Credit card debt consolidation

I have been in the credit card debt relief industry for just about 10 years now and have been in the financial industry for over 20 years. The point of this article is to give people a heads up on debt relief companies also known as debt settlement or debt negotiation companies. I will give you the pro’s and con’s of this process and what to watch out for when interviewing a company to help you get out of debt. Before I go on I want to let you know that this will be a rather long article and by the end of it my goal is to have you understand how the debt negotiation/settlement process works in case you don’t already know and I would like you to understand the tactics of companies out there that do not truly have your best interest at heart.

First I would like to state that the process of debt negotiation as your means of consumer debt relief is not for everyone, some people are better suited for bankruptcy and others do not have the correct mindset to go through this process.

I would like you to first understand what debt negotiation is and how it works. The goal of a debt negotiator is to obtain a debt settlement for you on the current debt amount you owe your creditor. So for example you may owe one particular creditor $10,000 so the goal of the negotiator would be to have you end up paying back say $6,000. The two main benefits of going through this process are to save money on what you currently owe your creditors and to save time. By just paying the minimum payment with even a modest interest rate you will be looking at 30 or more years to become debt free, with a sound debt negotiation program you will be out of debt within 2-3 years or sooner depending on your current financial situation.

Now you must understand these are great benefits but as with anything in life there are drawbacks, nothing is perfect and this consumer debt relief procedure is no different. For starters your creditors will not be willing to negotiate a debt settlement at all if you are current with your monthly minimum payments. They would prefer you to stay on their credit treadmill for the next thirty years and pay them back over four times the balance in interest alone. So you must fall behind on your payments to put the creditors into a position where they will be willing to settle. Once you stop paying them the ball game changes completely and they will then be willing to talk in terms of negotiating a settlement.

So obviously for some people the beginning of this process will have a negative effect on their credit score. For those who are already falling behind then the negative effect will be no different than it already is. Unfortunately for some people this will be the deterring factor that keeps them from going into debt settlement making them a slave to their creditors for the next thirty years. The good news is that this negative effect does not last forever, in fact once the settlements start coming through your credit score will begin to rebound and go back up. The reason being over 30% of your credit score according to MyFICO is based on how much debt you owe. But if you are stuck in a bad debt situation even if you are current with your payments your score is probably not all that good in the first place, and besides when stuck deep in debt your focus should be on how to get out of debt as quickly as possible, not on your ability to accrue future debt.

Now by falling behind on your debts you must understand that these creditors are just not going to roll over and play dead, they will be calling to try and collect the debt. For some this is not a problem at all, for others it is, that is why I stated above this process is not for everyone and the consumer must be in the correct mind set. From my years of helping people there is no rhyme or reason to how many calls you will receive some clients of mine barely get calls while others get them almost everyday. Something to keep in mind too is that no company has the power to legally stop the calls, so any company that tells you they can is flat out lying.

As you can see like I said earlier there are pro’s and con’s, but if you can accept the con’s you will be quickly on the road to financial freedom and will save a lot of money in the process. Now to get to the meat of the matter and why I named this article “consumer credit card debt relief scams”.

We here in America over the past couple of years have been experiencing a very negative downturn in our economy. Thus putting many consumers in a compromising position financially, leaving boat loads of people stuck in credit card debt. So naturally this opened up a much larger market for debt negotiation. Many fly by night companies have been popping up all over the country, many of which are ex mortgage brokers who sold people bad loans and helped them get into this sticky position in the first place. Now I use the word scam which can take on a few meanings, while yes there are some companies out there that are flat out scams and have no intent on doing any work for you at all, most of the times that is not the case. Instead many companies simply do not give people all the facts on how debt negotiation works nor do they truly put them on a plan for success, which I will explain in a minute.

One common issue that most consumers have with debt settlement companies is they do not fully tell them about how the process works, instead they sugar coat things and just preach about the great benefits. I have spoken to countless amounts of people who have signed up with companies and were under the impression that they were going to stay current with their creditors and will never receive any calls. So needless to say this became a huge problem once they began.

Another major problem a lot of these companies have is deceiving people into the kind of savings they will be getting on their debts. Some companies will say they will save you 70% of what you owe. Now while they may get settlements that low what their opting not to tell you is how much you will be saving after you have A) paid them their fees, and B) paid back the creditors. Honest companies will tell you what your true savings will be. If you will save somewhere between 40-50% of what you owe including their fees and paying the creditors than that is pretty darn good. Plus many of these companies will try and guarantee a certain amount of savings, if you hear this run for the hills. NO one in this industry can guarantee a certain amount that is why it is called DEBT NEGOTIATION! They are negotiating to get a settlement for as low as they can get.

Then there are the companies who will let you pay whatever you can to get on their program. These are the worst because they do not truly have your interest at heart and know they are setting you up to fail and not succeed. You must understand to achieve the type of savings I stated above this process should take no more than three years, preferably two or less. And the bottom line is some people simply cannot get it done in that time frame and should realistically be looking into bankruptcy. What these unscrupulous consumer debt relief companies will do is put you on a program for 4 or more years and basically accepts whatever payment you can afford. Knowing full well you are not going to be saving much of anything and will more than likely fail off the program, all they care about is getting the fees and that is it. An honest company will diligently review your budget with you and make sure this is something that you can manage, as well as fully explain to you both the benefits and drawbacks of doing this. And let you make the conscience decision as to whether this is the best consumer debt relief method for your situation.

Another very good way to evaluate a company is to make sure they are registered with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and that they are in good standings with very few complaints. And if there are complaints make sure they were resolved to the clients liking.

By: Stephen Bis

In some rare cases, although they are becoming more common as the financial sector continues melting down, a credit card company may not sell a defaulted debt to a collection agency. Instead, it may initiate a lawsuit against a borrower directly and attempt to get a default judgment and begin garnishing wages, attaching liens to property, or collecting on the debt in any other ways that the law allows.

Previously, this was an unheard of tactic for credit card companies to use against debtors. After all, the debt was unsecured and usually only for a few thousand dollars — less than a drop in the bucket for many banks. Hiring local attorneys to sue borrowers would usually cost more than the company was ever going to collect on the debt, so credit card companies simply wrote off the loan on their taxes and sold it for pennies on the dollars to a collection agency to pursue.

In recent years, though, state legislatures have made it easier for borrowers to be sued, have their property stolen, and even be put in prison if they are unwilling to cooperate with the civil lawsuit. Debtors who miss a court date may have a “bench warrant” or a “writ of attachment” put out for their arrest. County sheriffs deputies are then able to invade the person’s home or place of business and arrest them on site. They will either be held until the next court date or have to pay a cash bond of up to several thousand dollars.

Obviously, in many states, the banks’ appointed officials have overpowered the peoples’ elected officials. So, it is in the best interests of borrowers to defend against such tactics, legal and fascistic as they may be. Thankfully, this site and others can help prepare borrowers for what to do when they are served with a summons for a credit card lawsuit from an original creditor and how to answer the complaint. And even more promising is the fact that few lawsuits for unsecured debts are paid in full by borrowers, as long as they show up at the hearings.

Responding to the Summons

Responding to a complaint by a credit card company can be remarkable similar to responding to a foreclosure lawsuit. Debtors can immediately request more time by filing a Motion for Extension of Time, which will put the lawsuit on hold by an additional thirty days or so. This gives the borrowers more time to research the issues and prepare their answer.

But if the lender has violated certain laws or failed to follow the correct court procedures, debtors may be able to have the lawsuit dismissed without filing an answer. Especially depending on notice requirements for such a lawsuit and the bank’s failure to attach the original contract to the complaint, it may be worth filing a Motion to Dismiss the case based on these procedural failures. Just as when homeowners in foreclosure request the bank to “produce the note,” people being sued by credit card agencies can do the same.

Homeowners who have exhausted the possibilities on a Motion to Dismiss, though, will then have to file their answer to the summons and complaint. The best way to do this is to research the federal laws, beginning with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This act dictates how the bank can report negative information to the credit bureaus about accounts, and every violation of the Act can cost the bank $1,000. Borrowers have every incentive to research this law and pick out all of the relevant violations. Since these lending laws are almost impossible for creditors to follow, there will always be some violations.

Most of the time, simply by filing a Motion to Dismiss and then filing an answer to the complaint, borrowers can force the bank to accept kind of payment plan or settlement. Especially if there are enough violations of the FCRA or other laws that it would eliminate most of the lender’s debt anyway, it is in their best interests to end the lawsuit and settle. It is especially costly for creditors to sue people in court for unsecured debts, because the longer the case goes on, the more it is costing in attorney fees and banks often collect very little from borrowers on such defaulted credit card debts. They can also be discharged in Chapter 7 bankruptcy quite easily.

Debtors can also request the courts offer some sort of negotiation or arbitration between them and the original creditors. A judge can order the parties try and work out a deal to avoid further legal battles, and if the terms are agreeable to both parties, the lawsuit will be put on hold. Borrowers will have an opportunity to pay back a portion of what they owe and creditors will not be able to continue pursuing the lawsuit in court.

Very few cases involving foreclosure, collection agencies, or credit card companies ever go all the way to trial. The banks and borrowers almost always work out an agreement for less than the total amount the bank is requesting in its lawsuit, and debtors are happy to pay off a little bit to get the lawsuit out of the way. But even if the case does go to trial, homeowners can be prepared to defend their side of the story by researching what laws and procedures the bank has violated that voids its claims against the borrowers or at least offsets them severely.

Did the Bank Even Lend Any Money

One defense to a lawsuit brought by the original credit card company is worth mentioning here. It involves the so-called Jerome Daly defense, which argues that, because the bank creates the money for every credit card transaction out of thin air, there is no valid contract. For a contract to be valid, each party much put up some sort of consideration. Banks creating money out of nothing to make borrowers incur a debt does not count. Including this argument in the answer to the complaint may not work, depending on the judge, but it can always be included in a Motion to Dismiss the case.

By: Nick Adama