Credit Card Debt Settlement Service

which service can cause the most harms on my credit? I need to find a reputable Debt settlement Company that I can trust to work with me.

Debt settlement companies are businesses that make a profit by helping people manage their debt.

The Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) is a non-profit organization that doesn't stand to make any money from you regardless of what they recommend.

I would recommend starting with the CCCS.

2008-05-14 10:47:45 by BinBin

HIDDEN TRUTHS ABOUT THE CREDIT CARD Business! 1) Ever heard of the illustration that the house for eternity wins? The credit card companies make ...

i am in debt for about $21,000 in credit cards

If you settle, you get out of debt quickly, but your credit rating will be awful for a long time. You will be paying cash for everything for many years. Also, while you get out of debt quickly, everyone else that pays their debt off end up paying your debt through higher fees and interest.

If you consolidate, you will have to budget and skimp for a while to get the debt paid off, but it is the right thing to do. You acquired the goods/services and now you need to pay for them.

2009-06-22 18:26:05 by jannette s

Price: $4.99

My husband and I recently purchased a house. Right before our purchase we found out about a delinquent credit card. To make a long story short, it was a credit card that was in my husband's name that he was to use when he was in college that his mom was supposed to be paying for. My husband had no idea that there was a delinquency until we were notified by our lender. The account has been closed since 2002. It states on his credit report that the "account closed at consumers request, charged off account, bad debt; placed for collections; skip." We do not want to bother his Mom about this. After no communication with Discover, for 5 years, we have now received a letter from Northstar Location Services, a collection agency (not from Discover), for a settlement amount which is 40% of the debt. What should we do, contact Discover, deal with the collection agency, or something else? I realize everything needs to be in writing beforehand, but can anyone advise me on this at all?
I will check out your other posts, Studly, thanks...as far as my concern with it, it is mainly because of the recent contact with the collection agency now after so many years. We were still able to get the loan for our house, so I am not really concerned about that part of it. Since it "technically" wasn't our debt, but my mother in law's, the bank didn't really care. Actually the amount was pretty significant, $3000 with an offered settlement of $1200, which is why I'm extremely surprised that we were not contacted before about this. I believe the statute of limitation on credit cards is 3 years in our state. I know they can still take us to court over it but its probably unlikely since the statute of limitations has run out. I just don't want to settle on an amount and still have it show up on our credit history for another 7 years. I think this just may be a last ditch effort by the collection agency to get some money and I just want to make sure we make the right decision.

If it was a charge off that means the company tried to collect and wasn't able to so they wrote it off. This is just probably one last attempt to collect. I'd contact Discover and see if they sent this to the collection agency. 5 years is really too long for them to wait to send it to collections. That just sounds fishy to me. Like a private agency trying to collect, on a creditors charge offs.

2007-06-05 14:46:11 by Randa

Price: $9.99

My fiance has a Bank of America credit card. There's a $7500 limit on the card but after finance charges, late fees etc, the debt is now at $8900. She went 120 days late on payments and was called by Card Services, they say they're a collection division of Bank of America. They offered her settlement in the amount of $4500 rather than the $8900 on the card. She thinks its a deal because half the debt is "vanishing". We checked her credit report and she isn't listed as being in collections just extremely late on pay. I argued with her saying that the settlement is bad and that it will affect her credit for years to come but she thinks its a good plan. We're planning on looking for a house in a year and a half and i don't want this to affect our buying power. So how does settlement effect her credit? Does paying off the full amount rather than settling look better on your credit report even though the account is past due? What should we do, who's right here?

Many companies now have an internal collection division. It would be better to settle while it is still within Bank of America than letting it go any further like say to an independent collection company. Then she may run the risk of two blemishes on her credit record instead of one. And as far as her credit record goes, the damage is already done.

2007-03-28 09:28:46 by Greg O

In June I called American Debt Settlement Services to help me out with 3 credit cards I have. I have had these cards since 2001 and up until June I could not come up w/ any of their minimum balances. Well, the debt service made everything sound do wonderful and I was relieved, so I went along with their program. At that point, I asked Yahoo answers about Debt Settlement and they said it was a scam. So I opted out of it at the beginning of August, put a stop payment on my account and faxed over a letter of termination. Now, don't know what to do 2 of my creditors have now put me in collections. I am a respected family person and times are tough!! I am afraid of the next step.. Should I apply for a home equity loan, a bank loan, I do not want to file for bankruptcy. I owe between the two cards 27,000.00. One of my creditor I have worked out a plan with. The other two will not talk to me unless the have my husbands permission. Whenever they call he is not home he is a firefighter and his hours always fluctuate-Please what would you do? The stress is killing me. I don't want my 8 year old daughter to see me like this...

You do not want to take out a loan or home equity. This is like chasing your losses and is counter productive, especially since it may threaten your home. The options of consumer credit counseling, debt consolidation and/or bankruptcy are expensive and unnecessarily prolonged Your best bet is to settle these debts down. However, you may need help in doing it. Remember there are many bad apples in the debt settlement industry but not all of them have bad intentions. I suggest you do your research and find out who has the right affiliations, who is a member of TASC and who has no complaints on the BBB site.

I wish you luck with this. Remember health comes first so do not let this problem impair that.

2009-08-16 15:08:31 by Amykins44