Credit Card Debt Settlement! Is It A Scam Or Can It Work?

I have been working in the credit card debt settlement industry for over a decade now and have been working in the financial industry for over twenty years. My mission with writing this article is to offer debtors a heads up on credit card debt settlement companies also known as debt negotiation companies. I will provide you with the advantages and disadvantages of a credit card debt settlement program and what to look out for when speaking with a rep from one of these organizations to help you get out of debt. Before continuing I want to inform you that this will be somewhat of a long article and by the conclusion of it my goal is for you to understand how the debt negotiation/settlement process works in case you don't already know and I would like you to fully comprehend the techniques of companies out there that do not honestly have your best interest in mind. 

For starters I would like to say up front that this process of debt settlement as your means to consumer debt relief isn't for everyone, some debtors are more suited towards bankruptcy and others simply don't have the proper state of mind to go through this method.

A great place to start is for me to offer you the understanding of what debt settlement is and how it works. The intent of a debt negotiator is to work out a debt settlement for you on the current debt balances you owe towards your creditors. As an example you might owe one particular creditor $10,000 so the goal of the negotiator would be to have you end up paying back no more $6,000. The two primary advantages of completing this program are to save money on what you currently owe your creditors and to save time. By merely continuing to pay just the minimum payment with even a moderate APR you will be looking at somewhere around thirty or more years to finally become debt free, with a reliable credit card debt settlement program you will be out of debt within two to three years or sooner depending on your present financial state of affairs and how much you can afford to set aside each month.

Now you must realize these are tremendous benefits but as with most things in life there are drawbacks, not a single thing in this world is perfect and a credit card debt settlement program isn't any different. First off your creditors won't be willing to work out a debt settlement whatsoever if you are current and up to date with your monthly minimum payments. They would like you to remain on their credit treadmill for the next three plus decades and pay them well over five times the original balance in interest alone. So you need to fall past due on your payments to place the creditors into a position where they will be willing to negotiate a settlement. After you cease paying them the ball game quickly changes and they will then be significantly more open to talking in the terms of negotiating a settlement.

Without really having to say, for some folks the starting point of this process will have an adverse effect on their credit rating; for people who have already fallen behind the negative effect won't be any different than it already is. The unfortunate thing is for some debtors this will be the deterring factor that prevents them from entering into debt settlement making them a financial servant to their creditors for the next three decades. On a positive note this negative effect doesn't have that long-lasting of an effect, in fact once the settlements get worked out your credit rating will begin to rebound and increase in score. This is because more than 30% of your credit rating according to MyFICO is made up by how much debt you owe. However if you are trapped in a terrible debt situation even if you are up to date with your payments your score is more than likely not all that good to begin with, and besides when stuck far in debt your priority should be set on how to escape this debt problem as rapidly as possible, not on your capability to accumulate more debt.

Now by falling past due on your monthly payments you must realize that these creditors aren't just going to roll over and play dead, they will be attempting to call and collect the debt. Some people don't find this to be a problem whatsoever, but for others it may be, hence why I stated in the second paragraph this process won't be for everyone and the debtor must be in the proper mind set. From my years of assisting debtors there is no rhyme or reason to how many calls you will receive, some clients of mine rarely get calls while others receive them on a daily basis. Something to remember is that no company has the power to by law stop the calls, so any organization that tells you they can is strait up lying.  Only a law firm handling the negotiation process has the power to stop the third party collectors.

As you can now tell, like I said earlier there are advantages and disadvantages, but if you can deal with the disadvantage's you will be quickly on the path to financial freedom and will save a large amount of cash in the process. Now to get to the meat of the matter and why I titled this article "credit card debt settlement scams".

We here in the United States over the last few years have been going through an extremely negative downward spiral with our economy. Thus placing many consumers in a compromising position financially, leaving boat loads of people left holding the bag with large sums of credit card debt. So understandably this opened up a much bigger market for credit card debt settlement. A lot of fly by night companies have been sprouting up all over our country, tons of which are ex mortgage brokers who offered unwary consumers awful mortgages and helped force them into this nightmarish position in the first place. Now I use the word scam which can take on a couple meanings, while yes there are some companies out there that are outright scams and have no intention of doing any work for you at all, most of the times that is not the case. The problem lies when companies simply do not give prospective clients all the facts on how credit card debt settlement works nor do they truly place them on a plan for success, which I will get to in a minute.

One usual problem that many debtors have with debt settlement companies is they don't fully disclose to them about how the process works in detail both the good and the bad, instead they sugar coat things and just go on and on about the tremendous benefits of saving money and time. I have talked to numerous amounts of debtors who have enrolled with companies and had no idea they would be falling behind with their creditors and will be receiving collection calls. So needless to say this turns into a big problem once they begin the process.

Another bad habit tons of these companies have is deceiving consumers into the amount of savings they will be receiving on their debts. Some companies are claiming to save you more than 70% of what you currently owe. Now while occasionally they may get settlements this low what their choosing not to inform you about is how much you will be saving once you have A) paid them their service fees, and B) paid back the creditors. Honest and reputable companies will quote you on what your true total savings will be. If you will save somewhere between 40-50% of what you owe including their fees and paying the creditors than that is very good. One more deception is many of these companies will try and guarantee a definitive amount of savings, if you hear this run for the hills. NO one in this industry can honestly guarantee a certain amount that is why it is called DEBT NEGOTIATION! They are negotiating to get a settlement for as low as they can get. 

Then there are the organizations who will allow you to pay however much you can to get enrolled into their program. These are the worst because they do not honestly have your best interest in mind and are fully aware that they are setting you up to fail and not succeed. You must realize to obtain the kind of savings I mentioned above this program should last no more than 36 months, ideally two or less. And the bottom line is some debtors realistically cannot get the program finished in that time frame and should seriously be looking into bankruptcy. What these un-reputable consumer credit card debt settlement companies will do is place you on a plan for 4 or more years and basically take whatever payment you can afford. With full understanding that you aren't going to be saving much of any money and will more than likely not graduate the program, all they are concerned with is collecting fees and that's all. An honest company will meticulously review your budget with you and ensure you this is a plan that you can manage, as well as completely explain to you both the advantages and disadvantages of doing this. And allow you to make the choice as to whether this is the most ideal consumer credit card debt relief method for your current financial state of affairs.

One more extremely good way to research a company is to make sure they are a registered member with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and that they are in decent standings with little to no complaints. And if there are complaints make sure they were resolved to the clients liking.

As I mentioned above I have been in this industry for over a decade now and currently I work for an outstanding debt settlement law firm with an amazing track record and an outstanding record with the BBB. If you would like an honest evaluation of your current debt situation to see if this is the correct plan of consumer debt relief for you than click the link below in the signature file and fill out an application. I will explain in tremendous detail how this program works and whether you are an ideal candidate. I hope after reading this article you feel more educated and enlightened as to how this process works and what to watch out for when you are interviewing companies to potentially assist you with credit card debt settlement.