Do-it-myself or Debt Settlement company?

See, the choice really depends on you. IMO most of us hire a debt settlement firm to avoid dealing with tough creditors and abusive collectors. If you think you can endure their non-stop calls for payments and can negotiate a deal while keeping your head cool, you can surely do the settlement yourself. Additionally, you'd be able to save on their charges and can put that money towards settlement.

Best of luck.

Yes, do it yourself. Let the answering machine pick up the phone, you can talk to them about once a month. They will start sending you offers to settle, at least some of them will. When you have enough money to settle, open the lines of communication and offer 20% and go from there. If one card does not accept your offer, just say you only have so much money to work with and will call the next card on the list and offer them the money. Make sure you get something in writing before you send any money and good luck.

Thank you for your input...I really do appreciate it very much! The Debt Settlement co is charging a lot that I believe should be used to pay the creditors. We have 30 days to cancel without penalty--so 11 days to learn more so I'm more confident to do-it-ourselves. THANKS AGAIN! So should I borrow some money to stagger the past due on the accts? 4 are each a few days past due. I absolutely don't have the money for those. There are 2 with smaller minimums that I could try to keep current another month. Your ideas count. THANKS

As long as your accounts are up to date, the credit card companies will not do settlement. Most of them won't even make an offer until you're at least 60-90 days late. Some of them will offer you a hardship program - lessen the interest rate and pay them over 5 years....

I opted for settlement after being in debt mgmt. plan for 2 years. I took out savings from my part time job 401 (I'm over 60 so no penalty), and I borrowed from my pension plan for other settlement money - I also work for the government.

I settled with Citibank, 2 Bank of America accounts, HSBC and Discover put me on a hardship plan. My April of this year I will be debt free except for Discover. My car will be paid off in August as well as my pension loan. Then I will be entirely debt free (but for Discover, then I will be able to pay them in lump sum.

I suggest you do the settlement yourself. Stop paying on your credit cards, read the posts on here on how people settled with certain credit card companies, and make your plan.

Good luck.

it really is a personal choice i myself used a company at the time i know i couldnt do it on my own my health was just bad from stress and i worked alot, but if your considering a settlement co i think you can do better than what you were offered there if you look around.

but on the other hand, now that i am better and i am more informed, i would mostlikely do it myself. but there is alot to know and alot of abusive behavior that i got from them when i was with a company let alone dealing with that all the time. but then again now i know thats illegal to harrass some one that way. so then it was a good choice, now i may have done things differently. but im alot more informed now. so it all depends on you! hope everything works out for you!!! remember you can always come back here for help if you need it