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| thedominator |
 Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 4:10 pm Post subject: Credit counciling firms? |
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Investing Associate
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anyone dealt with credit counciling firms before?
the article http://www.moneysavingfreetips.com/consumer-credit-counciling.html says to be wary of ccc firms coz:
"Thus as a consumer, you have to beware! Avoid "debt settlement" firms who promise to completely get rid of your debt within months and who ask for a $3000 upfront fee. These usually turn out to be scams who upon receiving the money will run off from the country, disconnect their phones or set up a new firm under a new name."
did you have to pay any upfront fees? did they really help in lowering your interest payments? |
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| vetelmo |
| Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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Moderator
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| I considered that about 4 or 5 years ago and I ended up doing it myself. The companies I talked never mentioned an upfront fee that was that big. |
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| MrT |
| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 3:31 am Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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I have seen many articles on bankrate.com about CC firms, and their thought is there is only a small group of people that they can actually help, but most of their business comes from people who actually hurt their credit by going to them.
The gist of it is that the firms really can't consolidate your debt at a better rate than you can if you go to a bank, so if you plan on paying your debt, why would you pay them any fee to do it for you? Then the ones that claim to erase the debt can only legally do so by telling your lenders that you are going into bankruptcy, but you wll pay them pennies on the dollar to erase your debt. But by doing that, your credit score goes completely in the drain because they just say you defaulted on your debt. This will pretty much make it impossible to get a loan again. Then you might still end up owing it all anyways unless you have a sound legal agreement on paper. I guess if you know you are going into bankruptcy, paying someone to completely trash your credit score, then pay only a small amount to the lenders, might be a better option than flat out bankruptcy, but I think it may be close.
Some of them try more creative scams like claiming you owe the debt illegally, lol, those don't work either:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debtcreditguide/debt-illegal1.asp
As always, if it seems to be too good to be true, it probably is.
OH! Also, I heard somewhere that if you go to a credit counseling service for help, it will also be put on your credit report, which would also sink your chances of getting another loan to zero. |
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| Benjamin |
| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 3:35 am Post subject: |
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Administrator
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I've heard some of those credit repair places will "Spam" your credit report with positive things to attempt to push down all the bad history.
Sounds like a dangerous game to me. |
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| nickspcs |
| Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 11:28 am Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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