What Is Debt Settlement?
Debt settlement also referred to as debt negotiations is a method to settle your debts for less than what you owe. Debt settlement procedures can be very effective IF you know what you are doing and have some money.
When you want to avoid bankruptcy and get out of debt AND you have some money set aside, you can negotiate with your creditors or use a debt negotiator to do it for you. Often they will offer 30-40% of the total debt to be considered as settled in full. This can cut the debt in half and consider it case closed. That means no more worrying about the creditors coming after you or worrying day and night about being sued or slapped with a judgment.
You must have money to settle your debts, otherwise, there is no “debt settlement”. Many times the creditors will accept this, especially if you are in dire straights and they fear you may file for bankruptcy and they’d be left with nothing. Negotiating your own debts without paying a professional. That can mean even more money in your pocket.
What Is Debt Management?
Debt Management is an entirely different program than debt negotiations. Credit counseling or debt management is used to cut your monthly payments to your creditors but you still pay the full balance. It’s a good alternative if you are unable to meet your monthly obligations to your creditors and are falling behind.
A debt counselor can set up a program with your existing creditors and in essence “freeze collections” and reduce your monthly payment. This gives you adequate time to repay everyone without the worry of the accounts going into collections or being sued.
A good debt management program will be a not-for-profit that will work as your counselor and do all the dirty work with the creditor. You simply pay one payment to the credit counseling firm each month and they disburse your payments for you to your creditors.
You can even get many creditors to agree to freeze the interest or remove late fees. Often they will also “suspend” credit reporting while you complete the program.