Credit Card Debt Settlement

Credit card debt settlement can be one of the best decisions you could ever make.  Five years ago when I was dating the woman who is now my wife, she came to me crying with a revelation that she had racked up $14,000 worth of credit card debt and has reached the tipping point where the interest payments were becoming too overwhelming.  I was shocked that she could acquire enough credit to be able to reach that amount.  The most amazing thing was she had an amazing credit score having never missed a payment on credit card accounts that she’s had since college.  She is a very responsible person and felt embarrassed and ashamed that she could put herself in this position.  She was employed at the time making around $40,000 per year.  This article will tell how we took a hold of her debt issue and completely paid it off within three years.  It should also be noted that she completely paid the balances herself with no additional help from me.

The first thing I had her do was contact the credit card companies directly to see if they would be willing to work with her in order to pay them off.  The goal would be to put a plan together to pay the balances without taking years of just paying the interest payments.  Unfortunately the credit card companies themselves wouldn’t directly work with her since she had never missed a payment, and in their eyes was a fantastic borrower.  They suggested that she reach out to a credit card debt settlement firm to act as an intermediary.  They have specific deals set up with these companies already. 

Credit Card Debt Settlement Company’s Help

I had her reach out to a few firms and explain her situation.  The fact that she had over $10,000 in debt made them consider her exactly the type of person they want to work with.  She ended up choosing a firm that made her feel the most comfortable with a specific schedule of how long it would take to completely pay off her debt.  The company then reached out to all of her creditors and worked out specific settlements.  The accounts wouldn’t show as delinquent or as settled.  They would be shown as fully paid off when her ran her credit.  The whole goal was to pay off the debt without ruining her credit. 

Three years of payments

For the next three years she had to make a series of lifestyle changes which allowed her to make the debt settlement payment.  Before she contacted the debt she was paying over $500 a month in just interest.  Now she was paying $500 a month which was mostly going towards the principal balances.  She made one payment to the settlement company.  They then individually paid each specific creditor.  Reason being is they have different arrangements with different creditors based on the original balance amounts.  She would then get a statement each month, which was also accessible online, that told her exactly how much she had left to pay in total including each specific account.  Some were as low as only a few hundred dollars.  Unfortunately after entering into the agreement with the settlement company she was no longer able to pay the individual creditors directly.  She could however pay more than the $500 per month which would all go towards the principal balance.

Conclusion

After a few years of making the credit card debt settlement payments, she was debt free and her credit was still intact.  It did show on her credit report that she had entered into credit counseling however after writing letters to each of the three main credit bureaus it was removed.  She wasn’t counseled for her debt, she was being responsible in paying it all off.  If you have thousands of dollars in credit card debt, don’t wait to start paying it off.  Call a credit card debt settlement company immediately.  One day you’ll wake up debt free with the exact opposite feeling of when you were drowning in debt.