Debt Settlement and Dealing With Creditors

Debt settlement may very well be the best option for the majority of consumers who are buried in debt and have yet to establish a plan to pay it off. While some consumers do have the management skills to generate a payment plan, often times the outstanding debt amount is simply too high to eliminate without professional help. The goal of any debt relief program is to effectively eliminate your debts and allow you to live a life free of your owing obligations. Debt settlement is one effective debt relief option for consumers in this situation. However, much of the success a debt settlement company has depends on the creditors they are dealing with for a particular client. While it is highly unlikely that any creditor will simply refuse to negotiate, there are a number of creditors who are more reluctant to reach lower percentage settlements. This article is meant to help consumers who are seeking credit card debt relief analyze their accounts and determine how much money they could save with a debt settlement program. The following is a list of creditors who fall under the category: “reluctant to agree to low settlements”:

Citibank: perhaps the most difficult creditor to negotiate with historically in the debt settlement industry, if all of your accounts are with them it is unlikely that debt settlement is the best credit card debt relief option for you to rid your debt. However, if you are someone who has one or two accounts with Citibank and have six other accounts you owe on, settlement companies will typically enroll you into their program with somewhat of a higher monthly payment. Expect a shorter program with a higher monthly payment if Citibank makes up over 50% of your creditors you owe.

Citibank Affiliates: AT&T, Amazon, Radio Shack, Verizon, Bombay, Lowe’s, Sears, Exxon, Shell, Office Depot, Home Depot, Associated Bank, Gateway, and Zales.

MBNA: while this creditor isn’t considered to be notoriously as difficult to negotiate with as Citibank, they have proven at times to be hesitant in reaching optimum settlements during the negotiation process. Again, if you only have one or two accounts with this creditor, debt settlement is certainly still an option. Expect once again to be placed on a shorter program with a higher monthly payment.

MBNA Affiliates: AAA Financial, PNC, United Nebraska Bank, Sun Trust, Wachovia, and Ameritrade.

Discover and CitiFinancial: these creditors are, relatively speaking, on the same level as MBNA in terms of how reluctant they are to agree to low settlements. An experienced debt settlement company will take that into account if these are the creditors you are dealing with when they give you a payment estimate before enrolling you into the program. Expect a shorter program with a higher monthly payment. That isn’t to say that settlements cannot be reached with these creditors, as the usually are.

Beneficial and Target: while these two creditors do not provide the same level of trouble for negotiators, they aren’t considered to be as favorable to work with as others. If you only have one or two accounts (out of say, eight or nine) with these creditors, it isn’t likely that you would have to be placed on a significantly shorter program with large monthly payments. Debt settlement may still be the best option.