Is credit/debt consolidation a scam? The commercials always sound so stereotypical scam like. Do the

I always hear commercials on tv/radio about debt consolidation and such, and they always sound so shady and scammy.

I have about $10 in a decades worth of bills, including a credit card, utilities, etc (i was bad with my money when i finished high school) and i wanna know if these %26quot;not for profit%26quot; companies that are offering these services are worth it? I dont understand either why they%26#039;re not for profit, that makes it sounds even shadier. Are these owned and controlled by credit companies to get their money back or what?

Any one have experience with this?

Is credit/debt consolidation a scam? The commercials always sound so stereotypical scam like. Do they work?

You say your have about a decades worth of bills totaling $10,000?

The debt consolidation companies would love to help you, they%26#039;d make a killing off of you. Do not go to a debt consolidation place, well unless of course you%26#039;d love to get ripped off.

Now, lets talk about what you should do.

When is the last time you paid on these bills? Pull your credit report to see what%26#039;s actually listed on there Visit the site www.annualcreditreport.com. Don%26#039;t bother signing up for the various ones that give you a free month trial. You%26#039;ll forget to cancel and they%26#039;ll start charging you. Also, you most likely don%26#039;t need to purchase your credit score at this point either.

Pull all 3 reports and review them. Now there%26#039;s two routes to take.

The first is if you want to pay everything off in full. If you do, just start sending the money for the full balances to the creditors listed. You should start paying off the ones that had recent negative activity or recently went to collections. Why? Because if this process takes you 2 years to pay everything off then other items that are older may fall off your report in those two years. After 7 years from the first negative reporting an item will generally fall off your credit report. This does not mean you don%26#039;t still owe it, it just means they cannot report it anymore(Again, generally speaking, they go away, you still technically them still but depending on your state they usually can%26#039;t sue, see http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/SOL-... for your state%26#039;s statute of limitations)

The second route is a little different. Generally speaking, creditors will settle for less than you owe. This will be reported on your credit report as paid, but settled for less than the balance. Go through one by one and negotiate with your individual creditors to see what type of settlement they will make. Never agree to pay more than you can and work your way backwards the same way.

Now for the tips, Find out what your state%26#039;s statute of limitations is. Making a payment to a creditor will essentially reset the timer. So if your statue of limitations is 4 years and you pay on a debt that%26#039;s 3 years and 6 months old, you%26#039;ve reset the timer. The Statute of Limitations is the time frame a creditor has to sue you in. You don%26#039;t want to set out on the right track and end up with lawsuit papers.

Is credit/debt consolidation a scam? The commercials always sound so stereotypical scam like. Do they work?

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If it sounds too good to be true....it usually is...I heard it actualy lowers your credit rating.|||Well these companies don%26#039;t do this for free so you have to worry about the over priced fee for them to help you. Also you have to wonder if ALL the money you send them is actually going to the credit card companies.

The best thing to do is do it yourself. Call the people you owe and set up a easy payment plan, chances are they will work with you, because the bottom line is they want there money.|||Nobody does anything for free. These organization request that you make a donation (anywhere from $200-$700) to initiate your case. Then, it still detrimental to you credit. Cards like %26quot;Aspire%26quot; e.g. will not re-aprove you, again. (No real loss anyway) Sometime it is better to contact a lawyer who knows about credit repair and pay the hefty fee or do it like I did and contact all 3 credit b%26#039;s and get a report, start sending %26quot;dispute%26quot; letters on negative items and request that they be removed. The process can take up to a year, depending. Be patient and organise all your info first.

Log everything including letters, calls and money expended in the process. It may help to make an excel spreadsheet and consolidate all your resources before.|||They always get something out of it. A not-for-profit does not mean that a company works for free; it is simply a category of businesses that provide some kind of beneficial service and in turn get a special status that saves them a lot of tax dollars.

These companies do work, but you should figure out which one gets you a better deal. Some consolidate your loans and pay them off themselves through your monthly payments to them, others negotiate a settlement with your creditors and have you repay them directly. The point is, they charge off those loans for you, and save you thousands in interest and penalty charges.|||It all depends who you go through, some of them are scams. I had over $5000 worth of debt and I went through a local debt consolidator that was for non-profit. In over a 2 yrs I was debt free