Credit Card Debt Consolidation Negotiators – Can They Ruin Your Credit Score?

There are different reasons why people fall into debt. All of a sudden you may realize that you just can not make your regular payments. All of your bills and credit card statements drive you to the point of insanity and it seems that you will be unable to get out of this pit without help. This is when credit card debt consolidation negotiators step in.

If you venture online you are sure to find literally dozens of credit negotiation companies all screaming at you promises of help with your unsecured debt all through specialized negotiation with your creditors.

You will inevitably find some companies that claim to be nonprofit organizations; working for the betterment of those most in need. They explain how they will be able to lower your total debt by between 10-50%. In order to do this you will need to pay them to open a credit card debt negotiation account. They may even suggest that you pay token payments or even stop making payments to your creditors completely and instead, hand the money to them.

Chances are that you may be told that the road to negotiating a debt repayment schedule is a long and arduous one and that it can take anything up to six months to be completed and you may even be told that any negative information on your credit report will be removed once an agreement on a payment schedule is in place and also; that credit negotiation will not have any negative affect on your credit history.

The simple truth of the matter is that there are a number of self proclaimed experts on debt negotiation out there whose only expertise is that of perpetuating money making scams that feed off desperate individuals looking for a way to ease their debt burden.

Firstly, companies that proclaim to be nonprofit organizations are not necessarily so and many companies, nonprofit or otherwise that tell people to perform certain actions that are not legitimate should be avoided.

For example, if you are advised by a debt management company to stop making payments or even reduce your payments to your creditors without a prior agreement being in place; you are liable for breaking the contract between you and your creditor and may invoke even higher interest rates and late fees as laid out in your credit contract.

The charges and fees that certain credit card debt consolidation negotiators place at your door can be as draining to your wallet as the debts they are supposed to be clearing. The charges usually start with a fee for opening up a new account, solely for the purpose of consolidation, a monthly service fee and a finally a completion or final fee. This completion fee is calculated as a percentage of the sum of money you will have saved by using the consolidation management service.

Finally, as for promising to remove all the bad information from your credit report you should note that there is actually no legal way hat they can do this! All financial institutions must report any financial undertaking, whether it is a plus, a negative or just an inquiry to all the major credit bureaus. Any information that is put onto your credit history remains there for 7 years and the only way it can be removed is if it proven to be incorrect which can be a difficult process.

As for debt negotiation ruining your credit score, that depends. If your credit card debt consolidation negotiation company is legit your credit score may actually improve if it is seen as a positive restructuring of your debt and the correct steps are taken at the right times.

However, if the company you are dealing with is nothing more than a scam outfit your credit score will be very badly affected due to missed or late payments, so yes; credit card debt negotiators can ruin your credit score; but only if you do not check out the legitimacy of the company before using them.


TOP