Debt settlement help

You got me.... I was in a hurry!

i always kept my $ in a jar at my parents house b/c the creditors can find it in an account..as for trying debt settlement-its a good choice however, be careful..creditors do sue but i am not educated in florida laws as to garnishments ect. build up your settlement fund and try it! be advised when you allow these accounts to go delinquent, your credit will definately tank bad..but the choice to sue you is always the creditors and what time frame they will do that is unknown..i did have unsettled accounts several years old and was never sued..i have settled the last of them around the 5 yr mark if that helps..good luck

If you do get sued, is there an opportunity to settle before it goes to court? Or, once you get a summons are your settlement chances over?

From what I have read the CC's are most likely to settle with a Settlement Company than with an individual. They are agressive and need to know you are serious.
I am contemplating the same course. At this point I am ready to dive in. I am trying Superior Debt Relief. They have been in business 10 years and have a BBB rating of B with no judgements.

Longevity and BBB ratings are positives. Let me know what you do. It would be good to do this while someone else is doing it so we can compare notes.
Good luck in what you decide to do.

I would think the same, but after reading all of these posts, it seems as if most people go it alone. Seems as if alot of people get themselves in trouble with debt settlement companies.

I am in the same boat. I have about $75,000 in debt and am trying to figure out weather to use a settlement company or go it alone. It scares me to do this alone and I really dont have the time to keep up with it all. On the other hand it scares me to go through a company because of all the negatives that I hear out there.

The Superior Debt Relief is the first company that I have heard of that has a positive BBB rating. I guess I will research them.

First off I want to say thank you for teaching the youth of today.

A good thing about the state of Florida is that the chance of lawsuit is greatly decreased unless you have a second job. In the state of Florida, a wage can be garnished if an indivdual as 2 incomes. So if a person only has one job, they can't be garnished. This is the whole reason a creditor tends to sue because with garnishment payment is guarantteed unless someone files bankruptcy. Now something creditors can do in the state of Florida is place a lien on a property such as a house. All the lien stipulates is if you sell the property that the creditor would be guaranteed to receive his/her cut to payoff the owed debt. The housing market isn't what it use to be so placing lien's on property isn't a popular decision right now.

I would look into debt settlement if you are looking to eliminate your debt as fast as possible. Settlement does have negative implications though. You do go past due on your accounts to obtain settlements so this does affect your credit negatively.

When looking for a settlement company, I would do some comparing and contrasting. Have set in your mind what your goals are. When do you want to get out of debt? How much can you afford? Is this company reputable? As the previous person mentioned the BBB is a good place to check. I have heard Superior is pretty good I have also heard Ram Financial Services is pretty good to and has a postive rating. I would also look to see if the company has training to do there job. Places such as USOBA and the IAPDA regulate settlement companies to make sure they aren't ripping people off.

You can always do settlement yourself but you have to ask yourself these questions when doing it yourself: Do I have the time to call all of my creditors on a regular basis? Do I have a lump sum available right now? Can I sustain creditors calling often and negotiate with them successfully. For me the answer was simple, I choose a reputable company. I wouldn't try to fix my transmission if it went out so I figured why not let a professional that had the same goals as I did assist me.

JoeDIrty,

Thanks for the advice. I am considering doing it on my own. I would like to get it done in under 10 months. I think I can do it with being able to save the 2400 per month I pay to creditors, and then I can put another 500-600 with it if I really buckle down.

I have been doing a TON of research in the last few days and have found that contacting a law firm that does settlements is a much better avenue. They do not charge quite as much and they know all the legal jargan that goes into it. I have contacted about 4 firms and have found one that really seems to have it together.

Their name is Legal Solutions. They have an A BBB rating with not negative complaints. The let you set up your own account that is not tied to them at all to put your monthly money into. My $70,000 of debt will cost me $962 per month and will be paid off in 40 months or sooner. They will receive $9,400 in fees from me over the 40 months. ALL of the other settlement companies were over $12,000 in the same time period.

You can check them out at legalsolutions.com.

of course there are pros and cons of hiring someone to represent you in settlement process and if you do not have time or afraid to talk to creditors then go ahead and hire and pay some company to help you out but I'm sorry why would you go with A company if you can do it yourself?
I have had 16 different accounts (BofA, chase, citi, hsbc, amex) total of $165k debts which grown to about $180k within 5-6 months since I stop paying any minimum payment all at once and was able to negotiate and settled all of my and my wife accounts within 6 months I paid $54k for settlements. It's doable good luck!

Joe777

was there ever any time when you thought you might not be able to settle with anyone, and how about getting sued?

but do you do if you dont have 54000 to settle the debt.

first of all at the very begining when we got to the point where I knew in next 2-3 months I won't be able to pay min. payments I wasn't even thinking about settlement, I though my only option was ch.13 BK and I actually hird an attorney and went thru document gathering process but as time was passing by I start researching and reading how BK ch.13 process works and disadventage of being on "watch" for next 5 years I start looking into settlements. No I was not afraid of being sued because I figured if at any point I run into situation where creditor dors not want to cooperate I will file for BK, fortunatelly I did not have problems talking to them and getting to accepteble $ amount. I think what help me was fact that I told all my creditors at very begining I'm filling for BK and gave attorney name and phone number so they knew I'm not kidding or trying to force them to accept my terms. Second phase was I start calling them back when I was about 90 days past due and trying to work out settlement as alternative to BK at the same time buying time with my attorney so my case wasn't close by their office due to my unresponsivness, in any event that work pretty well.
The only problem I had was HSBC those people did not want to hear about settlement and if any I have to pay them 80% etc. they said it's better for them to charge off my accounts then accept 20-30% so I called them every week to see if they change their mind, this was bothering me the most because I was afraid I will pay lot of money in settlements to others and end up with HSBC not willing to settle, and I owe them close to $30k.
finally when I was more then 120 days with no payment they said they will accept 50% and since I at that point settleed all other accounts I did not wanted to take more risk and accepted so other words I settled 14 accounts ($150k) for $40k (avarage ~25%) and 2 HSBC accounts ($30k) for $15k @ 50%
This is my story, now I'm getting confirmation about my settlements, and hopping I won't hear about these accounts any more in the future.

to answer mjohn516 question...everyone is different, for someone $500 debt is a problem where I would pay off that much without eye blink.
my unsecured debt did not show up overnight I carry it for long long long years foolling myself I'll be able to repay this one day. Problem was I make more money my debt was already bigger so I managed making min payments but not repaying it, my monthly min payment was somewhere close to $4000 so while I stop paying it over 5-6 months period I saved more then $20k additional $30k+ borrowed from 401k
I figured I'll be in better shape by ereasing my 401k and start over then keep 401k untouched and file for BK, to be honest in ch.13 over 5 years period I would pay less then $54k base on petition prepared by my attorney but there is a risk associated with it I had no guaranties that trustee won't go after every extra penny I make in next 5 years and also if I would hide anything and they find out my BK case would be closed I would not get discharge and I still owe 100% plus intrest... no thanks I decided I do not want that.

so "what do you do if you do not have money needed to settle?" well again everyone is different and I cannot speek for that, in my case I have decent income but my debt became unmenagable

you didnt pay for 5-6 months and nothing happened

you didnt pay for 5-6 months and nothing happened

mjohn516 was this a question???? "you didnt pay for 5-6 months and nothing happened"
if so then pretty much Yes, nothing major happened of course phone was ringing every day several times a day, I did not ignore those calls, sometimes I did and wasn't picking up but for most part I was talking to creditors usually telling them my story about possibilities of filling for BK since I hired BK attorney it was true, and was telling them that I'm negotiating with all my creditors settlements but I will not pay a dime until I have all on the same page because i wasn't making any sense to me to pay A, B and C creditor but X, Y and Z I was telling them I have to pay all or nobody this usually worked. At least they put me on "call back" schedule and did not call for week or so, ofcouse most of them trying to sell you crap like you have to pay by 10th of this month otherwise we cannot help you and you case goes to legal which for most part I did not believe, I guess what help me staying calm was fact that I had only 2 options either work with all of creditors to settle or if that would not work I would file for BK ch.13 I would stil keep my house, cars and all other belongings. Fortunatelly it worked for me pretty well.
So again Yes I stop paying all CC at the same time November 2008 and settled all accounts in Appril prior to that I just talk to them. I send all settlement payments in April and begining of May, most of them in as one payment but 3 largest accounts I scheduled for 3 payments my last 3 payments are scheduled for June 15th
Then I'll be cheking my credit report to make sure they are updating as "settled in full"

You could try debt settlement as an option, however that will probably hurt your credit in the long term.. If you can, pay them down. If not, consider debt settlement as a last resort.

Here's a decent article on it:

absolutedebtconsolidation.com/index.php/debt-consolidation-vs-debt-settlement/

Bdgrfan- I'm interested in contacting the settlement company you went through but legalsolutions is a legal software website. Can you double check the website and let me know if it is something different? Thank you!