What is Debt Settlement?

What Is Debt Settlement and Negotiation?

If you are being contacted by debt collectors for original creditors or debt buyers, there are things you can do to protect yourself. You may want to negotiate with them effectively so that you can pay them and minimize damage to your credit report or reduce the chance of their suing you, or you may just want to make them leave you alone.

Whatever you want, though, there are legal protections and tools you can use to move things forward and avoid hurting yourself in the future.

Know Who Is Trying to Get Your Money

It starts with knowing who is contacting you and what they want – and what they can or might do to you if they do not get it. Likewise, it is good to know what you can do to them, depending on how things develop. There’s an old saying that almost all lawsuits settle after negotiations, but that negotiations always occur “in the shadow of the law.” That is, what you will have to do after settlement has a lot to do with what they could make you do after trial. Thus there is a lot of information here designed for people suing and being sued – that’s how you know where the shadow of the law falls.

Credit card companies are different than other large companies or small businesses, and both are different than debt buyers. Talking to a bill collector inside an original creditor is different than talking to one outside the company, and it is yet another thing if you are contacted by someone on behalf of a debt buyer. It sometimes even makes a difference whether they call you first, or vice-versa. These are all important things to keep in mind. And there are many others. We have materials on the site that will help you understand how these things can affect your negotiations, and we have products that will make it easier for you to do what you need.

Debt Settlement – Not “One Size Fits All”

Many debt settlement companies attempt to force creditors to the negotiating tables by withholding payments. This is not always a good idea. There are also other alternatives, and we discuss some of those and ways you can act to minimize the damage to your credit report by negotiating with creditors, where possible, before that damage has occurred.

If you are negotiating, you will want to act in your strategic best interest, and our materials are designed to help you do that.