Perhaps you’ve seen the commercials on television. Some nice financial do-gooders who are going to help you lower your monthly note while at the same time settling your credit card debts for a fraction of what you owe. It seems like such a wonderful idea. Basic premise: you save money while sticking it to those BMW driving Bank CEO’s. Please check out this website about Lighthouse Credit Foundation VS FTC, you’ll see the kind of bottom dwellers your dealing with. I have to give this subject some extra attention. Bankruptcy and settling your credit card debt is a large part of the problem driving today’s high credit card rates. After I failed to pay Bank of America and Citibank for three consecutive months my interest rate went from 21% up to 32.6%. This is called the default rate and is applied to a customer when they become High Risk.

From here, he offers some practical letter-writing alternatives among others. In regards to debt consolidation, there is certainly a cautionary tale and that is to make sure the company is well established and has debt negotiation relationships with major lenders and credit card companies. Care One Credit is a good example with such relationships with large companies like Capital One and others. Read the full post on Debt Prison.