Debt Settlement is a good option, but here are concerns when looking at companies.

A majority of the debt settlement companies out there are not law firms and do not have attorney’s that see your program the whole way through. Many will claim that they are an attorney based program, in which they pay an attorney to review your application and approve it but that is it, after that there is no attorney representation for you in the event you get sued. This is one of the major questions you need to be concerned with and need to ask. If you get sued depending on your state the creditors will be going after a garnishment of wages, lien on your property or a judgment against you.

Next main concern is creditor calls. What you need to realize is these creditors do have the right to call you. Now there are companies out there that will send a seize and desist order to stop the calls. What you need to realize is if you were the creditor calling this person to collect on the debt, and received a seize and desist letter to stop calling and you couldn’t communicate with that person then what would you do? Hmmm… Probably file a lawsuit and take that person to court, so now your back to the first concern.

Another concern you need to have is what is reported in your credit report. Would you rather have “settled, settled for less then owed, or paid up less then owed”, or “paid to a zero balance”.

So if debt settlement is the option that you want to take, then what should you do as these 2 concerns address 99% of the companies out there. Well the solution is look for that 1%.

Ask the proper questions. If the question isn’t directly answered with a yes or no then they are probably hiding something. There are companies out there that do operate this industry the right way. I have seen 2 companies that are law firms and they will have an attorney appear in court with you to represent you if you get sued and fight for a debt dismissal. They also monitor your phone calls with you and make sure that the creditors are following the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) if in violation they would also file a lawsuit against them and get your debts dismissed. They also make sure that it gets reported on your credit report as paid to a zero balance.

Additional things they have, is in house negotiators and bankruptcy services. One of them even has the owners of their company working in the office full time and they also have a weekly radio shows on CBS Radio taking live calls especially in their local community and allowing people to come to their office to assist them.

Make sure you are doing your do diligence and working with the right company so that you are successful.