Archive for the ‘Debt Management’ Category

Under a debt settlement arrangement your creditor agrees to accept a lump sum payment of less than your account’s balance to resolve fully your debt. If you have a bundle of cash, debt settlement is a legitimate option for taking care of high-interest, unsecured debts.

But don’t hire anyone or any company to settle your debts. You can effectively settle debts yourself. Debt settlement company fees are high and generally non-refundable. If a settlement company can persuade one of your creditors to take less than the full balance to resolve a debt, then so can you.

What Debt Settlement Companies Do
A debt settlement company claims it will, for a fee, persuade your creditors to take as little as half of what you owe to resolve your debt. Sounds good! Since you probably don’t have a bunch of cash laying around, you’ll pay the debt settlement company a series of monthly payments. First, know that typically your payments go 100% toward the settlement company’s fee until the fee is paid. Only after the fee is paid do you start building a settlement fund. When you’ve built up enough in your debt settlement account, the company will try to settle one of your debts.

Here’s the Catch
Your creditors have agreed to nothing. During the many months you are making payments to the debt settlement company, the creditors you’ve been told will settle are starting or continuing aggressive collection activity. You get phone calls and letters and worse, and you could be sued and face garnishment while the debt settlement company is holding your money. Telling creditors that you’ve signed up for a plan with Settlements-’R-Us, Inc. and are making monthly payments will carry no sway whatsoever with your creditors. They won’t care. To avoid garnishment, you could be forced into bankruptcy. You can get back from the debt settlement company the money in your account, but the fee you’ve paid is probably gone forever, even if the company didn’t settle a single debt for you.

The moral of this story? Never consider signing up with a debt settlement company unless you get from each creditor involved a document, on the creditor’s letterhead, that states the creditor will accept a specific dollar amount on a specific date in the future to totally resolve your debt, AND, in the meantime, the creditor won’t pursue collection of the debt.

If you do have a lump of spare cash, you should consider doing your own settlement, along with other options, to pay off unsecured debts. Keep the following in mind:

• You need an Emergency Savings fund. Don’t use every spare penny you can scrape together to settle a debt and leave yourself vulnerable.
• It’s a poor idea to withdraw money early from a retirement account to pay toward debt.
• If you settle a debt, the creditor will probably report the amount “forgiven” to the IRS. The IRS considers forgiven debt to be part of your income, and you likely will owe income tax on it on April 15th of the next year. Your debt settlement strategy must include a plan for having the cash to pay the tax on the forgiven debt. You don’t want to come out of a debt settlement with new IRS debt.
• Because you would be repaying less than the full amount due, debt settlement has a much worse impact on your credit score than any method that would result in full repayment of the debt, like a Debt Management Plan. After a debt settlement is done, your credit report should show the settled debt balance as $0, but may also show a notation-the exact wording is negotiable-to the effect of “less than full balance paid.” This notation may stay on your credit report for up to seven years after settlement.

With Those Cautions in Mind, Here’s How to Settle a Debt

1. Understand the source of your power in the settlement negotiation: You may not pay the debt at all. Before any creditor will agree to settle a debt, it must be convinced it will be better off accepting 40% or 50% of the total balance today instead of trying to collect 100% of the debt over many future months or years. This means few creditors will negotiate a debt settlement until the account is seriously past due and successful collection is clearly, from the creditor’s point of view, in doubt.
2. If you reach a settlement agreement, the creditor will want the payment in a lump sum right away. Don’t start settlement negotiations until you have in hand the cash you’ve decided you can spare for debt settlement.
3. Write a letter to the creditor proposing a specific settlement. You can find many example debt settlement letters on the Internet by searching “debt settlement example letter.” Photocopy for your records this and all correspondence with the creditor. Send all creditor correspondence by certified postal mail, delivery receipt requested. E-mail is not acceptable.
4. What dollar amount should you propose as a settlement? There is no pat answer to this question because it depends on the situation. The more severely delinquent the debt, the less the creditor is apt to settle for. The lower the creditor judges the odds of collecting the debt in full, the less the creditor is apt to settle for. If you’ve missed two payments on a credit card debt, the credit card company is unlikely even to engage in settlement negotiations, period. But if you stopped paying on a credit card debt two years ago and the credit card company has charged off the debt and sold it to a collection agency, and you’ve paid the collection agency nothing and ignored their collection letters and calls, and your credit score is in the dumps, you may find the collection agency willing to agree to a settlement very favorable to you. Most settlements end up at 40%-60% of the original balance. As with any negotiation, you’ll want to leave room to improve your offer, so in most cases it’s probably smart to offer less than 40% of the balance.
5. Say you’ve decided you have $3,000 of spare cash you can devote to settling a $6,000 debt. Start negotiations by offering less than $3,000, perhaps $1,500 or $2,000. If the creditor counters your offer with $4,000, you can, if you choose, improve your offer to $2,500 or $3,000, but don’t offer or agree to a settlement over the $3,000 you’ve decided you can spare. If the creditor won’t budge, politely end the negotiation by inviting the creditor to re-contact you by letter if it reconsiders.
6. If a creditor answers your offer letter by telephone, make detailed notes of any proposals made in the phone call and include in your notes the date, time, and caller’s name and employee ID number. Agree to nothing on the telephone. Even if a verbal counter offer is acceptable to you, tell the caller you need the offer in writing before you will agree to it. If the creditor refuses to make the offer in writing, tell the caller you will not agree to any settlement that’s not documented in writing, and politely end the call with an invitation to the creditor to re-open negotiations with a letter specifying all terms of its settlement offer.
7. Do not agree to any settlement offer unless it’s in writing and 1) names the dollar amount agreed to; 2) names the date by which the settlement amount must be received by the creditor; 3) states that the creditor agrees that this dollar amount will fully resolve the debt and it will not pursue further collection; 4) states the creditor agrees to report the account balance as $0 to all credit bureaus that include the debt on your credit report; 5) includes the exact wording of the notation, if any, that the creditor intends to send to the credit bureaus indicating less than full repayment.
8. Once you have in hand a written settlement agreement acceptable to you, make the settlement payment promptly, by cashier’s check or money order and keep the receipt that accompanies the check or money order. Send the payment by certified mail, and be sure to get a receipt from the postal service indicating the date of delivery to the creditor. Don’t cut it close-mail your payment at least 15 days prior to the due date in your settlement agreement.
9. Follow-up: Get every four months your free annual credit report from one of the three reporting bureaus. Examine closely each of the three free credit reports you’ll get over the next year. If the settled debt still appears, the balance should be $0. If the creditor agreed to specific wording for any notation that appears with the debt record, you should see only that wording.
10. If the creditor fails to live up to the written settlement agreement, don’t waste your time contacting the creditor. Instead immediately pursue resolution by following the Federal Trade Commission’s procedures for disputing information on your credit report. Your evidence is the written settlement agreement from the creditor, your cashier’s check or money order receipt, and the postal service receipt showing the date the payment was delivered to the creditor.

Finally, nothing above is legal advice. Consult an attorney to assure a legally binding, watertight settlement agreement with a creditor.

Author: Kurt Fischer
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Latest trends in mobile phone

Countless consumers across the nation have been harried of late by the ravages of credit card debts, and many Americans are desperate for any kind of relief. As they seek to take care of a seemingly unending string of bills, more and more Americans are turning to debt management solutions to provide some help in ridding themselves of the burden of credit card debt. Now, as you probably know, debt management can refer to a whole host of different techniques with which borrowers and their debt manager professionals may try to take charge of their household economics. In this article, we will briefly run down some of the more popular methods for debt management. It is important to remember, however, that this is only the tip of the iceberg as regards the information every borrower must know before they enter the world of debt management. Much as it may help to read some cursory explanations of the various alternatives available, smart debtors must investigate every single option before they begin to alleviate their own financial difficulties.

Whatever Happened To Bankruptcy Protection?

For the entire lives of virtually all Americans, bankruptcy has existed as the final solution to unchecked debts. However, over the past generation, more and more changes to the United States Bankruptcy Code have seriously weakened the protections previously available to all consumers. About twenty years ago, the first blow to bankruptcy protection was struck when the congress removed student loans (both public and private) from the type of debts that bankruptcy could effectively deal with. Then, in 2005, pressured both by lobbyists from the multinational credit card conglomerates and their own Internal Revenue Service, the government drastically changed nearly everything about Chapter 7 protection as it was formerly understood. Bankruptcy was never a glamorous choice – indeed, it has always been considered disastrous for credit and embarrassing to personal reputation. Nevertheless, American borrowers always assumed that bankruptcy would remain a final resort for debt management and that, sadly, is no longer the case.

One thing, however, has not changed. Bankruptcy still has irrevocably (at least, for up to a decade) ruinous consequences as to FICO scores and overall credit ratings. If anything, the modern breed of debt analysts who have been specifically trained to look over credit reports for findings above and beyond the Fair-Isaacs score will treat borrowers who have declared bankruptcy even worse. These sorts of notes can have repercussions for debt management that linger well past the bankruptcy has been cleared. In even the best of situations, twenty four months will have to pass after the formal discharge before consumers would qualify for new loans or new credit accounts, and, even then, those that have declared bankruptcy will face interest rates beyond horrendous. It has always been a difficult road to pursue – taking into account the loss of assets and credit privileges that Chapter 7 associations usually necessitate – but nowadays it is almost unthinkable for borrowers with any other choice.

While recognizing all of the negative consequences regarding credit that follow borrowers who have filed for bankruptcy, it is still not surprising why the notion of Chapter 7 protection yet appeals to so many Americans. Even taking into account the not inconsiderable costs that ever more expensive bankruptcy attorneys will charge (and even for the initial consultation!), the temptations to eliminate most unsecured debts have an obvious attraction. As has been said, some debts are immune to bankruptcy proceedings. Student loans would not be able to be included under Chapter 7. Most tax liens, familial support, funds owed from criminal proceedings, and assorted other debts are also ignored. Still, to be sure, Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, when successfully declared, can be a powerful debt elimination tool even though, under the current guidelines, borrowers would risk the loss of most salable assets or possessions. However, with these new strictures in place, borrowers would only qualify for the Chapter 7 program if they earned less than half of the average income of their state of residence as determined by an arbitrarily chosen period. Not only will bankruptcy protection be more corrosive and eliminate fewer debts than before, as things stand many debtors might not even to be able to declare!

Spend Wisely!

Of course, for debt management to have any sort of success, the borrowers must re-learn many of their most damaging behaviors. To be fair, there are many different reasons why people may find themselves overwhelmed by debt. Still and all, even those borrowers who have suffered catastrophic accidents (sudden unemployment, accidents, hospitalization or other medical emergencies, and other such unexpected disasters) could have attempted to make sure they had proper savings just in case such misfortune would befall them. This is not the most exciting form of debt management, to be sure, but it is of the utmost importance. Spending foolishly is by far the most common reason that most families start to drown in debts of their own making. Thoughtless purchases that you do not need (or, in many cases, even want) shall quickly lead to a reflexive pattern of overspending that will only result in credit card debts beyond your own control.

Unfortunately, once behaviors of any sort have become fixed toward conditioned habits of over spending, it is that much harder for consumer to even recognize their misdeeds. For this reason, it is a good idea for anyone beginning to investigate the various alternatives available to first do whatever they can to figure out how to cut their expenses to the bone before even approaching a debt management professional. One tip we would suggest would be to spend a month recording all household expenses. This does not mean simply adding up utility bills or calculating the grocery costs of any given month. Instead, actually write down all of the niggling little purchases that families tend to forget about. By this, we do mean every single cent that is spent by members of the household. The most seemingly chintzy or capricious buys often, once they are properly tabulated, end up proving vibrantly the underlying causation behind the larger debts.

Do you really need to spend one dollar for a soda at the office every day? Should you spend five dollars for a magazine at the store as opposed to a monthly subscription? Can you afford forty dollars for a family night out at the movies each week? At the end of the process, you will be surprised how much of your spending could be curtailed. Do you really need premium cable channels? Couldn’t you mow your own lawn yourself instead of paying neighborhood kids? Everyone must have some sort of entertainment budget, of course, but many households spend far too much on unnecessary foolishness. Even those borrowers who do not have excessive problems with credit card debts should always keep a close eye on household spending in order to maximize savings in case of emergencies.

What To Do When Your Debt Is Out Of Control

While curtailing purchases and controlling family spending habits are, as we have explained, quite important parts of debt management, there are some borrowers whose debt obligations have increased to the point that such stopgaps will not be of much use. Fortunately, there are now a number of alternatives to bankruptcy that debtors can take advantage of when trying to reduce their overall burdens. As you would imagine, the correct strategy would depend upon each debtor’s specific scenario. The first thing we would advise is to discuss options with your credit card companies. Believe it or not, your creditors will often work out payment schedules to make sure that they are not overly onerous. After all, the last thing they want is to put debtors’ backs against the wall so that they would consider Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Even if they will not significantly reduce the monthly minimum payments, they will generally waive past due fees and lower the cards’ interest rates. Whenever your accumulated debt has grown to the point that you have trouble making your minimum payments, it is always a good idea to talk to representatives of your various lenders to see what could be done. For those borrowers that have only come to such dire straits because of injuries, lack of employment, or other unforeseen events, obviously there should be even greater lenience expected from the credit card companies. More than even bankruptcy protection, the lenders’ corporate offices fear bad publicity for unduly punishing the forthright.

All the same, once debts have grown to a certain amount, even a drop in interest rates or an extended payment schedule may not be able to sufficiently aid borrowers. At this point, debt management professionals would likely urge such borrowers to consider investigating the debt settlement industry. In a way, this method is not terribly different than when borrowers contact credit card representatives individually to ask for special terms, but there are several aspects of this approach that deserve further explanation. With debt settlement negotiation, the debt specialists attempt to convince the credit card companies and whomever handles their sides of the negotiation to actively reduce their overall debt load – sometimes by almost fifty percent! Sounds incredible, but not all borrowers will be able to enter a debt settlement program, it should be said. Qualifications are extremely important within debt settlement because the settlement firm not only works on the debtors’ behalf when talking with the various lenders if they actually absorb the debts themselves.

It should now be more clear why the debt settlement alternative is considerably harder to take advantage of. Obviously, the settlement firms will only wish to take on the consolidated loans and credit accounts of those borrowers that they believe will repay their trust. Furthermore, not all credit cards will agree to the demands of settlement negotiators – though more and more are recognizing the benefits of the program every day. However, for those borrowers that successfully work with a debt settlement company, they can see their debt balances drop by tens of thousands of dollars within weeks. The reason that settlement specialists have so much more success in this form of debt management is not purely because of experience, training, (there is a national certification board) and prior relationships with lenders. No, this is why it is so important that the debt settlement company consolidate all of their client’s debts before they ever start negotiations. Settlement reductions only work when the creditors truly believe that all debts are being treated equally. It’s not just that the credit card companies would be less likely to listen to amateurs attempt to carve down their obligations. They will only agree to cut debts if they know that their competitors are doing the same.

Of course, as with any professional debt management program, there are disadvantages to be felt as well, particularly in the pocketbook. While the costs are negligible (and, generally, do not exist for first consultations) compared to the amount of money saved from successful debt negotiations, the settlement specialists do not work for free, and you will find yourself with additional charges tacked onto whatever balance they manage to barter down. Also, credit reports will take a hit after debt settlement. Credit accounts labeled ’satisfied’ rather than ‘paid’ look somewhat worse to debt analysts, and FICO scores will suffer a drop – though, once again, when set next to the carnage wrought from bankruptcy debt elimination, most borrowers wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. As it may be harder for those borrowers who have gone through debt settlement to find credit cards just after the process has been completed, they will also have to close all open accounts so as to reassure the creditors that they are not planning some sort of scam. This can make it trickier for households to survive during the three to five years that debt settlement traditionally takes, but, as will all of the debt management tactics, the alternative is incalculably worse.

Author: Cole Collins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times

UK residents seem to enjoy a strange relationship with debts. While they cannot do with a large debt load over their shoulders, they also cannot do without incurring them for long. If a survey is to be taken out of the most rash spenders, then the Britishers are sure to rank highly. Without ever thinking about where the expenditures will be met from, people go on spending and spending. Debt management in the UK is a set of techniques and processes through which an attempt is made to give a break to the reign of debts.

Debt management plays both an active as well as an advisory role in the UK. As part of the active role, the job of debt management UK will be to counter debts that have already been incurred. The techniques employed for this purpose include debt consolidation loans, debt consolidation mortgage, home equity loans, and debt consolidation through remortgage. The advisory role of debt management involves informing borrowers of ways to avoid debts. Debt counselling and credit counselling are employed to give debt sense to people.

The roles may differ in terms of the period within which the benefit will become visible. While the results of debt consolidations loans are immediately visible, the impact of debt counselling will take time to come on the scene.

With the pressure of creditors building up against individual, the first priority of debt management UK will be to relieve borrowers of debts. The process of settling debts is known as debt consolidation. It derives name from a sub-process that involves consolidating or clustering debts. From this stage onwards, it is the loan provider who assumes responsibilities of eliminating debts. Borrowers may or may not exercise this benefit since it is optional. However, given the relative inexperience of borrowers, it will be advisable to allow debt consolidation loan provider to settle debts.

Debt management agencies have gained expertise in debt elimination through years of work in the field. When debts become unmanageable, borrowers are left with not much scope but to surrender to debt consolidation loans. On the other hand, there are borrowers who are confused about how debt consolidation loans will help when it is just another debt. The essence of debt management lies in the timing. The debts that are increasing your stress levels would demand immediate payment. Conversely, debt consolidation loan needs to be repaid over a period of 5 to 25 years. This means that the borrower has sufficient time to plan repayment.

Loan providers participation in the debt consolidation process is limited to debt consolidation loans. Other debt management techniques, namely debt consolidation mortgages and home equity loans, may not include this facility. Consequently, expert advice and guidance for free is the chief attraction of debt consolidation loans. Borrowers however will make their choice of debt consolidation technique after considering many other factors.

Cost of debt management technique will be given prominence during search. Debt consolidation mortgage, which is second mortgage, allows debt management at the rates of mortgage. Debt consolidation loans too garner funds at cheaper rates if the borrower agrees to serve some collateral. Since there is very little risk to cover in secured debt consolidation loan, these carry very low rates of interests.

Debt consolidation loan and debt consolidation mortgage do not guarantee a life-long riddance from debts. They can at the best rid borrowers of debts at a particular point of time. For a life-long freedom from debts, the advisory role of debt management will be of immense help. Debt counselling is not merely informing borrowers of certain debt management tips. Debt management tips must be supported with sufficient examples. The manner in which borrower is counselled will have sufficient impact on the advice intake of borrowers. The counsellor must try to be as practical as possible. Debt counselling involves helping borrowers in implementing debt management tips and rescuing them from dead ends.

Debt management, as is clearly visible has a very wide scope. However, a very thin line demarcates benefits of debt management from its drawbacks. One wrong step on debt management, and the very benefits that one boasted of can turn into drawbacks. Consequently, borrowers need to keep their eyes open, particularly on the debt elimination techniques like debt consolidation loans. Debt counselling too need not be taken lightly, since they also can backfire at times when incorrect tips are implemented.

Author: Ann Gibson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: US Dollar credit card

Alongside the ongoing collapse of the American economy, with lender after lender filing for bankruptcy protection and real estate markets crumbling at the nation’s feet, there is, at least, one industry that continues to rise in both popularity and productivity. Yes, our debt management firms have shown exponential growth over the last few years, and, with the larger financial picture unlikely to change any time soon, consumers shall continue to flock to every company that promises a reduction of payments and interest rates for the debts that accumulated back in the good old days. You are, we’re sure, at least familiar with the notion of debt management.

From billboards to television commercials to soft-sell magazine articles highlighting the various approaches, debt management has become a buzz word for all segments of the economy whether or not you’re trying to get out of a negative equity residence or simply trying to erase a few thousand dollars of credit card debt whose minimum payments you can no longer maintain. In the greater sense, for most borrowers, undertaking the process of debt management will be to your advantage regardless of the path you choose. While there are obvious drawbacks to Consumer Credit Counseling (FICO score wreckage resembling that of Chapter 7 bankruptcies) and home equity debt consolidation (incredibly dangerous in a time of tumbling property values), there remains a number of debt management forms – debt settlement negotiation, which can reduce borrowers’ balances by as much as fifty percent with a few phone calls for relatively low cost to the pocketbook or credit report, chief among them – that have demonstrable value to even the most dubious debtor.

Of course, at the same point, for every good and legitimate debt management firm, there are others who are simply out to make the fast buck regardless of their client’s well being. In this article, we would like purely to highlight some of the more egregious complaints our correspondents have reported when attempting debt consolidation with the hope that you would be able to sniff out a malfeasant business and select one that truly has you and your family’s best interests in heart. Obviously, there is a good deal more investigation that needs to be done well before you even meet with a specific company.

Considering all of the different approaches to debt management available, you have to make sure that you have a full and complete grasp of each one, from debt settlement to Consumer Credit Counseling and beyond, before even looking at the different possibilities in your area – or, these days, on the internet. Ask yourself: is it possible to pay off your credit cards and unsecured loans through traditional means in a reasonable amount of time? How important will your credit rating be to your plans over the near future? Do you plan to buy a house or refinance your current residence in the next few years? Do you want (or, even, need) to maintain some lines of credit available during the process of debt management? These are questions for another essay, we shan’t possibly have the space to outline every potentiality (nor, obviously, could we pretend to know your own specific financial scenario), but you can do so much of this sort of fact finding with just a little bit of research about debt management and all that the programs entail.

Still, once you have decided upon a specific approach to follow, there are a number of warning signs to look out for when selecting your debt management company, and we would merely like to delve into a few of these threats. For one instance, you should always ensure that whichever firm you have considered working with requires all of the following data before they offer any sort of estimate: identity of each lender, the interest rates of each accounts, minimum (and, under unusual circumstances, maximum) payments requested from each lender, past and current late payments as noted (or about to be noted) upon your credit report, and, as well, any significant account activity which may include balance transfers or relatively greater purchases in recent years. If the company happily provides a quote without such information, this should seem highly suspicious to the borrower.

Even after a cursory analysis of the household’s financial information, legitimate debt management companies should be loathe to give much more than the vaguest of quotes – certainly not a complete good faith estimate – and, whenever businesses blithely pretend to know how much their services will cost before looking closely at all possible difficulties – red flags should dance before borrowers’ eyes. By all means, if the debt management professional begins to talk about your eventual payments and what they would hope the interest rates would be during the initial consultation, feel free to gather your paperwork and walk away.

At the same point, of course, while it is necessary to offer this information to your prospective debt management company during the application process, one shouldn’t just hand out your most personal financial data before making absolutely certain that the company is one to be trusted. Even beyond the question of honesty – as happens, many debt management companies will share such information with bill collectors and predatory credit card companies all too ready to shove near fraudulent balance transfer offers down the debtors’ metaphorical throats – there’s a separate issue of experience and competence.

Your authors have known overworked debt management companies that simply threw out their past files into recycling bins outside the office! In this era of widespread identity theft, keeping such information private couldn’t be of more grave seriousness, and you simply have to make sure that your social security number and similar data will be properly disposed of. In fact, you should have the debt management professional you consult with give you assurances in writing about their organizational guidelines regarding the destruction and confidentiality policies regarding client documents before handing anything over. For obvious reasons, your debt management partners will need to trade this information with the lenders that they will need to deal with over the course of debt negotiation, but representatives of those credit card companies should be the ONLY ones to be given access to such incredibly sensitive data.

Also, on the topic of documents, prior to giving the debt management company your paperwork – or, considering the FICO score’s reduced every time your credit report is checked, even your social security number – do try to ascertain some notion of their best guess, however vague, as to the costs expected. Once again, the more legitimate companies shall be far more reticent to provide any sort of estimate without detailed analysis of your accounts, but, if you give a close idea of the amounts of the balances as well as your FICO score from each of the three main bureaus, they should at least be willing to come to some theoretical notion of the potential expense. Much can be learned from the charge requested for the initial consultation with the debt management counselor.

While it shouldn’t be seen as odd for some negligible fee to be attached to the first meeting – expect something around twenty five to seventy five dollars unless the loan balances under contention are truly gargantuan – anything beyond a hundred dollars should be seen as a warning sign. As we continue to remind, you should also make sure to have written documentation detailing precisely what you will receive for this fee, and you should ask whether or not there will be further charges for enrollment or admittance or seemingly superfluous fees. Any debt management company that has several charges for essentially the same task will not stop there, after all. If you fall for these charges, lord only knows what they might try next. Furthermore, while that initial payment may be necessary up front (if they didn’t charge anything, debt management companies would be besieged by skinflints pressing they for advice or information free of charge), additional fees asked by the company should be able to be built into the debt consolidation process so that you would never have to pay one lump sum all at once.

Speaking of the payment terms, they (it should go without saying) depend almost completely upon both the total amount of the credit card balances and the specific debt management approach that you end up selecting. The approach really does matter. Debt settlement rarely allows borrowers to maintain payment schedules lasting longer than five years while home equity loans can continue racking up compound interest for decades and Consumer Credit Counseling, as with so many things, remains eternally malleable to the borrower’s demands. However, you should be able to figure out what the debt management company costs will be each month before agreeing to their program. Obviously, you have to expect that their will be some sort of monthly administrative charge – this is how the companies make their money – but it should not be any higher than ten dollar per month.

Many of the less reputable debt management firms attempt to hide redundant charges within the monthly payments, and some of them add on an additional annual expense for exactly the same efforts! Not to repeat ourselves, but this is why a close perusal of the final good faith estimate is such an integral part of choosing the debt management companies. If it’s not within your capacity or if you haven’t the time (since so many borrowers who need to consider debt management are holding down two jobs), ask any of your friends or family who may be more experienced with financial matters or who have an accountant upon retainer if they could take a look to weed out such unnecessary fees. Sometimes a creditor will even insist upon proof of payment to the debt management firm in question before they undertake serious negotiations, but, as with everything, this should be verified beyond possible dispute.

While on the subject of monthly payments, another element of debt management that many borrowers unused to dealing with this sort of financing tend to ignore revolves around the lenders themselves. Remember, you are entrusting all payments to be made – which, in essence, means entrusting your credit rating for years to come – to the debt management firm, and it’s of the greatest importance that they understand and acknowledge their responsibility. Particularly lax or incompetent debt management companies (or, even, those companies that themselves have liquidity problems) have been known to delay the payments to creditors that they have been charged to transfer out.

After debt management, you will be sending the checks to the management company, but, in many instances, you will still be held liable by the credit card companies for the obligations that you originally signed on for. Make sure that you understand precisely your debt management partners’ plans for timely remuneration of the credit card companies and – we apologize for the repetition but this cannot be underlined sufficiently; too many households have been lost to oral agreements – get everything down on paper. For that matter, force the debt management company to send along a notice each month that records their payments to the various lenders alongside some tracking system available over the internet. As ever, should the debt management professional suddenly blanch or in any way act as if this is outside the bounds of his responsibility to his client, feel more than free to walk out the door. Indeed, feel that it is your duty to remind the company about industry standards.

As to the payments themselves, we fall into another grey area. So much of debt management depends upon a knowledge of the individual situation that it becomes increasingly hard to remotely advise borrowers as to what sort of plan or program would be to their best advantage. However, regardless of the household’s debt situation, some aspects are not relative. While the amount of monthly payments suggested by the debt management specialist that you are working with may, indeed, jump up or down by thousands of dollars when put into comparison to your income and debt load, the actual ratios remain stagnant. No matter what, there needs to be costs of living built into the structure of your debt repayment, and, even with a strict budgetary policy that forgoes previous liberties, some expenses are bound to be constant.

Your debt management professional must be able – and, more to the point, willing – to adapt the overall goals you must both be striving towards (to eliminate consumer debt as quickly as possibly so as to reduce the potential effects of compound interest) with the sad realities (day to day household costs plus some money set aside each month for savings). While you do not want to work with a debt management professional that blithely allows your debts to continue for longer than necessary to assure himself and his company of continued rewards, you also don’t want to be at the mercy of any debt specialist so obsessive about debt relief and so absent empathy about the actual plight of his clients that they suffer unnecessarily to save a few bucks over the course of the program.

Put plain, you need a debt management firm that understands you and your family’s current living conditions as well as your eventual long term goals and aspirations – presuming a debt-free existence to be paramount among them. Much as you should look twice at any debt management plan that features suspiciously low monthly payments, do not immediately trust another company simply because the payments are markedly higher no matter how quickly they promise you would be able to repay all current obligations. There’s far more to debt management, at the end of the day, than simply eliminating what debts you have this very moment, and budgets set by debt management professionals that clearly have no idea and less interest as to your actual expenses just won’t be feasible over the long haul.

There are so very many different debt management programs and debt counselors with which you may work when attempting to solve this problem that it would be foolish to fall for the first relatively decent offer and it would be something worse to allow yourself to be tempted by the budgetary elasticity of low payments OR the guild-ridden asceticism that too-high payments indulge. Ask around! Check out the competitors! As long as you have documented figures about your current credit accounts as well as your three FICO scores (or, better, if you have access, the actual credit reports), it is worth the time to talk to even a dozen debt management shops in order to make sure you’re getting the deal that’s best for your family’s finances. Debt management is a sparkling new industry, and you can’t simply hope to follow the path or your grandfather as you might for a home loan or mechanic. Research must be done and done seriously. This isn’t like cramming for a test or trying to brave your way through a DMV exam. Your selection of debt management specialists will impact your household’s next decade for better or, as too often happens, for worse.

This article, by no means, should be seen as the only resource available for your household. There are an infinite number of debt management scenarios to be considered and an equal amount of potential landmines. Much as your local Chamber of Commerce and Better Business Bureau largely survive upon paid membership, they do – grudgingly, it should be remembered – keep a backlog of prior complaints from unhappy clients, and it should not be that difficult to request information about any company you have been considering. Also: see if the firm of choice maintains any professional affiliations. Many of the more legitimate Consumer Credit Counseling outfits have recently been accredited by the government following the 2005 changes to the United States Bankruptcy Code (all those who declare bankruptcy must now, on their own dime, take absolutely needless courses on debt management; yet another way in which the congressional alterations of Chapter 7 makes the bankruptcy alternative less palatable for ordinary consumers) and that’s one way to ensure at least some competence and experience from the organization.

Debt settlement negotiators, on the other hand, must be certified by a national board, and, should you go through that (ever more popular, with good reason) route, make absolutely sure they can prove such certification. Nevertheless, as with so much involving debt management, the final decision rests with you. Nobody can hold your hand, least of all an on-line article, when deciding upon the men or women who shall shape your financial future. Study all the information that you can, take a hard look at your own finances, and, at the end, remember that the debt management specialist you end up with will be tied to you and your family’s finances for a long time to come. With that understood, choose your debt management solution accordingly.

Author: Cole Collins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Within this age of falling economic indicators and ever escalating credit card bills for the average American consumer, debt management has become something of a hot topic everywhere from water coolers to bar stools, but there are a host of different methods surrounding debt management. Everything from bankruptcy to home mortgage refinancing to payday loans could reasonably be considered a form of debt management, but, within the scope of our current essay, we shall concentrate upon those types of debt management that consolidate unsecured (meaning, those loans without property attached) revolving debts through a series of negotiations with the lenders by a third party debt specialist. Credit card representatives are surprisingly open to bartering when properly cajoled by experienced debt management professionals, and, depending upon which program you choose, your interest rates and sometimes even your actual balances may be reduced significantly through these negotiations. The principal forms of this sort of debt management are Consumer Credit Counseling and Debt Settlement. Both strategies consolidate existing loans while attempting to decrease the overall money that is owed – though, to tell the truth, Debt Settlement (not accepting funds from credit card companies, unlike the lender subsidized Credit Card Counseling industry) has a far better success rate for actually diminishing the financial obligations.

To a point, consumers can endeavor to attempt this sort of thing themselves. Certainly, representatives of the unsecured creditors will be open to conversation about the consumers’ renewed attention toward paying off their debts and will often shrug away interest rate reductions or waivers of past fees. However, unless you include a certified debt management company, it’s unlikely that you shall be able to truly lower the amount of the burdens. This is the importance of the consolidation effect. Debt management companies – Debt Settlement companies, particularly – can wield their leverage so effectively primarily because, since they’ve already consolidated all the various debts from the borrowers, each lender knows that they will be surrendering no more than their competitors. It’s not exactly that lenders do not care about retaining the rights to whatever money’s owed at whatever interest rate was originally agreed upon, but those lenders also understand that – however weakened after the legislation of past year – Chapter 7 bankruptcy debt elimination does still exist. As long as there is some semblance of bankruptcy protection, however unlikely the chance or unpalatable the option, each borrower has the potential of declaring bankruptcy protection and legally abandoning all credit card accounts. The credit card companies are under no obligation to make such offers, of course, and a few lenders yet refuse to negotiate with Debt Settlement counselors nor decrease current credit accounts regardless of the threat.

Since debt management remains such a relatively young field, many consumers are rightly concerned about how to go about selecting a company to work with. It’s not like you can just ask your grandfather for advice on debt management the same way you’d expect him to have knowledge of loan officers or accountants. To a certain point, one has to trust instinct when choosing the firm and the counselor with whom you’re – in a very real way – entrusting your family’s financial future, but there are ways to verify the company’s qualifications before starting the process. The Better Business Bureau and several federal agencies maintain records of prior clients’ disapproval. The internet tends to highlight negative features of virtually every enterprise. Consumer Credit Counseling agencies, the past three years, have become an essential part of the bankruptcy declaration – pointless courses are now required before and after Chapter 7 debt elimination – and, through this unexpected turn of events, the more legitimate Consumer Credit Counseling firms must now undergo Justice Department scrutiny and approval in order to be considered for this (highly profitable) secondary purpose. Consumer Credit Counseling companies that do not bother to request government certification likely either have something to hide or display a laziness that in itself should be a warning sign. Debt Settlement companies, while they are not subject to the same governmental scrutiny, maintain their own national organization which subjects members to a rigorous bout of testing before certification would be awarded.

In the most basic possible explanation, the Debt Settlement approach attempts to negotiate lower balances from the creditors in exchange for a heightened payment schedule (and hefty tax write off for the lender, naturally). While the Debt Settlement method does carry alongside a deleterious effect as regards credit reports and FICO scores, the worsened credit rating is still relatively minimal compared to most other debt management solutions. Many of the unsecured lenders – we’re largely talking, once again, about credit card accounts – try to woo problem spenders and delinquent borrowers through offers of one-time lump sum payments that greatly diminish overall balances but those balance are not then reported as ’satisfied’ to the credit bureaus, Indeed, while these sorts of shenanigans may technically be considered debt management, they are often falsely named debt consolidation when in fact the practice actually resembles a last ditch scheme of desperation on the part of the borrower and the lender. This sort of debt management approach is thought to be the last refuge of the wicked, and your credit report shall reflect this.

As long as you do not overly upset the household budget nor forget to save some additional funds for medical emergencies and the like, each borrower should do what it takes to pay off their loans as swiftly as possible with the worst interest rates tackled first. While tax liens and court mandated burdens cannot be avoided – after all, the ultimate consequence for ignoring those debts is rather more severe than purely lowered FICO scores – there’s also little reason to pay much more than the minimum. Governmental debts generally feature very low interest and court representatives are surprisingly willing to extend terms and lower payments so as to not too greatly inconvenience the debtor, and the same can be said for most (typically community or state monitored) utility companies. Utilities, it should be said, also tend to forget to report late payments to the three credit bureaus, but the same cannot be said for real estate loans or other secured debts. You need to make sure your mortgage, especially considering the current boom market for foreclosures, is paid precisely on time (mortgage lenders, already tending toward the predatory, love nothing more than to ruin their borrowers’ credit scores so as to prevent future refinancing), but, even so, you shouldn’t concern yourself with getting rid of secured loans too quickly. They look the best upon credit reports, they appreciate in value (apart from automobiles, of course) and they tend to have the best interest rates.

Credit cards should be the primary focus of proper debt management, and, to really strike a blow against the various lenders, you should probably consider one of the debt consolidation techniques that are increasingly popular for Americans of all walks of life. To be sure, you can talk to credit card companies on your own, but, as we said earlier, they are far less likely to treat settlement negotiations with amateurs as seriously as they would an experienced (and, with regards to the new debt settlement industry, certified) debt management profession. Even so, you have to remember that there are many different forms of consolidation out there and an equal number of possible results to be had from your efforts. So many consumers walk blindly into Consumer Credit Counseling offices after being pummeled by the endless succession of advertisements and are immediately talked into signing on in order to receive the lower interest rates (and, more importantly, the vastly lowered payments made available) without actually thinking over whether or not the program is right for them. There are FICO score issues to be discussed – Consumer Credit Counseling actually shows up worse than bankruptcy protection when written upon credit reports – and the question of whether or not such a program would actually aid your finances in the long view.

Remember, while interest rates will almost assuredly be lowered well below what the credit card companies charge, there are fees involved with Consumer Credit Counseling (apart from whatever they charge the credit card companies; yes, it’s a very profitable enterprise) that do not always make up for the comparatively lessened interest rates. At the same time, while the payments will almost always be substantially lower through any Consumer Credit Counseling consolidation program, that’s often because the terms are extended to such a degree that – even if the interest has been dramatically shaved – the borrower will still end up paying more money over the course over the loan. Particularly for debtors that already have demonstrated problems with their buying habits, lower monthly minimums are not necessarily in the debtors’ best interests. Consumers prone to purchasing binges should not always have more spending money made available to them when they have not addressed the underlying causes that first landed them in the predicament of needing debt management assistance. Much of the time, you would be better suited by merely taking care of the bills at hand – with credit card remaining the priority – rather than paying additional money for one company to artificially lengthen the repayment process. At the very least, take care to investigate the Debt Settlement approach and indulge a free initial consultation to distinguish their possibilities when compared to Consumer Credit Counseling.

Even after the approach has been decided upon and the company of choice has been, as they say, vetted, there are, still, several things to watch out for regardless of the business’ standing within the community or their previous dealings with friends and family. Remember, no matter how legitimate the company, you are personally dealing with a debt specialist working for that company, and, regardless of the organizational guidelines, even the best firms may sometimes hire counselors that are striving to get ahead above and beyond the purposes of their client. Once again, you must get everything – EVERY LAST DETAIL – written down and fully documented to prevent potential abuse from less than competent assistance. Ensure, through recorded agreements, that the creditors shall be paid each month on time as promised so that the debt management company knows that they themselves will be held liable for any potential slip ups. If the debt management firm says that the creditors insist upon an initial payment toward said debt management firm prior to negotiation (which does occasionally happen), ask to see the paperwork – or, better, talk to the lender yourself and verify precisely what they want.

Do not agree to any program necessitating stipends that you believe your household cannot regularly meet. It is the responsibility of the debt management company to calculate a budget that recognizes the day to day expenses their clients of yet and does not stipulate a monthly payment that overly restricts the availability of their funds. So much of debt management revolves around proper budgeting, and the counselor has to be considerate of their clients’ needs. While you should not thoroughly respect any program that allows overly lax terms (minimizing payments without touching the balances of your credit card debts, after all, only increases the eventual sums to be paid once compound interest continually adds up), you have to make sure that the payments are still comfortable for the household throughout the year. As well, you should know that most of the more effective debt management solutions force their clients to refrain from additional borrowing over the course of the program. Once again, this philosophy changes alongside the debt relief approach that you choose, but you’d probably better assume that, while within the debt management proceedings, you will not be allowed to take out further loans.

If anything we have written sticks with you, it should be this: document on paper ever single element of debt management. Even prior to accepting one program or another, you should receive a written estimate that details every single fee the debt management company may charge. However comfortable and friendly the debt counselor that you plan to work with may seem, do remember that the most successful financial professionals essentially ask for as much as they think the borrower is willing (or able) to pay. No matter your relationship with the debt management specialist handling your case, demand a legal documentation of everything discussed. It’s just common sense, really. Even if your counselor genuinely is legitimate and beyond reproach, the debt management company itself may have institutional guidelines that attempt to slip in unnecessary charges hidden in the fine print. The eventual quote can’t be analyzed too closely. If you aren’t sufficiently familiar with the verbiage or concepts surrounding the debt management contract, ask friends or even acquaintances for assistance. Make absolutely sure that this is the program that you want to join and that this is the company you wish to work with for a number of years. Once you sign up for a debt management program, it’s not exactly a life partnership, but the repercussions shall be felt for years to come should things go poorly.

Author: Cole Collins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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You may have to kill old debts that resurrect and come back to life.Zombie debt may include past debts that you owe, charged-off debt, debt included in bankruptcy, debt you may have never owed and even debts incurred due to identity theft. Zombie debt involves collection agencies purchasing debts for pennies on the dollar that original creditors have written off as bad debt and often times the statute of limitations has already run.

Debt buying has emerged into a multi-billion dollar industry in the past several years and from the looks of it, the industry will only continue to expand. Junk debt buyers can be small businesses to large, publicly traded Wall street companies and the characters involved in this lucrative business are banking on the consumer not knowing their rights. If you are contacted about an old debt or debt you are unaware of here are a few things you can do:

1. Do not acknowledge you owe the debt. Simply acknowledging the debt or agreeing to pay a portion of the debt can ruin your credit. Negative marks can stay on your credit for up to 7 years. By paying a portion of that debt you restart the 7 year clock. If you are nearing the 7 year mark it may be best to do nothing at all. Let it drop from your credit reports.

2. Ignore the phone calls completely. Talking to them may open up a can of worms. Speaking with debt collectors may end up restarting or extending the statute of limitations on the debt in addition to restarting the time period a negative mark can stay on your credit.Remember, if the statute of limitations has run on a debt you cannot be sued for that debt.

3. Stop the calls.If the telephone calls continue, immediately write a letter, certified, return receipt, demanding the collection agency cease all telephonic contact with you. Make sure you clearly state in the letter that you do not agree you owe the debt nor are you acknowledging you owe the debt. Federal law dictates collection agencies must comply when you request they do not contact you via telephone.

4. Check your credit reports. Collection agencies will often stoop to low, illegal tactics to try to get you to pay a debt. Watch out for re-aging of the old debt on your credit reports. The collection agencies will report the old debt to the credit bureaus as a new debt and try to extend the seven-year reporting limit on negative items. Remember, negative items such as late payments and charge-offs can only be reported on your credit report for 7 years. Bankruptcies can be reported for 10 years unpaid tax liens can stay up to 15 years.

5. Debt Validation. Request the collection agency validate the debt. Debt validation forces the debt collector to produce a copy of the original signed contract such as the credit card agreement and the account history of the debt. They cannot simply produce some printed copy of their bill or invoice, it must be from the original creditor. Also, request proof they are licensed in your State to perform debt collection. If the collection agency cannot produce proof you owe the debt, they are violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and can be sued. And, any negative entry they reported to the credit bureaus regarding this debt must be removed from your credit reports.

6. Negotiate cautiously. If you want to pay the debt, be very careful in your negotiations and get everything in writing. Remember the collection agencies purchased the debt for pennies on the dollar so anything you offer over that amount is all profit. You want to proceed with negation with intense caution because collection agencies are tricky. Debt collectors may settle for a smaller amount then turn around and sell the remaining debt to another collection agency or even worse, the collection agency could report the remainder of the debt to the IRS as “income”.

7. False promises by the collection agency. Not surprisingly, some debt collectors use dirty, underhanded tactics to collect debt. Many simply lie to the consumer and promise to remove negative credit entries in exchange for payment. Know your rights and get everything in writing. Always negotiate a full deletion of any and all negative entries reported on your credit report of this debt. Cover your bases and make sure the debt collector is not going to sell the unpaid portion of the debt to another company. To learn more aboutsettling old debts for pennies on the dollarvisit: Debt Settlement

Author: Lisa Phillips
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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