2009Jan22
Often on the heels of the “New Year” come all sorts of new or “revised” Resolutions and additional debt from Christmas overboard. Or just from unexpected cutbacks in your income.
As a result, many of us may be less than friendly to the postal delivery person. With their appearance, we’re swamped with credit cards bills and maybe monthly statements from our auto loan company.
So what’s a body to do when we’re overwhelmed with the additional expense and know full well we can’t quite stretch the income that month?
Some of us will consider a Debt Consolidation Service to help us regain control. Actually, it’s a good idea to do so because the debt consolidation service will work with you and your credit company to get your interest rates and monthly payment to a lower expenditure.
A Debt Consolidation service will also act on your behalf as an intermediary for you with the credit lender. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
In theory, yes!
It can be a great solution. However, choosing a Debt Consolidation Service must be done with careful thought and consideration. Particularly because, unfortunately, there are some deceitful and devious people in the online community.
So that means you’ll want to pay attention to and watch out for scammers when you’re searching for a Debt Consolidation Service online.
Red flags = disreputable Online Debt Consolidation Service
Huge and unreasonable fees
Some companies charge $100 just to review your account, and they may “couch” the fee by describing it as a “credit analysis”. Then there are those that offer an “educational program”, which consists mostly of free forms, letters and information gathered from other Internet Web sites!
Their cost to you for the “free” forms they gathered from the web? Could be as high as $1,500! So, word of caution; be wary of any company that pushes for up-front payment before you receive any type of service or materials.
Sound too good to be true – run away
When you hear things like “Your monthly payment will be half of what you’re currently paying!” “We’ll get your interest rate slashed to zero percent!” “You’ll be paying less in just two weeks!”, you might want to make a bee-line as far away from this pitch as you get. Or, put them on “ignore” because they’re rarely true.
None of us is a miracle worker…so write off quick fixes right now. Any solutions will definitely take longer than two weeks. In fact, when you use debt consolidation, you ought to expect at least a month, if not longer, before you can see a difference in your finances.
If you think about it…billing periods for most companies are 30 days so it would be at least that long to notice a difference.
Who initiated the contact?
What is your junk mail or caller ID quotient? Usually, any company that sends out SPAM, makes cold calls to you at home, or fills up your mail box with “junk”, is fishing for something and most likely, it’s a fee. And worthy of a double take from you before you make a decision.
Further, if you’re in doubt about the authenticity of a Deb Counseling Service, make a call to the Better business Bureau. Which ought to help to allay any concerns you might have about the company.
You could also make it a point to chat with family and friends to see if they have any knowledge about the service you’re considering.
Knowing there is efficient, reliable assistance online for debt negotiating, and how to find it, ought to also alleviate some of the concerns that come along when facing unexpected bills and debt collectors.
You can see so for yourself here.
