“Hi Steve,
Thank you again for all of the great advice you provide for so many of us in need! It is greatly appreciated. My question is regarding a single creditor. I entered into a Debt Management Plan with a legitimate organization in the industry. My single concern at this point is that one of my creditors decided to sell my debt off to a law firm for collection. My account doesn’t even exist on the bank profile. I did recieve one call a week ago from them but not again. Can this specific credit card debt still be included in the DMP or do I have to pay this collection law firm the settlement amount out of pocket? I’d rather include it in the DMP as I do not have the $ amount they are asking for in a settlement.
Thanks Steve, take care.
Richard”
The Answer:
Dear Richard,
Excellent question.
Some credit counseling or debt management companies won’t deal with a collection company. The reason, the collection companies don’t pay a commission or fairshare contribution for collecting and passing on the money.
All debt management and credit counseling programs are voluntary programs. No creditor is obligated to participate in the program. All it takes is one aggressive or nasty creditor to force someone from debt management into bankruptcy.
So why be aggressive then? The first aggressive creditor knows they have a better chance of collecting more from you. You’ve already made a choice to avoid bankruptcy and go into a debt management plan so the creditor or collector knows bankruptcy wants to be avoided and they know you will probably do what you can to raise the funds to pay the collector.
Call your debt management company. Tell them who now has the debt and ask them to include it in your DMP. Let me know what they say and if the collection company agrees to payments. If they don’t play nice, your hand has been forced and we’ll have to decide what to do next.
Please update me on your progress by posting updates here in the comments section of your question. I’m very interested in how this works out for you.
P.S. Be sure to read ‘The Secret of Surviving Through Difficult Economic Times. What I Learned On My Journey‘.
If you have a credit or debt question you’d like to ask just use the online form. I’m happy to help you totally for free.