To answer that, let’s consider how lenders decide whether to extend credit to you. Although many consumers focus just on their credit score, lenders consider your overall creditworthiness. Your creditworthiness is determined by your credit score and your debt-to-income ratio (or DTI), which is a measure of how much of your income is available after you pay your housing costs and any debt payments. Depending on your financial goals, your DTI may actually be the most important factor. That’s true if you are applying for a mortgage, for example. Debt Settlement is intended to improve your DTI and make you a more appealing borrower. As for your credit score, it will likely decline during the initial part of the program. But as your debts are resolved, it will improve.

Our program is performance-based, so until we reach a settlement for you the program cost is zero. Yes, zero. Once we’ve negotiated a settlement and ensured that the creditor received a payment toward that settlement, we do charge a service fee. The fee is 25% of the balance at the time you enrolled. That means that you know from the first day how much the program is going to cost. And you’ll never get a bill from us – the service fee is budgeted into the monthly draft you make each month.

Keeping your funds safe is always important, we understand that when you’re experiencing a financial hardship it’s especially important. You can relax knowing that your funds are safe because the funds that you set aside will be kept in a special trust account. The account is maintained by our law firm and is established in your name. That means you control your funds, and none of your funds can be used without your permission. Your account is also FDIC insured. The fact is that you won’t be making monthly payments to us. Instead, you’ll be making deposits into your own savings account.

Creditors may be willing to offer you a settlement directly. But keep in mind that if they do, the offer will likely be in their favor – not yours. Before they asked for our help, some of our clients learned the hard way, that creditors can bury hidden fees and other penalties in the fine print. Our expert negotiators know exactly how to get you the best deal and protect you from any surprises. Think of it this way: You can always try to fix your own plumbing too, but we’ve all seen sitcom episodes in which the home “expert” ended up knee-deep in water.

The program is designed to help clients resolve their unsecured debts, such as credit card and personal loan debt. Typically, we can also help resolve medical debt and vehicle loans, provided you no longer possess the vehicle. We are not able to resolve secured debt, student loans, money owed to the government (such as unpaid taxes), money owed by court order (such as unpaid child support or alimony), or gambling debt. If you’re not sure about one of your debts, just ask your certified debt consultant. We won’t enroll any debt in the program unless we’re confident we can resolve it.

Imagine that you and your creditors are facing each other, at a standoff. You know you owe them money and want to pay it back, but you don’t have the cash to do it. The creditors want what you owe and keep trying different methods of collecting it. Neither of you are getting anywhere. That’s where we come in. We’ll fight for you and work out a deal that’s less than the original balance with payments that you can afford — and that the creditor can live with. Now both sides are making progress.

Debt settlement is designed to help people who have faced a serious financial hardship. Although every situation is unique, such hardships include being out of work for a long time, facing a medical crisis, or going through a painful divorce. If a situation like that caused you to fall behind on your credit card or personal loan payments, debt settlement can help. It can also help if you are making your payments but find most of your money going toward the interest charges; we know how discouraging it can be to feel you aren’t making any progress in paying off what you owe. For most people struggling under the pressure of too much debt, debt settlement is the fastest and least expensive way to pay off what they owe.