Hi John_Johnson702,
Welcome to the forums, we welcome all views about debt consolidation and related topics. We love to discuss the issues and we repeatedly tell the people that there are many solutions possible for the debt but choosing the most suited is the bigger task. Let me try to put my views on your post.
Quote:
The problem is that having these companies on your credit report is almost as bad as a bankruptcy except if you actually filed bankruptcy creditors would know you wouldn't be able to file again for a really long time
This happens with the company which doesn't know how to deal with the case. Good Companies surely take care of these issues to provide a cleaner report like,
- Good Companies ask their clients to close all the accounts properly before the program starts and they keep only the once that will offer a better interest rate and that the client wants included.
- Proper follow up, properly changing due dates and they make sure that all proposals are sent.
- Proper fixing of payment dates before the client gets started.
- Once payment is done, the account should reflect "paid in full" or "paid" or "paid as agreed". Some companies' doesn't follow up on this issue which debt consolidation care feel is very important.
- Good Companies calculates the interest on each account before including few under the program. Bad ones just include few in random that would result in a higher interest rate through the program.
- The assigned counselor of a good company should be able to tell you the exact payoff time on each and every account individually. There are two exceptions which are namely MBNA and Discover accounts. These are the only 2 creditors that don't offer any set interest rate that they offer for credit counseling until after the proposal is sent and accepted.
Points are many but we stress on high quality, transparency and honest advice. We know that debt consolidation is not always the best solution; our partners try to offer the best suitable debt solution.
I hope this will help you see the better side of debt consolidation and debt settlement.
Thanks
Vikas