Can My Wife and I Independently Go Into a Debt Relief Program? – Paul

“Dear Damon,

My Wife just closed her business and the outstanding unsecured debt is about 100K. My personal debt is about 38K. I want to go on a debt relief program where a company negotiates a reduced amount and interest. She does not want to do this for her debt load.

Can we independently arrange for debt relief? I want to get this doen ASAP and not worry about the ding on the credit score. She has larger amount and it would be advantagious to have her do this as well – but she is overly concerned about credit score – more than half the population is deep financial trouble so who cares about the credit score in two years it can be raised and improved. The score is in the toilet anyway because of the debt load. Am I right or what? Thanks

Paul”

Hello Paul,

Yes, as long as she is not on your cards and you have confirmed that none of your cards are on her credit report, then if you are no longer able to make payments and fall behind on some of your debts, that should not effect her credit score.

I would like to clear up a few things though. You mentioned negotiating a reduced amount and interest. I am not sure if you are looking at possibly a debt settlement approach or a credit counseling approach. They are two very different approaches each with their own pros and cons. Typically if you call a CCCS program, they will tell you that they are better than debt settlement and you should enroll into their program. If you call a debt settlement program, they will tell you that a CCCS program is bad and you should enroll with their debt settlement program.

So first things first. Before you make any decisions you need to look at your overall financial situation and determine based on many factors what the best strategy is for you to resolve the 38K in debt and then possibly the 100K of your wife’s debt. It actually may be a combination of strategies as well. No individual is in the exact same situation and thus it makes little sense to call a company for advice that is simply looking to sell their solution before you have a firm understanding of what your needs are.

As far as how your wife’s credit score will be effected, that is dependent on a number of factors. Whether or not she needs to keep her good credit or if it is worth the money saved to not have good credit for a few years, will also of course be a decision she would need to make once she understands her options and the pros and cons of each.

This is of course going to sound like biased advice, but if you spend 5 minutes on my website you will see the wisdom in it. Certainly speak with as many programs as you like, but I would recommend before you make a final decision on what to do, that you schedule a phone consultation with me. I guarantee it will save you a lot of money and educate you on some things that you will not hear from a sales person who is simply looking to sell their widget.

Also, it would be good to include your wife on the consultation so we can discuss all of her options and tell her specifically how each option would play out and effect or not effect her credit. Then we can put together a specific plan for both yours and your wife’s debts. The solutions may be very different depending on how she feels about certain strategies vs how you feel about them.

If we determine that you should hire a settlement company for help, I can tell you who the good ones are and get you a substantial discount off their fees. Depending on what your wife decides to do, the discounts I can get will be in the 1000’s of dollars. However, we may also determine that you don’t need to hire a company to resolve your debt issues, and that will save you even 1000’s more. I do not get paid back end referral fees from the companies I recommend, so my recommendations are based solely on my client’s needs, not mine.

If you would like to schedule the consultation, please contact me through my website.

Damon is a talented independent debt coach that provides in-depth assistance and consultations for people struggling with debt. If you want a personal debt coach to help you through a difficult situation or want assistance to find secret discounts offered by debt settlement companies I think Damon Day is an excellent person to contact for advice and assistance. He can be reached directly at DamonDay.com

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