Has your financial situation gotten so bad that you actually feel this way? Struggling to pay off debt can take a serious toll not only on you emotionally but even physically. The stress caused by trying to cope with debt can cause heart disease, diabetes, asthma, headaches and more. It can even shorten your life.
So what can you do if you’re desperate to get out of debt?
For one thing you could declare bankruptcy. A chapter 7 bankruptcy, which is often called a liquidation bankruptcy, would get rid of all or most all of your unsecured debts such as credit card debts, personal lines of credit and medical debts. It typically takes about three months to get through bankruptcy after you’ve filed. If you hire an attorney to help you he or she will probably charge you somewhere around $500 to $1000. Be aware that it’s not as easy to qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy as it was until just a few years owe. The rules were tightened when Congress passed The “Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act” in 2005. For example, you now must attend and complete a credit-counseling course that’s been approved by the US Trustee’s office, the purpose of which is to give you an idea as to whether you really need to file for bankruptcy. There is now also a means test that would be applied to see if your income and ability to pay would exclude you from filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and force you instead into a chapter 13 bankruptcy.
A fresh start but at a cost
Bankruptcy is something that’s guaranteed in the United States Constitution as a way to give people a fresh start. And it can do just this. But that fresh start comes at a high cost. For example, a bankruptcy will stay in your credit reports for 10 years. Many employers now routinely check the credit reports of prospective employees so a bankruptcy could keep you from getting a job.
Filing for bankruptcy will drop your credit score by as many as 200 to 250 points. This will make it very difficult for you to get new credit for two or even three years after the bankruptcy. When you are able to get new credit it will have a very high interest rate. Your insurance premiums will probably go up and you could have a hard time renting a house or an apartment as your prospective landlord is sure to review your credit report and your bankruptcy could be a real deal breaker.
Here, courtesy of National Debt Relief is a short video of an attorney with more information about a chapter 7 bankruptcy and what your life will belief once you file.
A better alternative
If you’d rather not have the stain of a bankruptcy in your credit reports for the next 10 years there is a better alternative. It’s called debt settlement. And it’s been used by literally thousands of people to achieve debt relief. Spoiler alert – debt settlement will also have an adverse affect on your credit score but it won’t be as severe as a bankruptcy.
Would you be a good candidate for debt settlement?
Unfortunately, debt settlement isn’t for everyone. To be a good candidate for debt settlement you must have a legitimate financial hardship which has caused you to fall behind on your bills or that will cause you to fall behind in the near future. You must owe at least $7500 in unsecured debt and unable see any way to pay it off in two or three years. And you must have money to send the debt settlement company each month to fund your program.
How debt settlement works
The idea behind debt settlement is pretty simple. You hire a company to get your debts paid off by offering your creditors lump sum payments but for less than your balances. In fact, in most cases debt settlement companies are able to settle debts for roughly fifty cents on the dollar. If you owed, say, $20,000 this could mean your debts would be reduced to $10,000. Just think how much easier it would be to repay that amount of debt.
You pay the debt settlement company instead of your creditors
Once you sign an agreement with a debt settlement company you will no longer have to pay your creditors. In fact, you won’t have to have any interaction with them at all. What you’ll do instead is send a check once a month to the debt settlement company. Once there is a sufficient amount of money in your account the debt settlement company will begin negotiations with your lenders.
Debt settlement will eliminate most or all your debts
As we mentioned in an earlier paragraph to be a good candidate for debt settlement you must have a lot of unsecured debt such as medical debts, credit card debts and personal lines of credit. The reason for this is that secured debts such as automobile loans and mortgages cannot be settled. There are also some types of unsecured debts that can’t be settled including spousal support, child support, alimony, tax debts and student loan debts. You can’t get these types of debts discharged in a chapter 7 bankruptcy either.
The negatives of debt settlement
While debt settlement represents an excellent way to get relief from your debts it does come at a cost. Debts that have been settled are never reported to the credit bureaus as “paid in full.” They will be reported as “settled,” “settlement” or some similar verbiage. This will drop your credit report by maybe as many as 80 points – or far fewer than if you were to file for bankruptcy. Of course, if you’ve missed payments on your credit cards or other debts your credit score is already in the tank so an 80 point hit might not make that much of a difference.
The cost of debt settlement
As a very wise man once said, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” And there is no such thing as free debt settlement – unless you do it yourself. Debt settlement companies are a business no different from an automobile dealer or an accounting firm. What the debt settlement company will cost you will depend largely on the size of your debt. Some settlement firms will take a percentage of the amount of money that they are able to save you but the better ones charge a flat fee. This fee will range from 15% to 25%. Most experts consider this to be a better option because it allows you to know going in exactly what the debt settlement company’s charges will be. Ethical debt settlement companies prorate their fees and will incorporate them into your monthly payments. However, they won’t actually take the money until all of your debts have been settled. This means that the good debt settlement companies such as National Debt Relief cost you nothing until they have settled all of your debts. Most also offer 100% satisfaction guarantees so that if you were to become dissatisfied with your program for any reason you could drop out, get all of your money back and end up not paying a single dime.
