My settlement--done through Sifxpert

Date: Thu, 04/03/2008 - 08:52

Submitted by lisaawilliamson
on Thu, 04/03/2008 - 08:52

Posts: 210 Credits: [Donate]

Total Replies: 23

I just wanted, in the light of a recent post made in response to mine, to clear the air on Sifxpert. I do not work for him. I was led to him from information from this website.

My husband and I were drowning in debt. Our interest rates had been jacked up even though every one of our accounts was current and we had good credit scores. We had one lender once even show us our credit report and brag about how good it was. Still, we were barely afloat. I had looked at options to get us out of this. We had consolidated and it didn't work. We had taken big bonuses that we had gotten at work and paid on it but all the progress that we made was eaten up by high interest rates, which no one would lower. When we called, we got the run around every time. Finally, I could juggle no longer and we couldn't make the minimum payments.

I finally read somewhere, I think on one of these forums, that trying to save your credit while you are drowning in debt was like trying to water your grass when your house is on fire. It finally clicked and we knew that we couldn't do this on our own anymore.

I started looking at different companies that would help us settle this debt. I had one "Christian" company tell me that they could do this, explained their fees and told us that they could stretch our payments out to five years. Luckily, I had done enough reading and researching to know that that was NOT possible and would land me in court. I wanted to avoid that.

I finally sent an email to Sifxpert and got hooked up with James Lombardo. He gave me the straight poop. He told us what he could settle each account for, what our fees to him would be, what the retainer would be and how it would work. He also told us that with our debt load, we would probably have at least one lawsuit. We were weeks from having no other choice but bankruptcy and he was honest enough to acknowledge that.

There was no pressure whatsoever to sign on with him. He, in fact, had to consider US and whether or not he would take our case on, knowing that we would probably be headed to court. He encouraged us to talk it over and make an informed decision. There was never any pressure, phone calls, or emails from him trying to get us to sign on.

We signed on in September with him. We had a total of nine different accounts. He started tackling them one by one.

So far, we have settled $47K for $15. I will share card names and more totals when we are done with the entire program. We have more accounts still to settle but will be done this summer.

Has this been easy? Yes and no.

Yes because the stress that has been lifted from not being able to pay these has been enormous. It's not an easy thing to see your credit tank but it's better than trying to stretch 57 cents into a dollar every week to try and get the bills paid. We put aside the agreed amount into a savings account that was used for settling when the card companies finally agreed.

It's getting easier too the more results that we see!

Why has it not been easy? It's hard to watch your credit scores take a nose dive into the crapper. So much emphasis is placed on credit scores! We had worked our whole life to have good credit. But we have accepted that they will tank and that they will eventually recover.

The other thing that has been annoying are the phone calls. James told us to not talk to them and to let him handle the calls. We did. We use our Caller ID to make sure who is on the other end before we answer. As the accounts settle, the calls are decreasing.

I have read posts on this website that tell about Sifxpert being hard to get ahold of. Sometimes he is, I will be honest. At first, I thought he should answer every one of my emails the same day. Then one day, I realized, we are on different coasts. Of course he reads them later than I do.

The other thing I realized, as the program progressed was that he DID contact me every time he needed to. He would email me and let me know that a settlement was coming--then I wouldn't hear anything for a while. I finally realized how slowly these things work. Just because a bank tells you a letter is coming doesn't mean you'll see it that week! Once I learned this, I wasn't so anxious. He gets hold of me every time there was something to report. And nothing has gone unanswered.

All in all, this has been a great experience for us and I would recommend this to anyone. I would not recommend using anyone but Sifxpert. His fee structure is fair and he knows that the first 3-4 months of your savings cannot go to fees--it has to go to settling debt. Without that, we would have been in bankruptcy.

Sifxpert has saved us from that.

I won't recommend a particuliar company to anyone because everyo

I won't recommend a particuliar company to anyone because everyones' financial problems are different, and what works for one, may not work with another.

If you do decide to go with a company, please check out the following, and more:

1. Checked out their reputation, complaints, etc., with the BBB, and also your attorney general can sometimes give you a heads up.

2. Ask about any and all fees, included and not.

3. How the creditors are handled, and if the creditors work with them.

4. How long the program lasts and when do the creditors start getting paid.

5. How available are they to you-do they promptly return calls or emails, etc.

These are just a few things you need to look for and at when choosing a company, never rush into something because of your panic at your financial situation...KAren