Debt consolidation program
So, you have bad credit and a need to consolidate your debt. As may already know, there are many options available to you these days. As you may or may not know, searching for a legitimate and fair company to help you with your debt consolidation program can be a very daunting and stressful task. There are so many choices and it is difficult to make an informed decision sometimes.
Although difficult with bad credit, it might be possible to qualify for an unsecured loan which would consolidate your debt into one monthly payment. Where it will not tie up any of your assets, such as your home, it will not be easy to get one of these types of loans with bad credit.
Another option for a debt consolidation program is not a loan at all. There are companies that will work with you and your creditors in getting your payments lowered and sometimes lessened. This can be accomplished in a number of ways and there are hundreds of these debt reduction companies out there. They will charge you a fee for their services which will include, beyond working with your creditors, their acting on your behalf for the payments. You send the payments to the debt reduction company and they forward them to the creditors. However, use caution as some of these debt reduction companies may not be making your payments in a timely manner, instead letting your money sit in their bank and draw interest before sending the payments out!
Before signing up with any of these debt reduction companies be sure you check them out thoroughly! They should be legitimate, well established companies.
Keep in mind, too that in most cases, even with the help of a debt reduction company, your credit will still be in pretty bad shape. More than once people have seen credit card companies still reporting late payments, etc. when working with debt reduction companies. Just know that this is not a ‘fix all’ and that you may still find yourself faced with bad credit and the loss of your credit card or cards as most of these will be cancelled as soon as an agreement is reached on paying off your balance.
IF you are really courageous, you can do the same thing yourself. Of course, remember that when looking to handle creditors yourself, they will try their best to bully you into submitting to paying as they want you to. HINT: By law, if you offer, in writing, to pay a certain amount to a creditor and they refuse to accept your offer (it must be the absolute most you can pay)—they forfeit to you! This sounds good doesn’t it? Well, keep this in mind: it can turn into a legal battle.