My name is Steve Bis and I have been assisting those that are in arrears with their unsecured credit card debts for a while now and am aware of the negative consequences it has on someone’s life. When you have credit card debt and know that this matter is no longer in your hands, you must make a decision and make it as soon as possible. You don’t want to wait until it is too late. As plenty of you already know is that the creditors are not polite when you contact them with complaints regarding your statements. It’s pretty exciting the way it works because when you initially get the card they are pretty nice people while you are on the phone. Then if you call them to dispute a late or over limit penalty fee and try to have it , they might let you off once a year, if that agent is in a good mood. When it comes down to it what decision are you going to make. It’s not like you can stop making payments on your rent/mortgage or other requirements for you and your familyto make it with day to day living expenses.
The credit card industry made a smooth 17 billion dollars in controversial fees in 2006 and it will be much higher in the near future. Now I am pretty sure that it has happened to you, where you’ve gone and open your monthly credit card bill only to realize that your interest has almost doubled or even tripled. It is rough enough trying to keep up with 10% or even the 7.9 % interest that they are charging on your accounts. How are you suppose to pay for the new payments now? It was cumbersome enough to manage before the interest was raised. This is why many Americans are seeking out other options such as debt settlement vs. credit counseling, or bankruptcy. If you do not know much about these options then I will offer you a little information on them.
Consumer Bankruptcy
Prior to 2005 bankruptcy was to be used for consumers who were fighting through serious financial hardships. Unfortunately it was mistreated by far too many consumers who were trying to evade paying their unsecured debts. They didn’t want to be accountable for their actions. The credit card industry was fed up with this so they pushed to have the bankruptcy laws changed. It is now referred to as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection act of 2005. It would make it more difficult for many consumers to file for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should only be used as your very last choice after you have tried every alternative option. Also you should think of the consequences that will come back later down the road. You would have to locate a lawyer, go to court and that would cost you a substantial amount of your hard earned income. There is also the negative effect of it being on your credit report anywhere from 7 to 10 years. When you are signing any important application or document you by law have to answer yes when inquired about your previous bankruptcy, so this does have a extremely long lasting effect on your credit.
Consumer Credit Counseling
In each direction you turn, either it is advertised on the radio or television, you will hear about debt consolidation credit counseling. A credit counseling firm will try to get the credit card companies to lower the interest on your credit accounts. You then make one monthly payment to the credit counseling firm and they then pay each one of your creditors on your behalf. The down fall to this option is even though they lower your interest charge on your credit card accounts you could still pay back as much as 130% of what you actually owe.
This is because on this kind of agenda you will still be paying back what you owe plus some of the interest for around possibly five years or more. Almost eighty percent of the consumers that are in credit counseling don’t graduate from the program for missing as much as one payment. Another draw back to credit counseling is that if you have a money problem and are short on your monthly payment they will kick you out of the program straight away. They will also raise your interest back up and the creditors could keep you off for at least one year and sometimes even longer. This will put you right back to where you began, if not in a tougher situation.
Credit Card Debt Settlement
This is the debt relief method which can save you the largest amount of money. A good debt settlement company will save you at least 40% of what you are said to have to payback. The 40% should include all of their charges. Very much like credit counseling, you will hear a lot of radio and television ads very frequently. These organizations are starting up all over our beloved country. Some of these companies try to make it sound like they have a magical stick and are going to make all your debt vanish extremely easily.
There are even some companies that try to use religion to aquire the trust of consumers. Whichever organization you are speaking with it is your responsibility to do research on them. You can always start with the BBB (Better Business bureau). You will be able to discover a lot about a company from the BBB. If you realize that a company has only been in settling debts for a short time and has a lot of complaints towards them, then you know to avoid them. One more thing to keep an eye out for is how long has the company been in business. Some organizations only survive one or two years before they go out of business or get caught ripping people off. Then some of them only stick around to make as much as possible and close shop just to open up across the streetusing a different name.
Texas Debt Settlement
debtmansteve :: Jun.23.2008 ::
General ::
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