Debt Reduction Programs

Debt Negotiation

Few people realize that there is another solution to burdensome debt, an approach that puts YOU in the driver’s seat – that levels the playing field between you and your creditors without having go to court.

That solution is debt negotiation – otherwise known as good old-fashioned American haggling. Haven’t you ever haggled over the price of a purchase? Well, exactly the same thing can be done for your debts!

Just imagine you could wave a magic wand and turn that $25,000 of credit card debt into $12,500 or as little as $9,000. Wouldn’t that make a big difference to your financial future? And while most people are skeptical that this approach is possible, if you have a professional debt negotiator on your team, the odds are very good that he or she can cut your debt by 50% or less.

Why Is This Option Possible?
For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of the manager of a collection department for a major credit card bank:

You know that bankruptcies are at an all-time high, that many consumers file bankruptcy at the drop of a hat, and that the chances of collecting any money get worse as the debt ages.

Let’s also say you have the opportunity to close your books on a delinquent account by collecting fifty-cents for every dollar owed by the debtor, or take a chance on never collecting a single penny by trying to hold out for the full account value.

You also realize that once the debt leaves your bank (usually after six months or so), it will go to a third-party collection agency. The agency will take at least 15%-20% commission right off the top of whatever they collect, and they are unlikely to collect more than 70% of the debt. So you’ll probably never retrieve much more than half of the money anyway. When you look at it this way, collecting 50% does not seem like such a bad prospect.

Now, the way we’ve described it, it sounds quite easy. You might be thinking, “OK, I’ll get on the phone and do this myself.”

What will happen? You’ll reach the “customer assistance team”, and the representative will inform you that other banks may settle for 50%, but that their bank never settles for less than 85%, under any circumstances. But, of course, they do have that wonderful hardship program for you.

After you’ve called five or six banks and received the same treatment, you’ll probably end up with the idea that debt negotiation doesn’t work. The problem is that the banks will rarely take a debtor seriously.

The banks are quite prepared for the amateur do-it-yourself negotiator. They have the telephone scripts all set up so that by the time the conversation is over, the caller feels guilty about the money owed, and their dubious hardship plan sounds like a great deal after all.

How the debt reduction programs work

If you have been carrying a large amount of debt for a long period of time, and have been making regular payments, it is most likely the case that you have paid off the principle of the loan, or credit. However, it is the interest rates that tend to keep people in the trap of debt, and what gives credit providers their profit, and they will do everything in their power to make sure you stay in that trap.

With the debt negotiation plan, the trained agents can successfully lower your overall debt if you are in a situation where you payments are becoming increasingly difficult to make. Most creditors would rather take a portion of the debt that you owe them rather than you declare bankruptcy, and that angle is extremely effective when negotiating.

If your debt load has accumulated rather recently, and the principle of your loan has not yet been paid off, the debt reduction programs can still work for you. When a creditor is contacted by a debt negotiation agency, they realize that you are very serious about paying off your debt. Not only that, but all collections notices now go through us so that they can not ply any of their tricks of you.

Even in cases where an overall debt reduction may not be possible, your interest rates will most assuredly be lowered, so that if you can make regular monthly payments, your overall debt situation will not spiral out of control.