Credit Card Debt Settlement - Erase Up to 50%!
In college, I had credit cards and it made college a lot more fun. I graduated with about $3000 in debt. Not too bad, but then needed clothes for job interviews, a new car to get to a job, furniture for my new place. The costs never ended, but the money defiantly wasn't coming in for a recent college graduate. I started transferring balances to help lower my interest rate, but it still kept adding up. Finally, I searched for debt relief. There are some different options out there and some will save you more then others.
One option, debt settlement. You can either do it on your own and handle all the stress on your own or find a debt settlement company to help you. Some companies are better then others. The company will deal with the creditor calls, negotiate the settlement and save your money for you to pay off the debt all for a fee. It usually take about 3 years to pay off the debt. For me, fee is about 9% per month and they have negotiated the debt down to about 60% of the debt after late fees are added so I am saving some money. Your credit score will be affected for about 5 years since your credit cards are going to show up as late at first, then closed with a balance and finally paid for a settled amount, but eventually the negative accounts will be removed from your credit report.
Another option is debt consolidation. You can try to do this on your own buy getting a loan to pay off the other debt and then just having one loan payment, but make sure you don't add more debt on the side by continuing to use your credit cards. Otherwise you can find a debt consolidation company that will pay your monthly payments for you and negotiate with your creditors to reduce the monthly payment, lower interest rates and eliminate late fees. So you still have interest, but it is less then before. This seems better for someone who has less the $5000 in debt. I don't think this will affect your credit score too much since you are still making monthly payments on your cards.
The last option is bankruptcy. This option would be for someone that is way over their head in debt. It affects your credit score for 7 years so be ready to be turned down for every credit application for the next 7 years. There are 2 types of bankruptcy, chapter 7 and Chapter 13. Chapter 7 most of the assets of the debtor are reduced to cash and distributed to your creditors. Most of your assets can be sold for chapter 2 bankruptcy. Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to keep certain assets such as your home, but propose a 3-5 year plan to pay off your debt to your creditors. You need to be able to make regular payments to the plan.
The first step in getting out of debt is to stop going into debt. Cut up your credit cards, get a budget, stop the excess spending. Research the different debt relief companies to find the most reliable. Be prepared to stick to a budget even after finding a debt relief company to help you because you don't get out of debt that took years to create in just a few weeks.
One option, debt settlement. You can either do it on your own and handle all the stress on your own or find a debt settlement company to help you. Some companies are better then others. The company will deal with the creditor calls, negotiate the settlement and save your money for you to pay off the debt all for a fee. It usually take about 3 years to pay off the debt. For me, fee is about 9% per month and they have negotiated the debt down to about 60% of the debt after late fees are added so I am saving some money. Your credit score will be affected for about 5 years since your credit cards are going to show up as late at first, then closed with a balance and finally paid for a settled amount, but eventually the negative accounts will be removed from your credit report.
Another option is debt consolidation. You can try to do this on your own buy getting a loan to pay off the other debt and then just having one loan payment, but make sure you don't add more debt on the side by continuing to use your credit cards. Otherwise you can find a debt consolidation company that will pay your monthly payments for you and negotiate with your creditors to reduce the monthly payment, lower interest rates and eliminate late fees. So you still have interest, but it is less then before. This seems better for someone who has less the $5000 in debt. I don't think this will affect your credit score too much since you are still making monthly payments on your cards.
The last option is bankruptcy. This option would be for someone that is way over their head in debt. It affects your credit score for 7 years so be ready to be turned down for every credit application for the next 7 years. There are 2 types of bankruptcy, chapter 7 and Chapter 13. Chapter 7 most of the assets of the debtor are reduced to cash and distributed to your creditors. Most of your assets can be sold for chapter 2 bankruptcy. Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to keep certain assets such as your home, but propose a 3-5 year plan to pay off your debt to your creditors. You need to be able to make regular payments to the plan.
The first step in getting out of debt is to stop going into debt. Cut up your credit cards, get a budget, stop the excess spending. Research the different debt relief companies to find the most reliable. Be prepared to stick to a budget even after finding a debt relief company to help you because you don't get out of debt that took years to create in just a few weeks.
Source...