jlammy

Yes, you can, but how good are you at negotiations? HAHAHA

I don't work for any of these companies btw

S2PIDSTYLE

Well i have a friend that works for a lawfirm that negotiates medical debt, and another lifeling friend that has been in the collection biz for 15 years. Im sure they can hook up a few pointers

jlammy

Most people don't know they can do this on their own, and out of those people the majority are not well informed enough to do it on their own, which is why these companies exist.

It doesn't hurt to try, though. You can end up saving tons of money instead of paying someone else

Dinnyin

of course you can, call your credit card issuers and ask them to help work with you.

As for the Debt Relief programs, STAY AWAY

The post above on how it works is pretty close, but here are some additional details:

1. you stop paying your cards and pay them instead. they hold the money for future settlement negotiations.
2. they TAKE THEIR FEE OUT FIRST and there are no garuntees that they will be successful. the only thing you can be sure of is that they will get paid.
3. by not paying your bills, the creditors will put them into collection and/or sue you. At that point, the Debt Program (if they're still in business), steps in and, with your money, says "hey, don't sue him, we'll give you $10k to go away." Creditors are under no obligation to accept the offer or any offer for that matter. If they don't, you're SOL. (but, again, the debt program company already has their fee).

Check out this recent article on the growing number of Debt Program cos. being investigated and/or prosecuted: Businessweek

1st step should be for you to try and work with the creditors yourself. It's free, and you're not going to be any worse off than you are now. Maybe able to work it out.

If not, go to a non-profit credit counselor. This is completely defferent from the sort of debt program you're describing. They will not push your accounts delinquent. They have long-standing relationships with the credit companies and they will work with them on your behalf to arrange a payment plan and get rate/balance reductions. Key here, though, is they work with the CC cos, they keep paying them, and they're not waiting for you to be sued and gambling that the bank will accept a settlement. Although these days it seems like the CC cos. are more resistant to making concessions, this is your safest bet. Oh, and this way you may come out the other end with so-so credit, instead of completely disasterous credit.


just my 2 cents, IMHO, and all that

minboost

You can do some negotiation yourself - just call and tell them you're in over your head. They will lower your rate or offer you something (but probably not enough).

You can ask your parents for a bail out.

You can join the army reserve. Not only do you get a nice signing bonus, but lots of credit card companies will dramatically lower your interest rate. You get a lot of other benefits too. The biggest downside is YOU'RE IN THE ARMY. But hey, it's not all bad.

Good luck man.

IRev2NineK

I signed up for a non profit org. To help me out. I'm going to call them tonight and ill post up what's the dealio with that.the site is moneymanagement.org

jyeung528

read:

many times this can hurt you. before you go this route, do this first...

- call CC company and say you are bankrupt and may file bankruptcy, in which case they will probably not see another dollar from you. ask them to negotiate a lower balance and payment term, so you can keep paying them.

see what they say, then go from there. if that fails, you may as well let it go into collections, and then negotiate with the collections company to have a lower pay-off balance. hell, this is what the debt consolidation program does anyway, it goes to collections and they negotiate a lower balance...might as well do that yourself.

debt consolidation programs take A LOT of your payment as fees, and little of it actually goes towards your balance. use this as an absolute last resort, definitely not before you try the above strategy.

edirtaynine

LOL. i dunno why but mins post made me laugh

tantheman

When I call a credit card company to cancel a card because I want to decrease my credit available ratio and critique that their interest rate is too high they always try to retain me by offering me a better interest rate and entice me to use their cards. Usually the offer is good for a full year or 6 months at 0% interest and they increase my credit line which I always refuse.

Tan

LostMotion

You will get a thousand opinions on this but this one is right:
Because of the changed in the BK law if you make over a certain amount a year then you really can't threaten BK and expect too much. It's dependent on the area you live in though. Expect in a BK case to have to pay something back, again though depends on your income.

1. First call every company and say you are ****ed and need a 7% interest rate or you are filing BK. 7% is the lowest they can realistically go outside of short-term teasers. 99% chance this won't work.

2. Stop paying on all cards. Then call after 30 days and say the same thing, I need a dramatic interest rate reduction etc. Don't start talking about principle reduction yet. 90% chance this won't work. If it does then hustle around a little and see if you can make this work. You will be able to pay off debt at 7% interest if you are just squeaking by now. If in a couple months you feel you still can't pay it off then go back and ask for a principle reduction. This will be very hard.

3. If number 2 failed or only partially succeeded wait 30 more days. Now you should be 60-90 days delinquent. Call and ask one more time for a reduction in the interest rate. If you can get the vast majority of your creditors on board then just keep hammering on the holdouts. Again, get the interest rate reduction first, get some debt paid off or at least tread water for awhile then go back if you need to.

4. If you get into the 120 days delinquent category and you have no expectation of being able to pay off the loans then get a BK lawyer and do what he tells you to do).

Expect none of them to play nice. But even if you get one of these agencies, they won't play nice, so that doesn't change anything.