Debt Settlement Company

[jeni271]

http://www.financialrescueservice.com/index.html

Anyone know anything about a company that will negotiate with your creditors for you and even field their calls? The one Financial Rescue Services charges $50 per month plus 25% of what they save you. In essence they put your monthly payments in a trust and settle with your various creditors as they can.

The fees sound a bit steep - but I like that they handle all collection calls.

Anyone have comments about a service like this?

[md]

Do you have a lump sum to settle with now? If so, you can settle yourself and save a good deal of money.

If not, you could wait it out until you have some money or go with a company like this. You will be asked to set aside a certain amount of money each month for settlements. Once you have accumulated enough money (say 50% of one of your debts) they will then settle with the account that is most urgent (i.e. possible lawsuit). In other words, by the time this money is accumulated all of your accounts will be charged-off, some may take legal action...it is a risk.

Settling accounts is not easy in that it can be stressful talking hours and hours to your creditors, writing letters, taking their calls, etc. I looked into these companies like you are now. At the time I had no money to settle accounts. Luckily, some family members helped me by making money available to me for the purpose of settling these accounts. I still did not have enough for what they would initially settle for, but over time they will go down.

I was not convinced that they would do that much better than I could and also wanted to avoid legal action. It has been stressful, but worth it. I only have one creditor to deal with now and hopefully those two accounts will be settled in a month or so.

Good luck! Just remember, you can do it on your own and if you do you will have more money to give your creditors to make them happy.

[timbercreektech]

The question to ask yourself is :

"Am i prepared to live with a lousy credit rating."

While these companys can get your accounts settled, they do

nothing for your credit reports. A paid charge off or settled

account is very bad on your credit rating.

Find the answers to this question and you may want to find an

alternative, like doing it yourself.

Good Luck

[md]

Another thing to keep in mind, they make money off of what you save. Sounds good, but the amount you "save" will increase as it becomes more delinquent, and definitely increase some more once it is charged-off. They even proudly admit, "it is in our best interest to save you as much money as possible."

Your credit will suffer greatly. There is a decent chance you will be sued, depending on the size of the debt as well.

[smogtek]

I spoke with one of these companies and asked a few questions, but when they sent me a reply it was like they hadn't even listened to what I said!

If they can't "listen" properly, how can I expect them to "settle" properly".

On top of that they want a $445 "set-up" fee and 20% commission on the difference between your oustanding balance and what they settle it for.

That seems a bit steep for dealing with one creditor, but might be OK if you have multiple creditors ringing your phone off the hook.

Another issue was they usually only work with you if your debt is a MINIMUM of $10K.

For example a $10,000 debt settled for $2,000 means they get 20% of $8,000 or $1,600 commission PLUS the non-refundable $445 "set-up" fee!

I think I'd rather put the $2,045 toward the settlement.

Do a "Google" search using the words - debt settlement letters - and see for yourself the companies that are out there.

I think for now I'll go the self-help route.

[Edit by smogtek on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 @ 04:53 PM]

[md]

Agree completely with Smogtek.