I Cannot Pay My Credit Card Bills – What Are My Options
Seems like you have decided to take this on yourself in the place of hiring a debt relief company. Well, if you have the talents and abilities to rival those of the professionals especially in the areas of communication, negotiation and documentation, then go on right ahead. After all, if a nurse with little background in taxation and the law can single-handedly take on the Internal Revenue Service and win, then so can you where debt relief is concerned.
There are certain things, however, that you must consider when settling credit card debts as a personal endeavor. These three tips will ensure that you are one step closer to successfully taking on those credit card companies.
Make Sure that Your Accounts Are Significantly Delinquent
You might want to negotiate for lower principal amounts on your credit card bills as soon as you cannot pay the minimum monthly payment required or as soon as you feel that you cannot pay your debts due to other financial obligations.You should bear in mind that the debt relief process cannot be used unless your accounts are sufficiently delinquent.
Just how delinquent?Delinquent credit card accounts are written off by creditors once the 180+ days windows has completed. The write-off subsequently devalues the account so much so that third parties can purchase it for as little as 5 percent of its face value.
To prevent this from taking place, the credit card company will be eager to settle the debt through a negotiation process. After all, if they can collect 50 percent of the total debt, it is still way better than the 5 percent they will get from third parties.
Document Everything
In this day and age, verbal agreements hold very little merit when it comes to settling credit card debts through the debt relief process. After all, it will be your word against the word of the collection agents and you should know by now that nobody wins in such a case.
Instead, you should maintain detailed and descriptive records of everything pertaining to the negotiation and settlement of your credit card loans. Always send out letters with complete information to the proper addresses and addressees. Then, file these letters and other forms of communication in a binder for easy access.
If you must make a conversation over the phone, keep descriptive records of it.Document the date, time, the names of the people you spoke with, the contact numbers and the details of the conversation.
Use Mail That Can Be Tracked
Once the settlement has been reached, send your payment through certified mail or any mail that can be tracked.Send the check along with a memo clarifying that the check is the full payment along with a copy of the settlement that was reached.Now, you will have pretty good documentation.
Dont forget the specific strategies that you need to use to settle the debt by yourself.Remember the three tips here and you will do just fine in this process.
These are some specific steps that you can take. For more ideas about how can I improve my credit score you should read our articles about what you can do when you cant pay credit card debt
After reading this, I’m sure you believe that getting out of credit card debt isn’t that difficult.
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