When Debt Collectors Keep Calling

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8 Easy Steps To Becoming Debt Free
Getting into Debt is easy.

When you leave school, you can start building a credit record for yourself. The only way to do this is to go into Debt. You think you can handle it: paying off your credit cards every month, staying up to date with all your other monthly payments. You're earning an income, living the high life and you can handle anything that life throws at you.

The... Read debt consolidation article



Student Loan Consolidation Plans
With tuition increasing at a rate greater than the cost of living, college students are depending more and more on student loans to help with the costs of higher education. Over the course of four or five years or longer in the case of graduate students, this adds up to many loans. Whether the loans are from the same lender or program or from different lenders and programs, most student loans can ... Read debt consolidation article



When Debt Collectors Keep Calling
While calls from debt collectors can be embarrassing, they shouldn't be harassing, but do you know your legal rights?

If it isn't bad enough that you've lost your job or been out of work due to illness and the bills are piling up, now you've got to deal with phone calls from debt collectors who may even impose on you at work.

If you've ever been in this position, you know how hard it is to dig out. Once your debt goes into collection, they only way you may be able to get it out is to pay it in full - something you obviously are not able to do at the moment. While many will let you setup a payment plan, they may still barrage you with calls until the debt is paid off.

Now, not every debt collector is a monster. Many of these people are just doing their jobs but you must understand that they have probably heard every story in the book from the people they phone. Plus many work on a commission and some can get a bit aggressive in their demeanor. It's easy to see how one could become intimidated by these frequent calls.

One thing you can do to take control of the situation is to know what debt collectors are and are not allowed to do. Debt collectors are allowed to contact you, of course. They may phone you, contact you by mail, telegram or fax and they also may even contact you in person. They are also allowed to phone you at work as well as at home, unless they know that your employer does not approve of calls. They cannot contact you before 8 in the morning or after 9 at night, unless you have given them prior permission to do so.

One thing that most people do not know is that you can get the debt collector to stop contacting you simply by writing a letter asking them to stop. Once you do this, they may contact you one more time to advise you of further actions. Of course, you still must make good on the debt. If you feel that the debt charges are in error then you should state as such in the letter.

Contrary to the horror stories you may have heard, debt collectors are not allowed to harass you. They are not allowed to threaten or abuse you or anyone you know in order to get "to you" nor are they allowed to call you repeatedly. They cannot threaten you with legal action or wage garnishment unless they are allowed by law and actually intend to follow through.

If you feel that you have been harassed or want to report an agent, get in contact with the Federal Trade Comission. They set the policies and will know what is allowed and what is not.

Lee Dobbins writes on many subjects including debt and credit repair. Learn how to repair your credit with this free report at http://www.credit-repair.freeinfoplace.com

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Debt Settlement and Mortgage Refinance

No financial planner would ever recommend a mortgage refinance (one form of debt consolidation) to get out of credit card debt. It is substituting secured debt for unsecured debt and you could lose your home over a bunch of unsecured credit card debt if you get injured or can't afford your new higher monthly payments.

Also, and these are verifiable published reports, 77% of all people who refinance their way out of credit card debt are right back at the same level of credit card debt 2.5 years later on average only now with less equity in their home. So it obviously isn't fixing the problem.

why?

Because no behavior modification was needed. You made it too easy on them to just refinance out of cc debt. No financial planner will ever recommend that route.

In settlement though they have to go without using credit cards for 2 to 3 years and do go through behavior modication as does an alcoholic in rehab. Secondly, credit counseling entries on your credit report are as bad as bankruptcy entries they will crash your FICO for 10 years and take you from a 700 FICO down to low 500's literally overnight.

Debt settlement on the other hand is only a late pay on your credit report. Late pays bring down a 700+ FICO about 40-50 points, they bring down 600+ FICO's about 30 points, and bring down 500+ FICOs about 10-20 points. But more importantly, the FICO goes back up more than the drop from late pays as we eliminate the debt so their debt to income ratio goes down to zero and their FICO is back up higher than it was before they joined a settlement program even with the late pays on there, but we demand a withdrawal of the late pay entry as part of the negotiated settlement and get that 99% of the time.

Superior Debt Relief is the only debt settlement company that pays for three levels of credit restoration afterwards to bring the FICO up even higher.

Settlement is one of the methods used by mortgage consolidation people to get someone qualified into a home that was denied financing due to too high of a debt to income ratio.


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When Debt Collectors Keep Calling
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