It's not particularly difficult to negotiate your own debt settlements, but it's often better to have somebody who does it on a regular basis do it for you, and good credit counseling agencies often include it as a part of their service, and charge very little. There are lots of good, and even excellent debt settlement companies of course, but there are also a great number of bad, to very bad ones, and if you end up with one of those, you'll not only spend a lot of money, but you might get next to nothing in return. If you've already decided that the debt settlement route is the way to go, then I'd recommend either going with a BBB (Better Business Bureau) affiliated credit counseling agency, or doing it yourself. The biggest problem that most people face when carrying out the negotiations themselves, is their mindset, and they often don't understand that what's good for them, is often not what's good for the creditor. Below Are 6 Pointers That Should Help You Negotiate With Creditors. 1) If you believe that you can bully a lender into lowering his interest rate and eliminating legitimate fees then you're mistaken. Despite what you might have read or heard, creditors aren't required to help you, and the best way to deal with them is in with a calm, positive, and straightforward approach. Do your best to create as positive an impression as you can, because it will bring about the best environment for negotiations. 2) Do your homework before you phone a creditor. Try to imagine the negotiation from the lender's point of view, and write down all the questions that he might to ask, and then consider all the possible replies. The very last thing that you want to occur during the call is that you become confused or frustrated, and appear to be searching for answers. Be prepared to counter any unhelpful plan that the creditor suggests, but do so in a helpful and constructive way, and if you can offer any creative ideas that will leave the door open for future discussions, then so much the better. 3) Don't expect the lender to be particularly sympathetic about your situation. You got yourself into your present situation, and what you're wanting to do will cost him money, and maybe a lot of it. Bear in mind that the person that your talking on the phone to has already heard every sob story in the book, and launching into yours will most likely just cause him to roll his eyes, and mentally disconnect. Try to offer something tangible that makes good business sense. Stick to the facts, and try to convince the lender that by helping you, that he'll also be helping himself. 4) Try to negotiate as near as possible to the end of the lender's fiscal month. A fiscal month normally consists of full seven day weeks, and the most commonly used system by most companies is the 4-4-5 calendar. This means that the first two months of a quarter have four weeks and the last month has five weeks. The reason for wanting to negotiate as near to the end of the month as possible is that most creditors much prefer to resolve outstanding issues before the first day of their fiscal month. It's something which enables them to keep their bill processing clean throughout their bill consolidation process. Don't be in a hurry to play the bankruptcy card. It might well force the creditor into making concessions, but it will also completely change the atmosphere from one of cooperation, to one of confrontation. If the lender tells you to go ahead and file for Chapter 7, then you've most likely lost all chances of future negotiation with him. In some cases, bankruptcy might be your best course of action, but it will also ruin your credit rating for seven years, and you should only resort to it if you have no other options. 6) Before threatening bankruptcy, it might be a whole lot better to remind the lender that the whole bureaucratic process of debt recovery is both time consuming and expensive, and mention that it most often leads to debt negotiation. Tell him that you're more than ready to compromise right now, and ask him to please reconsider. Suggest that perhaps it would be better to reach an arrangement sooner, rather than later.
Please Rate this Article 5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
