Debt Consolidation

[Anonymous]

I work as a collector and everyday I talk to cardholders that refuse to pay us because they claim they are in debt management. While in theory debt management is a great idea and would help anyone in dier straights, it slaughters your credit. If you are thinking about joining debt can, call your creditors first. We have many plans that will help you get caught up on your card and lower your payments. Debt management, while they tell you they will submit proposal, and sometimes do, it takes upward of 3 months to get the account set up. Even then, the only thing they do is set you up on a plan which you could have done yourself and saved yourself from paying a middle man. Most times they will not even foward your payments on to us, and settle on your account so they can make even more money off of you. They can do this legally without your permission when you sign up with them.

Hope this helps anyone who is thinking about debt management or knows anyone who is thinking about it!!

[haulingthescoreup]

We always recommend that members who are considering DMP stay on top of their payment schedules, rearranging due dates when needed, and be prepared to pay for a while. We have a member who never had lates until their DMP missed some.

We also recommend strongly that people stay away from debt negotiation programs, which are truly score-killers.

And I always recommend that members check the FTC article linked in my siggy.