My name is Steve Bis and I’ve been assisting people that are in arrears with their credit cards for a long time and understand the effects it has on people’s lives. When you have credit card debt and know that this matter is out of control, you must make a choice on what to do and make it quick. You don’t want to wait until it is too late. As the majority of you must already know is that the debt collectors are not co-operative when you call them with problems regarding you statement. It’s pretty remarkable the way it works because when you first get the card they are the politest people while you are speaking with them. Then if you call them to complain about a past due or over limit charge and attempt to have it , they might let you off with one a year, if you are lucky. When it comes down to it what decision are you going to make. It’s not like you can stop making payments on your rent/mortgage or other necessities for your familyget bye with day to day expenses.
The credit card industry made a whopping 17 billion dollars in penalty fees in 2006 and it will be a lot higher this year. Now I am pretty sure that it has happened to you, where you go and open your monthly credit card statement only to realize that your interest rate has more or less doubled or even tripled. It is hard enough trying to keep up with 10% or even the 7.9 % interest that they are charging on your accounts. How are you suppose to come up with the elevated payments now? It was painstaking enough to manage before the interest skyrocketed. This is why many Americans are seeking out other options such as credit card debt settlement vs. credit counseling, or bankruptcy. If you are not familiar with any of your options then I will give you a little bit of an education on them.
Consumer Bankruptcy
Prior to 2005 bankruptcy was to be used for consumers who were experiencing serious monetary problems. Regrettably it was misused by thousands of debtors who wanted to evade paying their credit card debts. They did not want to be held accountable for their actions. The credit card industry was sick and tired of this so they petitioned to have the bankruptcy legislation changed. It is now referred to as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection act of 2005. It would make it much more of a task for the majority of consumers to file for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should only be used as your last resort option after you have considered every conceivable method. Also you should contemplate the negative aftereffects that could come back later down the road. You would have to find a lawyer, go to court and that could cost you a substantial amount of money. There is also the matter of it being on your FICO history anywhere from 7 to 10 years. When you filling out any important application or document you by law have to say yes when asked the question about bankruptcy, so this does have a very negative long lasting effect on your credit.
Debt Consolidation Credit Counseling
Everywhere you look, either it is advertised on the radio or television, you will hear about consumer credit counseling. A credit counseling agency will attempt to get the credit card companies to reduce the interest rate on your credit accounts. You then make one monthly payment to the credit counseling agency and they then make your payments to each one of your creditors on your behalf. The fallback to this choice is even though they reduce the interest on your credit card accounts you could still pay back as much as 125% of what you actually owe.
This is because on this kind of agenda you will still be paying back what you owe plus some of the interest for around possibly five years or more. Almost half of the debtors that are in these programs don’t finish the program for missing as much as one payment. Another draw back to credit counseling is that if you have a money problem and are short on your monthly payment they will kick you off of the program instantly. They will also increase your interest back up and the creditor will not let you back on for at least one year and sometimes even longer. This might put you right back to where you started from, if not in a worse situation.
Credit Card Debt Negotiation (also known as debt settlement)
This is the debt relief method where you can save the largest amount of money. A good credit card debt settlement companies will save you at least 40% of what you currently owe. The 40% should cover all of their fees. Just like credit counseling, you will hear a lot of radio and television advertisements all the time. These organizations are starting up all across the United States. Some of these companies try to make it seem like they have a magic stick and are going to make all your debt vanish extremely easily.
There are also some companies that try to use religion to obtain the trust of people. No matter what organization you are speaking with it is your responsibility to do research on them. You can always start with the BBB (Better Business bureau). You may be able to find out a lot about a company from them. If you soon realize that a company has only been in settling debts for a little while and has a slew of complaints towards them, then you know to avoid them. One more thing to look for is how much time has the company been around. Some organizations only last a short time before they go out of business or get caught ripping people off. Then some of them only stay around to make as much money as they can and close shop just to open up across townmorning.
Steve Bis is a debt analyst and research assistant with the US Consumer Advocate, which primarily practices in credit card debt relief.