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HomeBlog Debt Settlement“Should I Choose Debt Management Or Debt Settlement?”
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“Should I Choose Debt Management Or Debt Settlement?”

January 1, 2015 by National Debt Relief

when debt settlement makes senseIf you’re being harassed by your lenders or collection agencies, you may be wondering which would be of most help – a debt management plan or debt settlement. While both options could help, each has its own pros and cons.

How To Get A Debt Management Plan

Debt management plans (DMPs) are usually offered by what’s called consumer credit counseling agencies. The best of these agencies are nonprofits such as the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) and Money Management International (MMI). The NFCC has member agencies in most cities and towns. Money Management International has branch offices in many areas. If you can’t find an NFCC or Money Management International office near you, you could go online and find one. However, it pays to be careful of online credit counseling companies as some of them are outright frauds.

How a DMP works

The goal of a debt management plan is to help you manage your debts until you can get them paid off. Once you have chosen a credit-counseling agency, it will analyze your finances and help you create a debt management plan. Your counselor would then work with your creditors to restructure your debts and reduce your interest rates to make your payments more affordable. Nonprofit agencies usually offer a free initial one-hour consultation and then charge a minimal amount such as $25 per month until you have completed your plan.

The pros and cons of a DMP

A debt management plan is a form of debt consolidation in that once your lenders sign off on your plan, you won’t be paying them any longer. You’ll pay the credit-counseling agency instead. This means you would make just one payment a month, which should be lower than the payments you’re now making. The downside of a debt management plan is that you would have to surrender all your credit cards and not get any new ones until you finish your plan. You will also have to make all of your monthly payments when they are due or your plan could be canceled.

How debt settlement works

A debt settlement company will negotiate with your creditors to get your balances reduced so that you would typically be out of debt in 24 to 48 months and pay back only a fraction of what you owe.

The pros and cons of debt settlement

The pros of debt settlement is that it’s the only way to get your debts reduced, which usually means getting out of debt quicker than with a debt management plan. You wouldn’t be harassed by lenders or debt collection agencies any longer and would make only one payment a month, which in this case would be to the debt settlement company. The cons or downside of debt settlement is that you would have to stop making payments to creditors and this would definitely affect your credit score. However, the damage would not be as severe as if you had filed for bankruptcy.

Debt management versus debt settlement

Which of these would be your best option? That’s a decision only you can make. However, many families have found that debt settlement is a better solution as it’s a way to get debts reduced. In comparison, if you owed $15,000 and chose credit counseling, you’d still owe the $15,000 and it would definitely take you longer to pay it off then if you had your balances reduced to $7,500.

Do you qualify for debt consolidation?

National Debt Relief
National Debt Relief

National Debt Relief is one of the largest and best-rated debt settlement companies in the country. In addition to providing excellent, 5-star services to our clients, we also focus on educating consumers across America on how to best manage their money. Our posts cover topics around personal finance, saving tips, and much more. We’ve served thousands of clients, settled over $1 billion in consumer debt, and our services have been featured on sites like NerdWallet, Mashable, HuffPost, and Glamour.

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"When I first decided to go with National Debt Relief and I..."

Moderate National Debt Relief Caller: Charlotte Transcribed WE 1/17/2021 Charlotte: Our call may be recorded. What actually made you decide to work with our National Debt Relief as opposed to other providers? GLYNN: Well, when I first decided to go with them and I talked with the representative, I got a favorable impression of him. And since we've gone with him, we've had very good experience with them. Charlotte: Can you tell me about the program that our National Debt Relief signed you up for? GLYNN: It's a debt consolidation program. Took our credit cards and then working to pay them off. So far, they paid one of my wife's off and one from me. Took the harassing phone calls that we were getting and got them to stop and got creditors to wait on their payments so we could get money to pay them. Charlotte: What did you think about the enrollment process you went through? GLYNN: Enrollment process? Well, it was, I guess... Charlotte: Like how easy or difficult did you find the enrollment process to be? GLYNN: It was no [unclear 0:02:52], just what we could do, and looking at our financial situation, what we was able to do. It's just that, mainly, I was the point where I was fixing to go bankrupt and I didn't want to do that. And this was a way to, I guess, not to go bankrupt. But it still left that option open. Charlotte: In what ways would you say that this program has worked for you? GLYNN: Well, I guess the biggest thing is it stopped the harassing phone calls that we have been getting sometimes five or six times from the same creditor a day. It gave us an opportunity of being able to, I guess, set up a fund that we can use to eventually pay off our credit cards and our debts. Charlotte: About how far would you say that you were in at this point? GLYNN: At the time we signed up? Charlotte: At this point right now. About how far are you in the program? GLYNN: Well, it's, [0:05:00] I guess, about -- I would say I think I was like nine months. And like I say, they were able to pay off one of my wife's credit cards and are working on another one and was able to pay off one of my credit cards, and hopefully be able to pay off another one. Charlotte: Walk me through the interaction with your National Debt Relief negotiator. Give me a little insight on what that experience was like with that representative. GLYNN: Well, he helped us go through and get signed up on a program. He helped us with the getting, I guess, a financial report to establish a savings account to be able to use to start paying our debts off. We didn't know what to do or how to go about doing it. Charlotte: Is there anything about your National Debt Relief negotiator that really stood out and impressed you at all? GLYNN: Yeah, his manner and I guess he was polite and he didn't put down on us. And he led us and showed us the direction we need to go. Charlotte: Is there anything about this process that you would have liked to have seen handled differently? GLYNN: No, not really. Charlotte: If you had to rate this experience on a scale of one to five, and five is that you would recommend to friends and one is you were pretty dissatisfied, how would you rate it? GLYNN: I would rate it at a 5. Charlotte: Would it be okay if I posted your comments as a review on our public website for National Debt Relief? They just like to know what their customers felt about... GLYNN: If you think they're good enough to post. [chuckles] Charlotte: I will send over a link so that you can have it as a record for yourself also at glynncoates@gmail.com. How would you say that your life has been impacted by working with National Debt Relief? GLYNN: Well, it's taken off a lot of the burden off that we were under. We was to the point of, "Just go ahead," and getting a lawyer to file bankruptcy. But this has given us an opportunity to pay some of our debtors back. We made the debts under good face and circumstances beyond our control, it got out of hand. And so, we were trying to -- we wanted to pay them back, [0:10:00] or as much as we can so that, I guess, more ease in our minds. Charlotte: If a friend or a family member were asking you about National Debt Relief, what would you tell them? GLYNN: I'd tell them if they was needing, that they were good to work with and they continued to try to help and work with us. Charlotte: Our call is recorded.

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Glynn Coates
ConsumerAffairs Reviews

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