you requested the information. If it was over the internet make sure that it is the company that gave you the information you requested and that they are not going to sell your personal info to other debt settlement companies or affiliate companies, this way you don’t get flooded with calls. Thanks for your time and have a good evening.