What you are about to read will shock many people and will be information that the professional debt companies do not want you to know! This is my story of my experiences of how I was able to negotiate a reduction in my overall debt by just over 50% without having to pay a cent to any professional debt settlement company!
My troubles began just over about 5 years ago. I got myself in some pretty serious debt problems. It wasn't that I was being overly stupid about my finances it was just that I truly believed that I would be able to pay for my purchases because I was making good money. Well the fact is, I was making good money and would have been able to handle the purchases had I not run into some unexpected financial burdens including an injury that I sustained which meant that I had to take a lesser job that paid less than half what I was making. Yes, I was smart enough to have some insurance that helped cover some of the medical expenses but the insurance policy only paid a nominal wage and did not take into account the commissions I was making on my sales job. Soon it got to the stage where I was just making minimum payments on my 5 credit cards, three of which were maxed out. I also had to sell my car as I wasn't able to make the lease payments any longer and since it was only the second year of a 5 year lease, I didn't get as much on the sale as I owed the finance company. I had to take out a personal loan to cover the difference.
It wasn't long before I started not being able to make the minimum payments. I was able to borrow some money from some relatives to help whilst my injury healed but I'm not the kind of guy to want to burden my family and so was committed to take care of things myself. It soon got to the stage where I knew I was in serious trouble. The interest and late fees on my cards were adding up and I started getting some nasty calls from the credit card companies as well as the bank about my personal loan. I tried to take out another loan to cover the credit cards but I was rejected by every bank I went to. They didn't seem to even care that I was making good money at one stage, they just looked at the fact that I was struggling with debt at that moment and said no.
bunch of stuff on eBay, which helped for a couple of months, I had no where else to go. I knew that I had to look at some other way to help myself. I started looking at my options with my worst fear being that I would have to file for bankruptcy. I was determined not to go down this path as I knew this would impact me in the long run. I conducted some research on the internet and found a big range of options including debt consolidation, debt settlement, debt reduction plans and so on. There was also a huge range of different professional companies offering their services to help me with my debt problems. All the companies announced loud and clear that debt wasn't something that an individual could get out of by themselves, and that I needed to use their services in order to get real debt help. So I researched a few companies and chose one that was in my area that claimed that they could give me a written guarantee of what they could do for me. They stated that they would reduce my monthly interest rates and would reduce my overall debt by up to 70%. I thought wow, that would be great, and so sought their advice. I met with a certified debt consultant and went through my sordid details. At the time my debt overall debt had grown to a shocking $86,675! After a week or so, the consultant came back to me with some advice and told me that I had reached a stage where the only option was a program of debt settlement or debt negotation, whereby the agency would act on my behalf and negotiate with my credit card companies and bank to reduce my loan and reduce my interest rates. They said that I would then pay the agency one amount each month and they would then distribute that amount to the various creditors. I asked the consultant whether or not I could do this myself without having to engage the services of the company. The consultant basically told me no - stating that it would be a waste of time as credit card companies and banks did not want to deal with the individual - that they didn't trust an individual as they were a risk and that their agency knew what to say to get me the best deal. I thought to myself, that's odd, what great power do these companies really have? I then enquired about the charges and they advised me that it would be a percentage of what they are able to save me plus an initial set up charge and some ongoing administration charges. I did the calculation and the total amount it would cost me would be somewhere around the $10,000 mark. I thought that this was a bit excessive so I decided to look at other options. Surely there was something that I could do by myself that would have some impact on my situation.
After searching around the internet I stumbled upon a program that guaranteed that I would save thousands of dollars with creditors by negotiating with them myself or I would get my money back in full. The program would cost me about $400 and I would also receive coaching from an expert. I thought to myself $400 versus $10,000 & with a money back guarantee, what do I have to lose.
I'm not going to go into great deal about what that program is about as its actually copyrighted so I will just tell you briefly that debt settlement is essentially like good old fashion haggling with your creditors. Just like you may haggle with a 2nd hand car dealer to give you a better price, you can haggle with your creditors to reduce your debt. At the end of the day, creditors know that bankruptcy has become an "easy" option for many consumers in serious debt. And they know that this means they can kiss their money good bye. So they would rather negotiate with you for a lower amount if they get some sort of level of confidence that they will get this money. What I learnt from this program was how the collection process works and therefore the right time to put through your settlement offers. I also got to understand what creditors would settle for and I worked hard to get the maximum reduction. The creditors will want you to sign some documents and they will hit you with a settlement letter. The program gave me some professional advice about what was in the letters and showed me how to even negotiate these. At the end of the day, I was able to dig my heels in with some of my creditors and was really surprised when they accepted an amount that was just over 50% of what I owed them in total.
Some words of warning before you think to do this yourselves. The process is not a pleasant one and creditors can become very nasty especially when they turn their debt over to a collection agency. The process is fraught with emotions and can get your blood pressure levels up! The collection agencies try to catch you out with their tactics as they are motivated to try to get the very most out of you. You need to be the type of person that can stay focussed on your goal to reduce your debt and it helps to have the coaching advice of an expert to help you.
At the end of the day, if you think you can do this, you can save yourself a lot of money both from not having to engage a professional debt company, as well as reduce your overall debt. The happy ending to my story is that I am now back in control of my debt. It is down to manageable levels and I am now in the process of repairing my credit report (which is a very important step in the process).
For more information about the above debt settlement program and other possible debt solutions, visit Debt Solutions Portal.
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