Consumed By Debt?... There are Sharks in the Water!

The tremendous demand for debt management services today has created a national opportunity for unscrupulous operations.

They are exploiting consumer credit card debt problems to their advantage and damaging many people's credit in the process. It is extremely important that you understand the different types of debt management services available today.

BEWARE OF ALL SETTLEMENT PROGRAMS. SETTLEMENT ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING AND DESTROYS YOUR CREDIT.

Common Warning Signs, Avoid Firms That...

· DO NOT OFFER A GUARANTEE!

· Beware those companies that require payment by money order or cashiers check or try to get you to allow them to debit your checking account immediately.
Be especially wary of this because it is not necessary to make a payment immediately.

Most of your accounts will be accepted on our program before you even make your first payment.

· Run from those that require you to close and include ALL ACCOUNTS.

· Hang up those that retain your first payment as a set up fee. At one time in this industry that was a common practice. It could be done because creditors would re-age and account so there was no damage to a client’s credit. Today your credit score will take a hit for this. We do not retain any portion of a client’s payment to their creditors.

· Avoid the ones that require any personal information before providing you with a quote. Account numbers are not needed to provide a quote. All that is needed for a quote are the names of the creditors, the balances and the current interest rates.

· Offer many services like debt negotiation, IRS Help, credit repair and seem to be jack of all trades firms.
Debt Consolidation is a specialized, labor intensive process when done properly. Firms that have branched out into all of these related services are most likely having trouble internally.

· If you need a credit card for business or travel you will find the heavily promoted national companies require a client to include every account. They make you sign an agreement saying you will not apply for new credit while on their program etc. It is not a requirement to give up all credit to enter a debt management program here.

· If you need a new card prior to entering a debt management program, you may find one here that suits your needs credit card offers or try Cardratings.com

· Stay away from those that play “approval” games".
There are no approval requirements for debt management programs other than determining whether the creditors you have will be ones that will offer better terms, and whether you can afford the required payment. Those decisions are all yours!!

Beware those that collect your personal information and say they will find the “right” or “best” debt management company for you. These firms advertise on the internet and elsewhere and are just marketing or lead generation firms. They sell your name to other companies. Your name will be sold many times. We do not share your information with anyone.

· Advise you to include accounts that already have low rates - see chart at the on this page. Be sure to use the payoff calculator here. No personal information is required or asked for.

· Advise you to include Student Loans in your consolidation. Student Loans already have low rates, usually 7.75% to 8.25% and do not offer more favorable rates for debt consolidation plans. If you need help with student loans click here.

· Stay away from those that advise you to include credit union accounts with rates that are already low. There is no point in including accounts with low interest rates.

· Stay away from those that advise you to include the IRS.
IRS debt must be handled separately from the rest of the accounts in the consolidation. Accelerated Debt Consolidation, Inc. can advise you on how to handle your IRS problem through the proper source.

· Quote a set interest rate like "between 0% and 10%" instead of quoting each creditors rate individually. Each creditor dictates terms they will accept in any debt management program. Those terms do not change between agencies.

· Quote payoff times of "4 years" or "53 months" instead of giving you the individual payoff time for each creditor. When you have 7 creditors with 7 different balances and 7 different interest rates an answer like "4 years" or "53 months" is obviously coming from a telemarketers sales script not a Debt Management Professional. See our Payoff Calculator for payoff times and rates for your accounts. Nothing you put in this calculator is saved or used in anyway.

· Do you like "Cash Back Awards"…. Who wouldn’t…. In this industry, they are scams…. Stay away!!

· Stay away from those that quote an unusually low monthly payment especially if you have gotten higher quotes from other companies and have substantial balances totaling $30,000 or more. See How Your Payment Is Calculated.

· Debt Arbitration Or Debt Negotiation Services, these are wolves in sheep's clothing. Today it is also called Debt Settlement - This Is An Entirely Different Service Than Debt Consolidation. These firms negotiate with creditors to reduce the total amount that you owe.

This is NEVER a viable alternative for consumers that wish to maintain their credit.

What most debt negotiators don't tell you is that when they negotiate a reduced payoff amount, it is reported as a paid charge off or R-9 on your credit report.

You will pay income taxes on the amount that the creditors let you off of.

If a creditor settles a $10,000 debt for $5000, the $5000 is reported as income and you will be taxed on it.

In addition, the account/accounts will be R-9 charge offs on your credit report.

Debt Settlement / Negotiation is never for consumers who are current on their accounts and want to maintain their credit.

Let's take a look at traditional non-profit credit counseling services. These companies specialize in accounts for consumers that are already delinquent.

- They require consumers to include all of their accounts in the program.

There are several large, legitimate, non-profit credit counseling firms.

- These firms will only accept you as a client if you are already behind on your bills.

It is also important to be aware that many very large non-profit firms are not legitimate.

Many of these firms advertise nationally on television and the internet. They use their 501-C3 non-profit status to lead consumers to believe that they are some kind of public service.

It is these so called "non-profit" firms that should be avoided.

Many consumers and even credit advisors make the mistake of assuming that a non-profit firm is automatically legitimate, nothing could be further from the truth.

Some of the largest perpetrators of consumer fraud are non-profit 501-C3 companies. The "non-profit" feature of credit counseling firms was originally established because the creditors could write off the "fair share" distributions to these companies as a contribution.

This is not to say that all non-profit firms are bad, however whether a firm is non-profit or not is by no means a way of determining if they are legitimate.

The major creditors have rates and established minimum percentages of the balances that you owe. These terms are use to determine your minimum payment in the debt management program.

These are the same for all debt consolidation plans. In other words, one debt management company can't get you a lower rate or payment than another.

Minimum payment requirements and interest rates are the same for all legitimate debt management plans.

For example if you owed Chase Manhattan Bank $10,000. They want 2% of the balance or $10,000 X .02 = $200. They would reduce your rate to 6%.

You are essentially be converting a revolving account to an installment account.

You would have it paid off in approximately 5 years. These are the terms that you would get from Chase no matter which firm handled your debt consolidation.

Now let's take a look at how Accelerated Debt Consolidation, Inc. operates. If you are current on your account or even a bit behind and get them current without having to make back payments.

We can get the late and over-limit fees stopped.

Our main specialty is helping clients that are current on their accounts and need reduced rates while minimizing any damage to their credit.

At Accelerated Debt Consolidation, Inc. we can consolidate your high interest, high balance accounts while allowing you to keep some of your credit cards for essentials like business, travel or emergencies.

We service clients on a national level and can provide you with excellent references verifying our high quality service and customer satisfaction.

At Accelerated Debt Consolidation, we specialize in debt consolidation. Part of a professionally managed debt consolidation program is setting up your program to prevent interest rate surprises.

You really can payoff all your unsecured debt at much lower interest rates than creditor currently offer the general public and do it within the federal guidelines.

Hope that helps a little.

Use our CAUTION Page for more information.

For more information contact us Here or 800-810-5250

See our BBB Rating Here.

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