Is there a concise and honest answer about debt settlement?

if you can find a lawyer who will do it for you for a flat fee then great, but 15% of your debt is much more than 15% of someone else debt of 15,000. That is the biggest problem with them. They do the same job for you as they do for me yet the fee is 9 times as much...ain't right.

I just settled with Chase $11k for $3,500. I had the money and waited for the sweet spot 150-180 days default. If you have money for a settlement DO IT. 20-30% is a good settlement if you can take it. Just remember you have control of what happens. Dont let them walk all over you! WIth 110k of debt, bankruptcy may be the answer, depending on assets etc. Banks are desperate, the economy sucks. Threating bankruptcy will get the ball rolling.

There are several debt settlement companies out there that only charge fees on the back-end (i.e. a percentage of the SAVINGS you receive). And yes you can do it yourself as well. There are several DIY programs for purchase that will walk you through the process for a small fee.

My biggest concern is your ability to negotiate $110K in a short amount of time. I encourage people to try and settle your debt in 24 months. In your case you will need roughly 60% of your debt which is $66K. Divided by 24 equals $2750 a month. Pretty steep. You can try and go out as far as 36 months but the risk of being sued is very great after the 24 month mark. At 36 months your payment would need to be $1833. If you have any savings or can borrow some money to start with a lump sum, that would help you greatly.

Please check out my blog on what to look for in a DS company and you will get a better understanding of the process.

My husband and I were in the same boat with 62K - there was just no way we could pay the cards anymore because he lost his job. We ended up going with Superior Debt Services because we wanted someone to 1. negotiate for us, 2. who knew what paperwork that needed to be provided in order to have a settlement be legit.

This has been both a blessing and a curse. I wont lie - debt settlement is Hard. For about 6 months we received dozens of phone calls a day morning, noon, and night. THey called my work, my husbands work, my parents, my husbands parents and both of our sisters. It was a phone call nightmare. Superior debt couldn't stop them from calling us, so I just started talking to them - telling them that we couldn't pay.

The way I look at our settlement company is they are like an 'insurance' policy. We got sued by one of our account holders and, since we couldn't come up with enought money to pay the settlement they offered SDS paid it for us and we're paying it back over the next few months. This got the debt taken care of and kept us out of court.

I would recommend speaking with Superior Debt. They seem to know what they are doing and since all of our accounts are finally in collections we get only a handful of phone calls a week.

Hope this helps in some way

I myself have about 40000 in debt. I tried debt management and debt settlement and finally settled on bankruptcy. I dont know if it will be best for you but i have not even filed yet and i feel a lot lighter. There is just something satisfying about when the same creditors keep calling me over and over and wont work with me before and me telling them that i plan to file bk, give them my attorneys info and not hear from them again. I havent even paid the attorneys fee yet so they wont file for me until im paid up but the creditors still cant bother me. But again, only you and your husband can decide whats best. I tried to do the right thing and manage my debt, then i tried to settle it, but in the end i feel that this is best for me. And you have almost three times the amount of debt i have. If i were you i would seriously consider bk, chances are you have paid back what you borrowed in interest and fees in addition to the principal anyway. good luck please keep us updated!!! :D

I completely agree with testuser1. I'm in a debt settlement program also, and it's been going well. But you have to know everything there is about the process - it is not for the faint-hearted! There is no right or wrong way to get out of debt - there are many processes, and you have to choose the one right for you personally. I had 90,000 from a business that closed, and if it had been less, either dollar-wise or not so many accounts (9), I would've tried to settle myself. But enrolling in a program is what I found to be the right answer for me, and I feel they are earning their 15%.

If you do it yourself you would save $16,500 in fees. You could negotiate them down to 30 to 40% and that would be another savings. Nobody will handle your money better than you. All the information is right here.

Ok, here's the other question I've been mulling over. My accounts have just now started to be past-due. By the time I let them charge off the late fees/missed payments/overlimit fees will be insane. Is this the type of thing that adds to the total you owe? Or is removing these extra fees part of the settlement agreements, typically?

Thanks!

And SusieQ, are you using Superior Debt Services?

So, to clarify my question, right now the unsecured debt we're looking to settle is about $100,000. But in 6 months, that amount is going to be significantly larger as fees accumulate. If I am talking to a settlement company about what I owe TODAY, ad they quote me some numbers, it really doesn't reflect what I will be owing in a few months.

It is true that the value they work to pay off is the value after fees are tacked on - but in my situation what that has meant was when SDS says they paid off a card for 38 percent - I figured it out based on the orignal amont I owed and they paid it off for 50 - that is only so far - I have a debt that is around 13500 with Chase that was a loan that looks like it will settle for about 40 of the original (12000) which will significantly bring down the average settlement.

I also find that the trick is to get rid of the seriously horrible cards to deal with - My number one more horrible card has been discover - they are the ones that sued me and I didn't get a good settlement with them at all - but as I read the forums this seems to be normal.

All I can do is pour everything extra I have into our debt settlement program and let them handle the creditor.

If it means anything - I would sign up with SDS again. They are very nice to speak with, and they always get back to me within the same day with a call/email.

Yes, I am with Superior, have been since January of '08. More than halfway through the program, and have settled 7 of 9 accounts. Have been sued a few times, but came to settlement agreements before the court dates. I am not saying this is for everybody. But it has worked well for me and my situation.

The fee paid is for the amount of debt you start with, not what it rises to due to fees and interest. And the nice thing about Superior, is that only a portion of their fee is taken out of your monthly payment - so from Day One, you are beginning to accumulate funds to settle with. They do not require you pay them in full before they start working on your behalf.

Also, yes, when you stop paying your accounts, the fees and interest will cause the balances to go up. But that is considered in the negotiation process. And if you get a good settlement, you're still coming out WAY ahead, even if the balance is a little higher.

With that amount DS companis will definately discount their fee.
Usually can get it done for 8 to 10% on 6 figure amt. New Beginnings in FL and Superior Debt. are both very good.