Debt settlement companies can seldom deliver what they promise, to the increasing concern of consumer protection agencies.
Yet their pitch that “settling your debts” is superior to bankruptcy. It ain’t so.
All too often the client of the debt settlement company is exposed to continuing collection calls, lawsuits, plumeting credit scores, and garnishments while the company is attempting to settle the debt.
What is it that makes a chancy, drawn out, expensive relationship with one of these debt settlement companies seem attractive to the financially overwhelmed?
- Enrollment appears to offload the problem on someone working for you
- High profile media types like Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey badmouth bankruptcy
- Promoters suggest that there is a “secret” to settling your debt for pennies on the dollar
As long as the public buys the idea that bankruptcy is akin to leprosy, those who, for a fee, hold out access to the secret, non bankruptcy solution prosper.
The truth is that most debt settlement companies get their money upfront so that they are in fine shape when the consumer figures out that paying the debt settlement people for months on end has not resolved any of the life-sapping incidents that come with being in debt: collection calls, law suits, levies.
By contrast, bankruptcy is available for a flat fee; instantly effective to stop collections, and is enforceable by a judge. And, it doesn’t generate cancellation of debt income issues.
What’s not to like?
Image courtesy of derekbruff.
