Many consumers are unaware of their risks with
unpaid debts. Yes, it's true that a creditor could sue you in court
and win a judgment, allowing the creditor to garnish your wages or hire a sheriff
to come get your property. However, the chances of this are small. It
is simply too much time and expense for them to take action against you. We
don't want to lie to you, the possibility does exist, but the chances are small.
And if they do take you to court, often they have no case.
Too many consumers feel that their debts
are overwhelming and there is nothing they can do other than file a
bankruptcy.
Consumers believe those awful tales spun by collection agencies of impending doom,
especially about garnishment and seizure of property. Collection agents fail
to mention (surprise!) that in order for these actions to take place, the creditor
must first go to court. Due to lack of information, many consumers turn prematurely
to bankruptcy. Please don't do this! Bankruptcy should not be used until
after all options are exhausted, including the
settlement procedures. In some cases, having your debt go into collections
can be a blessing!
Before you attempt to settle a debt, check the statute of limitations
Collectors only have a certain amount of time to sue you for payments.
The first thing you should do is determine if the statute of limitations for collecting
a debt in your state have past.
If the debt is older than the statute of limitations, tell the bill collectors they
are wasting their time by harassing you for an uncollectable debt, as the original
creditor or the assigned collection agency cannot take you to court to get a judgement.
After 7 seven years (in most cases), a negative mark and the related collections
will disappear from your
credit report. If the debt
has gone unpaid for 7 years, then it can no longer legally remain on your credit
report. You can challenge this listing on your credit report and it will come
off. Please note: the amount of time a late payment can appear on your credit
report has nothing to do with the statute of limitations. Very important distinction.
Even though a debt may no longer legally appear on your credit report after 7 years,
you could still be sued for the debt if the statute of limitations for your debt
in your state is not up.
If the debt is gone from your
credit report AND the statute of limitations is up on this debt, you're home
free! If enough time has passed for both the legal debt collection statutes
of limitations and the credit report limitations has passed, don't worry about the
debt! If your debt meets both of these conditions, it is uncollectable and
it cannot appear on your credit report!
If you cannot wait for statutes of limitation to pass on a debt, and you don't feel
like messing with the debt validation procedure, you may consider trying to settle
your debts yourself with a collection agency.
A collection agency is any agency which collects a debt on behalf of another company.
Under these terms and federal law, this includes:
Companies who purchase the debt (also known as junk debt buyers - JDBs)
Companies who has been assigned to collect the debt
Lawyers who send you letters to collect a debt
(so don't panic!)
Debts Which are Good Candidates For Settlement
There are two basic categories of debt,
for the purpose of this article: secured and unsecured.
Unsecured debts include:
medical bills
credit cards
department store cards
personal loans
student loans
bounced checks
Secured debts include:
home
auto
With a secured debt, a piece of real
property (such as an automobile or a home) is promised if the debtor can't finish
making payments, or defaults, on the loan. You will not be able to settle
these debts, as the creditor will simply accept the promised property as the "settlement." As a
matter of fact, with a home or auto loan, you most likely won't be reading this
information - your property will have bee just repossessed.
With unsecured debts, there is nothing
"attached" to the loan promised as repayment. Unsecured loans are typically
given to people with good credit, due solely to the fact that they have good credit.
These are the type of debts that a creditor is willing to settle, as they have no
way to guarantee they will receive anything from you.
How to get a creditor to make the deal you want
To give you some background, most bad debt companies pay or receive literally
pennies on the dollar for the debts on
which they are trying to collect. The amount that companies pay for bad debt
depends on the type of account and its age:
Debts that have recently been charged off: 6 to 7 cents on the dollar.
Accounts that are slightly older and on which a collection agency or two has already
taken a whack: 1.5 cents to 2 cents on the dollar.
Years-old, out-of-statute debts: A penny or less.
With this in mind, you should always start your offer at 25% or less. Let's
understand the math here. If your debt
is $1000, let's say at the most, the collection agencies has paid or will collect
7 cents on the dollar, or $70. If you offer them $250 (25%), they are still
making a profit of $180. Remember, the credit card companies are out of the
picture at this point. This money goes directly to the collection agencies.
Don't forget! Negotiate your credit rating with the creditor
The next thing you should do is negotiate your credit rating with the creditor.
This is very important as a "paid" collection is as negative to
your credit rating as an "unpaid collection." All your negotiation efforts
and hard cold cash will do nothing to rebuild your
credit report if you neglect to negotiate your credit rating in the process.