(August 27th,
2007)
If creditors do not receive on time payments
from you, they will often report your delinquency status to the
major Credit Bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion). But what
if you are willing to make payments to the creditors, but not
the full amount they are asking for? For example, you have $15,000
of credit card debt and your minimum monthly payment is $375.
However, you can only afford to pay $200 a month at the moment.
How do you negotiate with your creditors so as to get the payment
terms to your advantage and get negative items deleted off your
credit report? That is the purpose of this article.
Steps to Negotiate Debt with Creditors
i) Sit down with your creditor and explain
your situation. Give him a brief summary of your finances,
family commitments and other debts you are making payments towards.
Persuade the creditor that you really want to clean up your credit
report and remove all negative items on it. It helps in this case
if you have a long history of making on time regular payments,
rather than defaulting on them.
ii) Tell the creditor that you have
been a long time valued customer and want to keep a good
relationship with them. Tell them you have made __# of on time
payments in the past and would like to keep doing so. Ask them
to remove negative entries off your credit report so you can get
better loan terms (lower interest rate) and can enhance your ability
to keep up with payments.
iii) If the creditor says they cannot
help you in this matter, ask to speak to a supervisor. You will probably get this response from customer service representatives
who are making $10/hour and already stressed out on the job. They
are not willing to take on more stress and deal with you.
iv) Talk to the supervisor. If the supervisor
says the account has been charged off, ask for the name
of the collection agency that has bought out this junk debt. If
the supervisor says the account is in collection, here are two
ways to negotiate a debt settlement:
1) Offer a lump sum payment to settle
the debt and ask the creditor to remove the negative
entry from your credit report. For example, if you owe $10,000
of credit card debt and offer to settle for 65%, you would pay
the creditor $6500 and he would remove the negative entry from
your credit report.
2) If you cannot come up with the full
lump sum payment ($6500 in the above example), offer
a repayment plan where you make a certain amount of monthly payments
every month until the account is paid off in full. Upon getting
paid in full, the creditor promises to remove any negative entries
off your credit report. Make sure you have all this correspondence
in writing.
Technical Tips for Successful Debt Negotiation
i) Any settlements you achieve, make
sure you get them in writing. Keep copies of all your
communication with your creditors including letters, phone calls
notes, etc for future reference.
ii) Negotiate to settle debts with those
creditors with the lowest balance first. Once those debts
are fully paid off, negotiate debt with creditors with the next
highest debt. Go from smaller debt levels to higher ones. Read
this article on Debt
Elimination to learn more about this Debt Snowball Elimination
technique.
iii) Create your monthly spending budget
to show to your creditors so that they can understand your financial
situation better. Read this article on Debt
Reduction to learn more about evaluating your debt, creating
a household budget and getting out of debt.
iv) Don't ask the creditor what amounts
they are willing to accept. Tell them how much you can
afford to pay. Never offer to pay more than what you can afford.
v) Many creditors are willing to accept
a lump sum debt settlement for as low as 70% of the original amount. Rather than getting reduced monthly payments from you (who knows
whether you will default on them or not?), they will want to take
a one time reduced settlement.
vi) Negotiate debt with the original
creditor and not the debt collection agency. This means
you have to be fast in reacting to debt collection calls. For
example, if the original creditor calls you regarding payment,
do not ignore them and wait. They may sell this debt off to a
junk debt buyer and matters will get even worse.
vii) Never over-stretch yourself in
negotiating your debts. Tell the creditor what you CAN
do, not what you CAN'T do!
viii) Show the creditor your determination
to take control of your financial life, pay off your
debts and regain a good credit score again.
Mental Tips for Successful Debt Negotiation
i) If the creditor refuses to settle
debts the first time, do not give up. Wait for 1 month
and present the settlement again. As time passes by, the creditor
may realize it is in their best interests to settle the debt with
you.
ii) Be specific about your debt reduction
goals. Tell them specifically what you want to achieve
(in this case you want to reduce your debts and clean up your
credit score). If creditors do not understand your goals, they
will not respond to your desires.
iii) Present a win-win situation to
your creditors. Tell them that if you negotiate a debt
settlement, they will have to avoid going through the collection
agencies and the courts. This settlement will also help you repair
your credit score. This is a win-win situation for you both. Do
NOT present a settlement where you are the winner and the creditor
is the loser, you will not succeed at this.
iv) Be polite when negotiating debt
with creditors. This is because creditors come across
lots of difficult and rude customers, you will be better off if
you are polite and understanding. |
