My debt settlement story
I want to share my own experience about what I went through and am still currently going through. I was laid off back in the beginning of 2019 and due to various factors, I couldn’t reestablish myself for six months. By then, I had accrued about 40,000 dollars worth of debt on about 7 credit accounts + $1,000 payday loan with bad credit, my credit was already affected, and I had no idea how to realistically approach the huge hole I had dug up for myself. The creditors I owed were asking about 1500-2000 dollars in total payments each month for their ridiculous rates and penalty charges. I did my research, posted on forums such as these, and figured out I had about three different ways of getting out of debt. The options were credit consolidation, debt settlement, and bankruptcy.
Due to the long term effects of bankruptcy and was told it should be the last option to consider, I did not even consider bankruptcy. Credit consolidation sounded good at first but due to interest still being charged on a 40,000 debt, I would still be wasting about 500-800 dollars just in interest alone every month and if I was late with a payment, the interest could still jump. A couple of different sources referenced that although the programs could be anywhere between 3-5 years, most of the time, they are stretched out to about 8-10 years. Debt settlement was the only option that actually made sense to me. Cutting my balance down while setting up a reasonable payment plan to pay off my creditors was the only realistic option I could afford. Keep in mind there isn’t any perfect debt solution out there. I did my research, contacted a few people who went through the process with success, and contacted a few debt settlement companies to see what they had to offer. This led me to conclude that the success rate of your debt settlement all depends on the interest and professionalism of your debt settlement company. I was worried about the process and if it was going to work for me but I realized that anyone in my situation would feel the same type of vulnerability. After finally deciding on a debt company that looked the most legitimate and had good customer service, I ENROLLED!
So far, it has been about 9 months in the program and 3 of my creditors have been settled and paid off. The harassing phone calls from my creditors are rarely trickling in but for the most part, I don’t get anymore collecting calls. Although I will always have that feeling in the back of my head worrying about my debt, I have the assurance that I have someone working on my debt and have only one monthly payment to worry about. I only have 15 months left, and do have faith that my debts will all be paid off.…