Negotiate Credit Card Settlement - Find Out How To Wipe Out Your Credit Card Debts

The fact that credit cards are so easily available to most of us when we need to spend a bit more than we actually have, is one of the reasons why so many people get into credit card debt. Such debts often mount up gradually and before we know it they have suddenly grown so large that it is beyond our ability to pay them off.

This is when people sometimes jump at the first solution they can think of, which in some cases can often make things worse. Debt consolidation loans, for example, are often used by people to pay off credit cards, but all that happens is that the problem is transferred to another lender, often leading to greater interest payments in the long run. Others consider bankruptcy, which is indeed a serious step and should not be entered into lightly. Bankruptcy will rarely be an appropriate response to credit card debt.

Negotiating a settlement with the card companies or collection agencies is always the best answer to credit card debt. The idea being, to get an agreement to write off as much of the debt as possible to begin with, leaving only a fraction of the debt to pay. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have money to pay off a lump sum, there are ways around that. The main thing is to get your negotiation right and get rid of the vast majority of your debt in one go.

Of course, doing this is easier said than done. Card companies and collection agencies are not always the easiest people to negotiate with, and you will often be met with an unwillingness to co-operate. In this situation many people turn to lawyers and professional debt settlement companies to help, but these people all charge significant fees for their help. There are other sources of advice, and with the right guidance you can manage perfectly well the debt settlement professionals and save an awful lot of money.

What you need is a good understanding of the processes that the card companies go through, which will allow you to know exactly when it is best to approach them and what you need to say. By understanding how they treat bad debts and when they are likely to charge it off from their balance sheets, you can take maximum advantage and get the biggest possible discount on your debt. If you get this process right, you will typically be able to write off between half and 80% of your credit card debts. Without this understanding you are unlikely to ever achieve this level of saving.

You can get detailed help and guidance without paying expensive lawyers of debt settlement companies, and if you get the process right, you can even end up getting a better deal than most of the professionals would. Debt settlement fees tend to be about 20% of the debt, so by doing your own negotiation on a credit card debt of $20,000 will save you about $4,000 in fees.

Read advice on how to negotiate debt.