“Dear Steve,
owe 11.800.00 maybe more since i have not paid them since loss or job about 4 months now clear one says they can get it down to about 7500 i have given clear one 250 for 4 months
Currently enrolled in a ClearOne Advantage Program. Made approx. 4 payments. Clear one tells me I can settle my account for $7,300 and pay them for as long as it takes to pay them the amount due. Now, I just received an offer of settlement, directly from the credit card company. Their offer is for $6,000. I’d rather pay the lesser amount directly to the credit card company. Am I in a no win situation? Should I call Clear One and tell them about the settlement offer I received, should i-negotiate with the credit card company to see if they will take less,and if so what will owe i clear one thanks
John”
Dear John,
Whatever an intermediary company tells you the creditor will do is based on past experience or a guess. Intermediate debt relief companies have no power over the policies or actions of the creditors. The only debt relief provider that does is a bankruptcy attorney.
Creditors can change their policies at any time and offer higher or lower settlements as their corporate directives change.
ClearOne Advantage can’t guarantee your creditor will settle or even that their program will be successful. In fact I would be shocked if they’ve even provided you with historical data that allows you to see exactly what their success rates are. Nearly all companies don’t. Without that data you have no idea how successful any company is with obtaining results from any creditor. You are operating on blind faith.
Don’t be surprised if you contact your settlement company and they tell you to not talk to the creditor. Some companies say this simply to try and persuade the consumer to let the company handle the settlement so the settlement company makes the money for settling it.
At the end of the day your relationship with the creditor remains the same and direct as it always has been. ClearOne, or any other company, is just a company you hired to do a service for you. They don’t replace you.
It is not uncommon for creditors to offer better deals directly with the consumer, their customer. If the deal makes sense, you can afford the terms, and they have clearly stated the settlement will resolve the account in full, then I can’t see any reason to not consider it strongly.
As an aside, maybe what you might be interested in is a debt settlement coach that can help guide you on a one time event like this. It can be far cheaper to pay for a consultation than paying a full service firm. Some examples of companies are Consumer Recovery Network, Debt Relief a la Carte, and ZipDebt.
One important item would be for you to review your agreement with ClearOne Advantage to make sure that even doing all the work yourself you don’t owe them money for the account they didn’t settle. I’ve seen that in other debt settlement agreements.
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
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John – You can and should settle as much of your debt on your own whenever possible, only hiring a pro when you cannot or will not get a deal done. Taking the DIY debt settlement path for some or all of your efforts means you need less money to settle and get closure, more rapidly eliminate risk of being sued in the collection cycle, and are able to put your debt behind you and get on with living sooner.
You have an offer that is less than what was estimated. That offer may even be able to be targeted lower.
Who is the creditor and what month was your last payment sent in?