While debt settlement is certainly the most effective way to reduce credit card debt, it requires some due diligence, on your part, in order to bring about the best results.
The first steps in the process are as follows:
a) You must select a good credit card debt settlement company
b) Monitor the progress of the credit card debt settlement process
c) Keep a watchful eye on the credit card debt settlement process
Starting with the first point, then let’s see then how to get the best out of credit card debt settlement:
a) You must select a good credit card debt settlement company:
While there are a great many credit card debt settlement companies in the marketplace, it is really important to pick out a good credit card debt settlement company to represent you. With credit card debt settlement the debtor’s credit score will suffer as a consequence of the process, however, while this cannot be avoided at least the collateral damage can be kept to a bare minimum.
There are two important factors here. Firstly, if the debt settlement process drags on for a long time, the debtor’s credit score will be really badly affected.
Secondly, if the debt settlement company mishandles the negotiation process, the creditors may get annoyed and this could result court cases been filed against the debtors.
So if you want to produce positive results, with limited collateral damage, then selecting the right company is a vital first step.
Selecting the best credit card debt settlement company is greatly helped by the Better Business Bureaus’ (BBB) website.
There you can look up a review of the credit card debt relief company, because the BBB reviews and rates all major debt relief organizations. Although, do bear in mind that the BBB also tends to judge debt relief companies a little harshly. Consequently, it is also a good idea to Google the name of the debt settlement companies with the word “complaints” beside the name. This will bring up a list of complaints against this company.Take a look at the response of both searches, and if the overall picture is a bad one, then think again about signing up with this debt relief company.
b) Monitor the progress of the credit card debt settlement process:
It was poor financial habits which brought you the debt in the first place, so the only way to get out of this debt and stay out will demand some degree of financial adaptation on your part.
This entails budgeting, and the first step in this process, if you are seeking credit card debt settlement, requires that you stop making purchases with your cards. Secondly, you have to start living within a monthly budget, so if any sudden expenses come up, at least you can make payment without having recourse to your credit cards.
Finally, if you want credit card debt settlement to go well, then it is necessary to think in terms of the final settlement. Remember, with credit card debt settlement the debtor has to make a one-off settlement which is usually in and around 50% of the outstanding debt figure. Also, the time frame tends to be approximately a year, or a little over a year from the initiation of the process.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that you will have to come up with approximately half of the outstanding debt principal in a period of approximately a year. In most cases, saving the money which normally would have been spent on the repayments will usually not be enough to cover the credit card debt settlement. So what most debtors do is they will sell off some assets in order to make that final payment.
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