gnlgates asked:


Anyone know how to get credit card companies to work with you BEFORE you ruin your credit with missed payments? It seems they all tell me my accounts are fine, even though they won’t be soon,….I don’t want to have to ruin my credit score before they are willing to work with me to pay off my debts at lower interest rates or payments. Any advice?

Ricky

CodingAway asked:


I want to start looking into the option of getting professional assistance to get out of debt. I’m not going to mention any numbers, but the debt my wife and I have accrued over the years is … well, staggering.

Anyway, I know some company’s are out to scam people, and I was wondering if their was any way to research various agencies?

I’m not sure of the term I am thinking of, but the types of companies that I am referring to give you an agent, then the agent negotiates deals with your credit lenders to lower interest rates, then they give you a flat fee to pay monthly and an estimated time of paying off your debt.

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Steve A asked:


I unfortunately am one of many who has too much credit card debt and due to some past glitches, my interest rates are high. I pay my bills and try to pay as much as I can but can’t seem to put a dent in the load. I keep hearing on radio and TV about these “cut your bills in half” credit card relief plans but I am very skeptical of those plans. Any advice….recommendations?

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Cornie Herring asked:


Debt management plan (DMP) is a special program introduced by most credit counseling agencies to help the serious debtors work their way out of debt. But not all debts can be included in a debt management plan. Although you have chosen to enroll into a debt management plan, you must do your own debt management for other debts that are not included in the DMP. Here are 6 debt management tips for you to work toward debt relief:

Tip #1: Keep record of your other bills.

A debt management plan typical will include only unsecured debts such as credit card and personal loans. If you have taken secured loan such as mortgage or car loan, be aware that those loans normally will not be handled by a debt management plan. Make you understand which debts are being paid by your monthly payment to the DMP. For those debts which are not covered in DMP, make sure you keep a record on the bills.

Tip #2: Make sure your payment reach your creditors on time

Although you make a single payment to DMP, it is your responsible to ensure the money is reached to your creditors on time, else if your payments late, you may incur additional late charges. Find out when your DMP will disburse payment to creditors and make sure the disbursement is matched with your billing cycle; if not, you must do an adjustment either with the DMP agency or notified your creditors and get their approval to reset the billing cycle to inline with DMP.

Tip #3: Check your credit card and loan statement

Have your credit card and loan statements reflect the terms of DMP agreement such as lower interest rates, waived fees or other concessions from your creditors? If it’s does not show the figures as agreed in DMP, you must quickly call up both DMP agency and your creditors to investigate the mismatch.

Tip #4: Check your credit report once a year

In U.S, you can request your credit report for free once a year. Be sure you do that and check all the information reported to make sure it is up to date. And, if you continue to pay your monthly payment on time, you should see an improvement of your credit rating reflected in your credit report.

Tip #5: Don’t add more debt with new loans

The rule of thumb to be debt free is: don’t add more debts to your existing debts. In fact, some of your creditors will back of the DMP if they found out you are applying for a new loan while still with DMP. If you really need to get a mortgage or car loan, seek for professional advices from counselor from counseling service offered by the DMP agency.

Tip #6: Love your money

If you want the money to love you, you must love the money. Develop a healthy relationship with the money. Learn how to manage your money with a budget plan and know where your money goes. Reduce or cut off unnecessary expenses so that you have more money to put toward your debt. Take advantage of credit counseling offered through your DMP agency. Attend the education session about personal budgeting organized by credit counseling and learn more from their education materials.

Summary

If becoming a debt free is your goal, then debt management is your responsibility. Besides enrolling into Debt management program offered by credit counseling, you need to have your own debt management plan to cover all your debts if you want to achieve a total debt relief.



Arnold

Joycelyn Crawford asked:


When it comes to such important issues, it is a good idea to use the advice of those who know about the subject. Let’s see what the Federal Trade Commission suggests on this particular topic.

The main thing that the FTC suggests is that you postpone the decision of filing for bankruptcy till after you have analyzed all the other alternatives out there. This is due to the fact that bankruptcy should be considered a last resort and the FTC strongly suggests against taking that path unless absolutely necessary because the detriment that it implies to your financial and credit situations is overwhelming.

Three Options To Obtain Debt Relief

The first alternative that the FTC suggests as means to obtain debt relief, is to talk with your creditors. Sometimes you are entitled to change the terms on your repayment program by the very contract you signed or due to the law. And even if you are not, a lender will certainly prefer to negotiate a new repayment program than to pay the costly charges of collector agencies or the legal costs of a court case.

If you are not comfortable with the above task, you can hire a credit counseling agency. These agencies will negotiate with your creditors for you and they’ll put their expertise to work so as to get for you new repayment programs, lower interest rates and sometimes even cuts on your debt interests or principal. Some of these organizations are non-profit and charge little or no money but even those that are not, won’t charge you high fees and will save you a lot of money.

The FTC suggests, as another option, to consider a second mortgage or home equity line of credit. These two alternatives are financial products based on equity that provide a fair amount of money at very reasonable rates and with a flexible repayment program. However, the FTC also states that these options should be considered carefully because the loans and lines of credit based on equity are secured with your property and thus, you risk repossession if you fail to repay the money.

Costs And Other Considerations About Bankruptcy

If the above alternatives won’t do any good for you, then, bankruptcy may be the only choice. Bear in mind however, that bankruptcy is not a simple or inexpensive process. There are two types of bankruptcies: Chapter 13 and Chapter 7. The filing fees are around $300 dollars, chapter 13 being slightly cheaper. Chapter 13 provides you with some benefits like the possibility of keeping a mortgaged property and work out a repayment plan to cancel your debts with advantageous terms without having to surrender all of your assets.

Chapter 7, on the other side, is a straight bankruptcy where all your assets are sold in order to repay your debts and only after all your debts are canceled the remaining (if any) is handed over to you and your bankruptcy is discharged. Bear in mind also that not all debt is erased with a bankruptcy process and you won’t be able to keep all your assets; not even with Chapter 13.



Kathy

boxbeatle asked:


We started a program with “Consumer Credit Counselors” This progarm has us pay the Consumer Credit Counselors, then they pay the credit cards every month. All they do is lower some of the interest rates. They don’t negotiate amount owed. The payments are too high for us, so we looked into other alternatives. We found one company that will do it differently for less. They have you pay into an escrow account, and they pay off each credit card individually. They say they negotiate lower balances and interest rates. The payment would be lower and the payoff time cut in half. Does anyone know of any reason we shouldn’t do this? Are there any other better ways? WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO GET CONSUMER DEBT RELIEF with no loans?

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