Joint Account Debt Settlement

For a large majority of consumers who are attempting to clear the outstanding debt that has plagued their credit report for too long, the process of choosing the best debt relief option can be difficult because of the fact that they owe on joint accounts with a spouse or significant other. Unfortunately, many debt settlement companies in the industry fail to inform many of their potential clients, or currently enrolled clients, of the negative short term impact that the debt settlement program may have on both cardholders credit. However, for people who possess joint accounts and are readily seeking the best path to financial freedom, a debt settlement company operating ethically can take a number of steps to guide you in the right direction before any decisions are made. In addition, the fact that a consumer may need joint accounts to be settled should not in any way change the approach that the company takes towards negotiating with the creditors. In simple terms, you can still save a large sum of money and have your debts considered settled in full upon graduation from the program, even if joint accounts is what you are currently dealing with. With that being said, make sure the settlement company you are in contact with informs you of the following:

For accounts with a cosigner: any debt settlement company should inform you that if the card does indeed have a cosigner, their credit will also be affected negatively by enrolling the account into the program. Remember, payment history makes up 35% of your credit score, and because the accounts should be closed during the program to help the negotiation process, credit scores can be impacted for the worse in the short term. Essentially, any company practicing business ethically in the debt settlement industry should, if you choose to enroll in the program, send you a waiver attached with the rest of the paperwork for the cosigner to sign and acknowledge that he or she understands the short term consequences that may result. Any cosigner to any account is considered financially responsible for any debt that may incur on that account.

For accounts with an authorized user: These particular cases are simple and much easier to deal with in terms of the process that ensues for enrolling these accounts into the program. A good company should inform you immediately that all you have to do is call the creditor the account is with and have the authorized user’s name removed from the card. Authorized users are not financially responsible for any debts that incur on the account. As a result, the authorized user on the account will not suffer any negative impact to their credit report if their name is removed. If a company does not inform you of this, than it should instantly demonstrate that the company, on top of being extremely careless with their clients, is also highly inexperienced when it comes to these particular cases that only require a basic level of knowledge to handle accordingly. My advice at this point would be to consult a different company and weigh your other options for a potential solution to the financial problem you may be experiencing.