Engaging A Debt Settlement Firm Can Bring Debt Collectors Down On You.

Debt settlement firms call for a minimum of $10,000 in credit card debt. Of that $10,000 you have to give them $1500-2000 in upfront fees for them to settle your debt. To save money for a lump sum settlement and their fees, they tell you to stop making credit card payments and to give that money to them for their fees and for an eventual lump sum settlement.

So then what happens if they cannot settle your credit card debt? What happens to what you have paid them? What happens to the credit card account that is not being paid and to your credit rating? If they tell you they can get a 50 percent settlement on $10,000, how long will it take you to save $5000 plus $2000 for their fees?

$500 a month will total $7000 after 14 months of payments to the debt settlement firm. At that pace it will be over one year before $5000 can be paid (after $2000 in fees is taken) in a lump sum to end the debt. But, that debt may no longer exist because the banks charge off unpaid credit card debts after six months. Then within the year, they sell those bad debts for about 10 cents on the dollar.

That means your debt is owned by a junk debt buyer before the debt settlement firm has settled it. It also means the bank has no motivation to remove that debt’s bad mark on your credit report and that the negative listing will be there for seven years.

The junk debt buyer will make an effort to collect the debt, and you need to be ready for that, according to the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide. On the other hand, if you are unaware and waiting for the debt settlement firm to finish what they started, you could be vulnerable to a debt collection attorney.

So, your debt is not settled. Your settlement fee is spent. You have debt collection problems. And, your credit rating is below par. Just maybe you still have $5000, but that is only if the settlement firm escrowed it with a third-party.

Matt Highlander writes about the many strategies for eliminating credit card debt; some for those who can pay, some for those who cannot pay. Read all about them in the 230-page Credit Card Debt Survival Guide