subject: Debt Settlement - Info Concerning Debt Settlement and Negotiation Companies [print this page] Debt Settlement - Info Concerning Debt Settlement and Negotiation Companies
Debt settlement negotiation is well established process in the US, which involves using a skilled negotiator to persuade your creditors to write off a substantial part of your debt. This frequently means that you end up repaying less than half of what you really owe. In the UK there is no debt settlement industry as such because debt companies can offer a scheme set up by the government, called an IVA. This is a formal arrangement which has a similar end result to debt settlement.
Settlement credit card debt negotiation might be the cure for your overwhelming debt problem. If your debt is for the most part unsecured, it can be negotiated and settled.
You may be pressured to take out a home equity loan to pay down your credit card debt. Don't do it. The debt is unsecured and using home equity creates secured debt.
You will probably find that the credit card company will not negotiate with you as long as your payments are current. Unfortunately, you will probably need to stop making payments in order to get their attention. It should not be that way but that is the way the system works.
Six months from your last payment, the debt becomes worthless on the books of the credit card company. A window will open up around the fourth month when you may be able to negotiate a lump sum or payment schedule with the creditor.
Creditors and lending institutions have been establishing debt negotiations departments since as early as the late 1980s with the specific purpose of negotiating and settling unsecured debt but settlement became popular as an effective method of debt elimination only after the bankruptcy laws were amended in 2005. The massive scale of bankruptcy filings in the US soon became a cause of concern for the government as the financial institutions were collapsing due to lack of funds.
