Debt Settlements, Should You Try Them?

I am often asked, Do you know anything about those companies that advertise on TV that they can reduce what you owe, those companies that say you can settle for pennies on the dollar? What these people are referring to are debt settlement companies. If the people we see here in our offices are any indication, these companies are rarely a good idea. What most of them do is collect a monthly payment from the clients. For the first several months that is all they do, collect your money. A large part of this money goes to their fee. After they have collected their fee then they begin accumulating money with which they will make settlement offers to your creditors.

Unfortunately what happens while they are waiting to accumulate enough money to offer a settlement is that the creditors call you for payment. And they may call you every day, more than once a day. Eventually many of the creditors will take it to court to obtain a judgment so they can garnish your wages. The settlement companies cannot protect you from the actions of your creditors.

In addition, each month the creditors are reporting you to the credit bureaus as paying late, so your credit score is greatly damaged.

So what should you do? The only way debt settlements work well is if you have gotten behind on paying your debts and you have a lump sum of money already available with which you can pay if you reach an agreement with the creditor. Sometimes people are able to do this if they receive a large amount of money from a tax return, selling something, an inheritance or some other type of windfall. That type of debt settlement you can do on your own. I'm not saying it will be easy, but you can try and arrange that yourself.

If debt settlement is not an option, then you will want to see if you can do a debt management plan to get reduced interest on the debt you owe. If you have no other options you may need to consider bankruptcy. In any case, come and talk over your situation with an experienced counselor. A counselor can help you decide on the best option for you.