I'm stumped

Debtwave has been an excellent service for me. I started with over 140,000 in debt and am down to below 90,000. They always answer the phone, e-mail me back or call me proactively if there’s a question. Super courteous, professional and honest. Seriously.


I’m a smart guy and I tried for nearly two years to negotiate directly with my creditors to reduce rates. I did NOT want to go to a counseling agency. I wish I had just started with them back then, because I would be almost done by now. Instead I paid over $60,000 more in interest than I had to.



Ultimately, a commercial lender I know was the one who referred me to them because he had a number of clients who had success with them.



I did have some concerns, initially, with the Sales Rep who was a little pushy. Do what I did – tell them to back off. If it’s a good idea today, then it’s a good idea in two weeks or a month. After I thought about it a while (and saw that I would recoup my upfront fee in two month’s of interest savings) I decided to go ahead.



A couple of hints if you are starting one of these programs (which you should)


1.) If you have a lot of accounts, start with one or two. First, the set-up fee is based on your initial monthly payments. You can come back later and add more.



2.) If you are interested in protecting your credit, you should make double payments (send one payment to the creditor yourself, on top of the one Debtwave is sending). Sometimes creditors won’t post a payment until a plan has been accepted.


Past due payments during the proposal period can also cause your proposal to be rejected, or come back with different numbers than what were originally proposed.


It’s been a totally positive experience for me, and I have gotten other people involved with Debt Management Programs since. I’m ending my “wage slavery”, so I’m a convert.



It appears that people who have problems with counseling agencies are in denial about the real problem, and just want someone to blame for their problem. People with problems with their CCCS may also be confused with another Johnson Law Group, which is definitely a scam operation and in the news a bit, too. The Florida and Nevada ones – stay clear. San Diego – good to go – RATED A from BBB.


You don’t get something for free and the fees these companies charge are WELL WORTH the service you receive.



Feel free to e-mail me if you want to discuss these guys or credit services in general.