It is truly sad that more people are not aware that it is very possible to settle credit card debt personally without ever having to deal with a legal representative. If the credit companies that you owe money to decide to take legal action against you, they will charge you with their no doubt costly legal fees.
It would be wise to call the credit card companies yourself and try to work out a settlement agreement with them on a personal basis. The credit card companies really don't want the situation to progress to the point where they have to take legal action, so they will probably be willing to negotiate even if your account has been delinquent for several months.
Start by trying to adjust your interest rate and lower service charges that have been applied to your account. Once you know what the credit company is charging you, you will be more prepared to negotiate effectively with them on a settlement.
They are much more able to negotiate over interest and service charges than the principle so you can start there with your settling credit card debt mission. Remember though that the interest and service charges are the credit card company's money and they are not going to be really excited to part with it so try and make a deal that works for both of you.
Then It Is On To The Hard Part
The money that you spent on purchases that has already been paid by the credit card company, called the principal, is the hardest aspect of your debt to negotiate over with credit card companies. They don't want to have paid for something and not have you pay them back.
The credit card company is not going to repossess or take anything, they just want their money. Asking them to mess with the principle is a tough request and do not be surprised if they will not move on the principle. If they gave you a deal on the interest and service charges then consider yourself lucky.
Regardless of what agreement you reach with the credit card company, you need to be prepared to follow through with your end of the deal. If you fail to meet the terms of your settlement plan, you can expect the credit card company to take aggressive action to get their money, not a second chance.
Settling Credit Card Debt
Another way of looking at these issues is the huge amount of credit card debt, and the way that banks manage this. One weapon that banks have been using with increasing frequency, is the ?universal default? clause of credit card agreements. A bank can check the consumer's credit rating, his FICO score, and if it thinks that it is too high or has gone up, the bank can raise the interest rate on the consumer's credit card debt. Some states have no limit on the interest rates that can be charged, there are no usury laws. That is why a large number of credit card operations are run from South Dakota, which has no usury laws. Your credit card rates can rise dramatically, of course if you are late in your payments. Studies show that about 35 million Americans pay the minimum payment on their credit cards month after month that can be as low as 2 percent of the balance. If a consumer does this, they end up paying a yearly interest rate of over 13 percent, which means paying more for your purchases. Many of these people eventually end up in debt counseling or bankruptcy. In fact, the high rate of defaults on unsecured debt was the main reason for the banking industry's pressing for the passing of the 2005 Bankruptcy law, which makes it more difficult to write off unsecured credit card debt. After all, the credit card debt market is a fairly large sector, of about $2.2 trillion and growing every year.
Meanwhile, since late in 2005, the Bank of America has become the dominant player in the credit card field. They bought up the $35 billion MNBA Corporation, which is Delaware's largest employer. The combined corporation has almost 120 million credit card accounts and a dominant position in the credit card market. The result is that three players; Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank, control 55 percent of the total credit card market. This is a parallel development to the fact that these three banks control something like 90 percent of the derivatives contracts. Derivatives are speculative instruments derived from the value of either commodities like grain or oil, or financial indexes like interest rates, or more complex instruments like caps and swaps.
Both William Blake & Adam J. Heist are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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