Debt Settlement

the major con of settlement is your creditors could sue you and that risk is more significant with your larger balances and your debt is up there at 80k. however if you have a real law firm (keep in mind many debt settlement companies advertise as a law firm but do not represent you in court) they can possibly keep you out of court.

buying a home during settlement would be almost impossible, especially with the current banking crisis. renting is not so much a problem since you have strong income, however a previous eviction or foreclosure would make it difficult to rent a nice place.

your score will likely fall into the 500s during the settlement but rebound as you become debt free and ultimately higher than before as right now your revolving unsecured debt is very high at 80k and will be reduced to zero.

let me know if u have any more questions

Having been in a similar situation, if you can afford the payment, debt settlement will reduce the balances by 50% or more. It will affect your credit in the short term , but credit can always be rebuilt. I am happy to recommend a company that will help you. You can e mail me at - Solicitation not allowed - Jason

In the current situation, you may get a loan with some difficulties, but be advised that get free from the previous loans first. The regularised payments, supported with 3-4 suggestions on improving score may help you get a good future loan. There are more banks that are ready to give you loans under your situation. But you are certainly being hampered by the fact that the installments you are paying are more that 40% of the income(if my assumptions are not wrong).
Otherwise, 'frredebtadvice' has clarified you the things well.

I myself went through debt settlement, and it is far from fun. Frankly speaking you should only use this as a absolute last resort before bk.

It will be extremely hard to get any type of credit during this time it takes usually 1-2 years of good behavior after settlement is over before credit can be established. your credit score will drop well below 600 during the process but will start to improve as credit is being paid off and you will be paying off usually 50% or less than the origional debt.

With that being said, if you have no choice its better than bk in the long term. settlement is horrible to your credit in the short term but is easily repaired in the short term were bk is a long term were you will probably still have to pay it back (chpt 13) over a long period of time unless you qualify for 7 wich is very hard these days.

freedebtadvice,
Which debt company do you recommend that would best represent me if I take this route? You mentioned eviction or foreclosure would make it hard to rent. Would debt settlement fall in the same ballpark? So when my credit is at 500, what other negative I will see beside not able to get home/car loans? Anything else I need to think about? If I do buy a car with a big down payment, would I have a problem?
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
John

love_my_things, I am in the process of selling my house and rent???.that would free up more income to pay towards my cc debts. I am still considering debt settlement to get back to 0 ???quicker???, but still worry if this is the right route to take or not. While I am paying the approximate 50%, will my fico score continue to increase?

I know these CC companies will call my listed number (my cell phone), will they try contacting my company?

Thanks, JD

im not sure what you mean by while you are paying your 50%? you will pay nothing to the creditors till you get enough that they will settle for 50% or less. and your fico score will plummet until these accounts are marked paid. for instance if you have a credit score of 650, and you join a settlement program or you embark on your own settlement process you will fall well below 600 even low 500s. but if your score is starting to drop, and you are starting to get behind, your fico score in the end is going to suffer anyhow so you miswell not prolong it. Once the accounts are starting to get paid, your score will start to go back to normal. After about a year of my accounts being paid i was back to a 640. Now thanks to economic times and the creditors cancelling my accounts and reducing my credit lines, its starting to suffer again. Its a vicious cycle. They dont want you to have a good score to they can gouge you more. They mess with ya any way they can. (thier evil)

Do you own your own company? are these cards in company name? if so yes they will call there or they may call there looking as to how to get ahold of you if you are unable to be contacted through the # you have provided for them. They are not allowed to release to anyone why they are calling, but they can look for you this way.

If you are still unsure if settlement is right for you, you need to do some more research to confirm if its right for you or not. It is not a easy route.

love_my_things and all,
Do you have any regrets with joining a debt settlement program? Any time during this process you wish you should had tough it out and pay the whole amount? Or was it as the best route to take? Will you do it again?

Thanks, JD

well its like this, i wished i had more options but at the time it was settlement or bk, so there was no toughing it out it just was not possible. I wish i would have not gotten myself into it to begin with. during the process i sometimes wished i hadnt done it, but it was necessary. i had no other choice. so yes it was my best route i did not feel comfortable with bk and if i had to do it again,yes i would but hopefully i learned my lesson the first time. I think thats the key, make yourself suffer so badly that you remember. Frankly if it was a easy fix you would just keep repeating the same mistakes right?

I contacted one of my CC company today before they wanted to increase my interest rate to 14.99 on one of my 20k CC or i have to opt out. When i called, i just told them i was going to some tough time, right away, they gave me a fix rate of 8.99 for the full 20k, and also gave me 8.99 on another 7k BOA CC that I have with them...which was carrying a 19.99 rate...whew! did mentioned to them the possibility of going to debt settlement due to my wife being out of job and I am having to pay her CC and my CC and the mortgage. The agent asked me a few income/job related info and spending, and told me my debt ratio is too high at this time to qualify for any other plans.....and 8.99 was all they had for me. I asked him if there's any other option beside debt consolidation, teh agent said..i will not be approved even if i take that route...he was doing his job to try to defer me from debt consolidation...i still want to try to avoide it if i can get the rest of my CC to reduce my the interest rate to a fix rate...

I am on the TASC site and looking through some potential companies, what's the difference between "Member" and "Accredited Member" status? What company do you recommend? and why?