Mark Carolin

Debt negotiation helps you to clear off your debts and lead a debt free life. If you have been irregular with your payments and missed 3 or more of them, it is time you start thinking of negotiating your debts. Debt negotiation is a good option for you if your debt account has been sold to a collection agency.

In debt negotiation, your outstanding balance is reduced by as much as 40% to 60%. You can opt for debt settlement in case you have the following debts to settle.

1. Store cards

2. Credit cards (unsecured)

3. Personal loans

4. Payday loans

5. Checks that have bounced

6. Medical bills

If you are hiring the services of a debt negotiating company, they work on your behalf and negotiate with the creditors to lower your outstanding balance. The debt negotiation firm evaluates your financial situation to find out if debt settlement is the right option for you or not. A budget is worked out so that you can curtail your other expenses and save some money for making payments towards debt negotiation.

A trust account is created into which the payments are made instead of paying them to the creditors. When there is enough money to start negotiating with the creditors, debt negotiation is initiated. Once the creditors agree to lower your outstanding balance, you start making payments to the creditors. A trust account usually doesn’t earn any interest but you regularly receive detailed statement indicating the monetary movements that have taken place in the trust account.

Effect of debt negotiation on credit score

Your credit score is an important indicator of your financial health. If you have a good credit score, it increases your chances of availing fresh credit in future. Not only this, you also stand a better chance of availing the various financial privileges some of the creditors offer, the rate of interest being one of them.

Since you stop making payments to the creditors for sometime and make payments into the trust account, your credit score gets damaged for a brief period. The score drops till the time your creditors don’t receive any payments from you. However, once your payments get regularized again, your credit score starts increasing.

Debt negotiation firms-check their credibility

If you are taking professional help, the debt negotiation firm you hire determines to a large extent, how successfully you complete the debt negotiation program. Prior to hiring their services, it is better to check their credibility. Try to search for the past records of the negotiating firm. Don’t settle for the firm that asks for fees before they actually do anything for you.

How do you benefit from debt negotiation?

Debt negotiation can be of immense benefit and can help you to lead a debt free life. Once you enroll for a debt negotiation program, the number of collection calls made by debt collectors is greatly reduced. You are entitled to pay less than what you owe, you become regular with your debt payments and finally you are able to lead a debt free life.

With the ever increasing cost of living and the period of easy financing by our banks a lot of people have over extended themselves financially. Basically if your monthly income is lower than your expenditure on a regular base you have a problem. (If it only happens occasionally then you should be OK if you of course saved in the better months).

So you find your self in this difficult situation? Is it the end of the world ? Not really but you must take action to reverse the situation. If you ignore it and hope the situation will improve by it selves then we have news for you. It won’t. Rather take action immediately and speak to your bank manager before he want to see you.

So what actions can one take to reverse the situation.

Work out a budget Cut up your credit cards and store cards (except for one you might need it in an emergency) Cut unnecessary expenses (which ties in with your budget) Consolidate your debt Increase your income

How to work out your budget

Add all your monthly income together to see what is available Start adding up all fixed expenses and classify them with 2 classifications. The first classification is the type of expenditure, the second classification is importance or need factor Start adding up all the variable expenses and again classify them in 2 different classifications

Now you will have a clear idea of how much you spend and on what and how much more you spend monthly above your income

Cut up your credit cards and store cards

This should be fairly easy. Take a scissor and start cutting and feel good about your selves.

Why keep one card. Sometimes one has an emergency or a cash flow problem so to have some backup is all ways good.

Cut unnecessary expenses

Now that you know how much you spend monthly and have cut up your credit cards etc. (which should stop you from impulse spending) you can analyse the budget you made.

Now start taking away those expenses which the lowest need factor/importance. (And you still can treat your selves to an evening out, but maybe go to a less expensive place and less often)

Consolidate your debt

Now that your credit cards are gone it is time to start paying them of. But it might be wise to consolidate all debt you have into one account for example your home loan and start paying lower interest rates. credit cards,personal loans etc are notorious for high interest rates. So speak to your bank about how to consolidate. They should be all to happy that you take your financial future in your own hands

Increase your income

This might be the most difficult of them all, because maybe you all ready have 2 incomes or you work double shifts. So this option is depending on one’s personal situation

If one follows up on even some of the suggestions in this article you might be well on your way to turning around your finances without winning the lotto