Debt Relief Agency

Yes. Also some creditors don't like to work with a debt settlement company. You can settle your debts yourself. Read through this forum and do searches on your creditors and see how others have done with them. The results from a debt settlement company will not be any better than what you can do yourself - trust me. I settled my own and saved thousands of dollars.

To start a debt settlement process, you must stop makingpayments for atleast 180 days. And if you don't make your payments, you mightbe sued by your creditors. The problem with the debt settlement process is thatyou never know whether your creditors will accept the settlement offer.Moreover, you should also be careful that your settlement company is sendingtimely payments to your creditors. Before you hire a debt settlement company,check out their credentials and read the Debt Settlement Consumer ProtectionAct, 2010 to know the minute details.

One thing that you can do is ask the settlement company toprovide you with monthly statements which includes your account balances, feespaid, settlements completed, remaining balances, etc. This will help you tokeep a tab on them.

Also, check out that the debt settlement company is notcharging you over-the-limit charges. If you want to save a few thousanddollars, then I would suggest you to go for the settlement process on your own.If you plan your steps and negotiate professionally with your creditors, youmight be able to get the same result that a debt settlement company would give. But make sure that your payments are always reaching your creditors ontime.

If you stop paying your credit cards you will get unbelievable offers to settle. Don't speak to them on the phone... just wait. My husband stopped paying everything (100K in credit card debt) about 8 month ago. He's had 2 letters from lawyers asking each for 8K each about 3 months ago and nothing has happened with any of it yet. All the other companys have offered to settle for 10-20% of what he owed- all correspondences have come through the mail.
good luck.

Good luck!

if you're using a debt settlement company, look it up on the Better Business Bureau.