durndebt.com

Looking for Debt Relief?  Going to a Debt Relief Agency?  Do not know what a Debt Relief Agency is?  The term, which first appeared in this new bankruptcy legislation, includes anyone who provides any bankruptcy assistance to an assisted person in return for the payment of money or other valuable consideration, or who is a bankruptcy petition preparer. The Act, Title 11 U.S.C. 101(12A) of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 [The Act] and on the Bankruptcy Law Network website in the article, "What Is A Debt Relief Agency?". ,  does not include variations on the word "agency" in the definition; hence, the full statutory term "debt relief agency" is used in print and throughout this discussion.  Now, if you read that, you will discover that almost anybody, including myself because I am writing this blog, can and maybe should call themselves a Debt Relief Agency.  I am not that proud.  I am that concerned.  I can give advice and love to do that.  I do not charge for that advice so you need to figure out what it's worth.

ADVICE:

Do not get so deep in debt you have to consider Debt Relief..  Almost any kind of debt relief is going to cost you so much more in the long run, cash, time, bad credit rating and of course bankruptcy to name a few. 

If you are in overwhelming debt, talk to your creditors.  They are in most cases going to help you if they can.  That of course excludes the Credit Card Companies.  Until the Federal Government slams them big time, changes the laws that allow them to rape their customers, they do not care.  The just jack your interest rate to the highest allowed in the locality that you live in.  As I said before, 24% in Maryland unless our State Government has gotten off their fat butts and lowered the cap.  Of course this will never happen until they have closed their campaign accounts to the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year that the credit industry dumps into their election coffers.  I think that anybody who has ever run for elected office should never again be allowed to practice law in any form, lawyer, judge or lobbyist.

Now that I  have gotten that rant off my chest, back to debt relief.  There are some truly free credit councilors out there.  They are nonprofit corporations and they will help you., sometimes. Other times they do not. Take note,  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4183/is_20060516/ai_n16363730

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/04/17/maryland_firms_chief_tied_to_lavish_spending_spree/

You need to do your homework.  Some of the companies are not as nonprofit as they might be.

Also, almost any of the debt relief programs that you get into will reflect on your credit rating.  That of course assumes that you have one that is above 0.  Remember, the object of doing this is to get out of debt, not to worry about your credit numbers at this point.

I have bent your ear enough today I think.

Also please chime in with your debt relief experiences, good or bad.

Hi again.

Ok you have been able to work with your creditors and they have agreed to your debt relief plan.  They are going to forgive some of your debt in an attempt to get the base principle back.  This is a good thing for the most part.  It will appear on your credit report which will not help you get a new loan, but you do not want a new loan right now anyway.

Oh and another thing, the creditors to show they are good spirited people report your new income, (the money that was forgiven as part of your debt relief program now becomes income), to the IRS.  So the IRS has rules on this income and how you need to handle it. 

Take a look at

www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=174034,00.html

and

www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=179073,00.html

See there is a silver lining to every cloud.  Your favorite governmental agency now is looking at you.

Take care and keep safe.

If you have had to deal with this, write and let us know about it.

• Be debt free in as little as 12-30 months
• Lower your debts by up to 50%
• Make one simple, low monthly payment
• Backed by a Money Back Guarantee on Service Fees
• Get a "New Deal"

Well it all looks great; it is a great looking web site.  Lots of calm colors and more debt relief options than you can shake a stick at.  Of course, the 1 bullet was ever present in all offers:

• Make one simple, low monthly payment

Now, I am not in deep enough debt that I wanted to look at that site and leave my information.  One thing I noticed and I took this out of context from their "Do not blame us if it does not work page" is the following.

a creditor is always reserved the right to pursue past due debts in court, and it is possible that a client can be sued during their debt settlement reduction program.

They also say that they can not guarantee any debt reduction.  They make mention that while this, if it works, will go on your credit report, it is not as bad as bankruptcy.  And that is true.  They also talk about penalties if you do not make your payments every month.  Oh well, that is how you get to be number one on the Google search engine.  I have no information on their success rate, but before you go to any of these services, check with the FTC for adverse results and also the Better Business Bureaus.

Ok that was the first entry.  If you go down a little further, you will find several sites that look like the feds want to help you out with debt relief.  Notice I said look like.  None of them are government agencies, or even connected to the government.  The feds are staying out of the debt relief business.  They are, on the other hand, going after sites that they get enough complaints about.  Especially the sites that are giving the impression they are connected to the government in any way.

Are they a scam?  Try them.

Good luck and let me know how your debt relief experience went.  Good or bad, I would like to hear about it.

Debt Relief

Sounds great.  How do we go about that?  There are a number of things you need to do.

·        Get a handle on what your total debt really is

·        What is the total debt load each month

·        Rank the bills by necessity

·        Necessary bills are housing, food, medical

·        Rank the bills that remain by amount

·        Pay the necessary bills first

·        Use what is left over to pay the smallest bill next

·       When you pay the smallest bill, pay the new smallest bill

·       Do this till the bills are gone

·       This is Debt Relief.

It is not fun.  It is not easy.  It is as hard as stopping smoking if you use cigarettes.  As hard as stopping drinking if you drink.  We will not talk about recreational drugs because if you are there, you will not go any farther with this article.

You used to be able to work out a payment schedule with the credit people.  Not too often anymore.  Some of them will offer you debt relief by debt consolidation loans.  If you read my previous posts, you can tell what I think of them.  You might be able to get some of the credit companies to stop your interest as long as you pay the principle as agreed.  This is nowhere as usual as it used to be.  Credit card companies can and do jack the interest rate up to the maximum allowed where you live.  That would be 24% where I live.

You will have to cut your spending to the bone.  Eat at home, brown bag your lunch, cut back on beer, wine and liquor.   Ride the public transportation.  If you have more than one automobile and if you can sell one car for more than you owe on it, it might be a good thing.  The payments for the car, the insurance, fuel, lube and other maintenance will take a HUGH bite out of what you earn.

This is not debt relief. 

"STOP credit harassment, foreclosures, repossessions, tax levies, and garnishments."

Right, if you are this point, any consolidation loan will cost you more and not get you any debt relief.  Interest on interest on interest.

"We will clear as much as 65% of your credit card debt"

And Santa Clause will be the person that signs you up!!!  They will take your money, then say the credit card company said they could not help you.

"We can reduce your debt by at least 45%"

Well, if they will, out of the goodness of their hearts, pay that 45% for you, maybe they can.

I could fill up at least 10 pages with the print, radio and television copy, in 8 point single spaced type.  I am pulling the ads I have mentioned here from the FTC pages for the most part.  They are ALL SCAMS and if you are in debt, YOU are the target. 

They will help you right over the cliff of debt so deeply that bankruptcy is the only answer.  If you can even go bankrupt, there are lots of new laws.  The bankruptcy lawyers will tell you that of course they can help, $600 - $1000 up front please, oh and in cash please.  Guarantee, we don't give no stinking guarantee.  The lawyers love you as much as the debt consolidation loan people love you.  They need a list of the people you owe, the amounts you owe, your assets and your income.  They then have their secretaries enter those figures and information into the correct blanks, proofread them and the file all the papers.  Durn, that lawyer must have spent at least two hours talking to you and telling their paralegals what they wanted.  The paralegals may have spent 30 minutes if they type slow and ran out of the right paper in the printer.  I have a friend that is a bankruptcy lawyer.  He tells me he makes at least 250% profit on each bankruptcy he handles.  The bigger the case, the more he makes.  I guess he may not be as friendly after he reads this.

By the way, take a look at http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=179414,00.html

It is an IRS page that talks about debt relief and how they get to gouge you for any relief that you do recieve. 

Oh well, another day, another rant

"Consolidate your bills into one monthly payment without borrowing."
"STOP credit harassment, foreclosures, repossessions, tax levies, and garnishments."
"Keep Your Property."
"Wipe out your debts! Consolidate your bills! How? By using the protection and assistance provided by federal law. For once, let the law work for you!"

You have most likely seen these print ads, or heard them on tv and radio or even on the internet.  Most of them are scams!  All are trying to get your money.  Many of them are looking to get you into a bankruptcy program one way or another.  Bankruptcy is a court of last resort.

Bankruptcy laws have changed a lot in the last few years.  It used to be easy and did not really hurt you to much in the long run.  You even got to keep a large part of your assets.  NOW, it is different.  .  IF YOU CAN EVEN GO BANKRUPT, it is much harder to qualify, you will have to pay much more than before and you will lose a much higher percentage of your belongings

The debt consolidation programs are a little better, not much but a little.  There you have the pleasure of paying interest on interest that you already owe.  The people who offer these services love you, or at least they love your money.  They could care less about you.  Hey you are out of work, do not call us, we'll call you.

One of the adds I have heard on the radio the last few weeks is "We can cut your debt by up tom 75%".  They then went on to say you needed at least $10,000.00 in credit card debt to qualify.  Sounds good.  A young lady I know from North Carolina called them, they said wow, you qualify, you have $18,000.00 in credit card debt.  Send us a check for $1800.00 to start the process and we will get rolling.  Then you will only owe us $480.00 a month plus whatever the payments to the credit card companies turn out to be.  She did, borrowing  the startup money from her parents and lo, the credit card companies said nothing doing.  The debt relief that was promised never came about and she still got a bill for $480.00 the next month.  They refused to refund any part of the $1800.00 and are now being sued by the FTC.  There have been a lot of those suits in the last few years.  Problem is, the court system grinds exceeding fine and these suites drag on for years.

So what is the answer.  The easy answer is "Do not get into debt..  If you can not pay cash, you can not afford it".  That will not work for 99 and 44/100% of the people.  Little things like buying a house, a car, household appliances or paying college tuition comes to mind.

Will power and remaining within your ability to pay your debts is the only way to keep from getting in over your head.  If you plan ahead, fund your payments, you will enjoy the fruits of your labor, much less stress on you and yours.

Until later

Bill

Hi all,

As the title says, DURN DEBT.  The debt load is growing, prices are sky rocketing and income is not.  When was the last day you were NOT in debt.  I am only talking financial debt here so leave out the debt that you owe to your friend that introduced you to your best friend or significant other.  Strike that, I do not want you mad at me for bad memories.

Anyway, debt is a killer of many things, your dreams most of all.  The stress on relationships are really increased by debt.  The more debt, the more stress.  And the stress increases at a much higher rate than the debt.  When you got involved wth someone, you dreamed about where this relationship was going.  You did not dream about being so deep in debt, that there was no bottom to the pit you where falling into.

So how do we get out of here? 

If you have been here, let me know.  As we get futher into here, I will be telling a little more about my trip through DUMB DEBT HELL.