Many people are surprised to learn that they don’t need debt relief companies and that they can settle their own debts with the credit card companies and
collection agencies. Creditors generally don’t care who they settle with, although certainly creditors treat consumers attempting to negotiate their own debts much differently than they do professional negotiators. Expect the do-it-yourself path to be difficult, fraught with confusion and intimidation, largely the result of conflicting messages and mind-games played by your creditors and the collection agencies and the law firms that they hire. Make no mistake though – by educating yourself about the process and your rights, you can navigate this process!

As with most difficult things, it’s essential to be prepared for your journey and the rewards are far greater than the easy path, which in this case is filing bankruptcy, doing nothing about your financial problems, or hiring a debt settlement company.

How to be prepared for settling yourself:

Sure you can settle your credit cards with little preparation, but expect to not save much off your balances and be frustrated by your creditors. In fact, this approach is the worst of your debt settlement options and in all likelihood you’d save more by paying the fees of a professional debt negotiator. In order to be prepared and save as much as possible, one must have a thorough understanding of the following:

1) The threats made by creditors

2) When to take these threats seriously

3) The settlement parameters of each of your creditors, including what is the lowest possible settlement percentage offered by each and at what stage in the collection process they will accept this as full settlement

Fortunately, there are materials available to help you in this area, specifically SettleOnYourOwn.com’s do-it-yourself debt settlement training.

How much can you save by negotiating your own debt:

As mentioned previously, the difficult path is often the most rewarding and this is no more evident than in choosing debt settlement. Considering the fact that a reasonable fee charged by a debt settlement company is 15% of the amount you owe, the total fees for even the lowest total debts accepted in these programs is $1500, or six times higher than the fee for SettleOnYourOwn.com’s book. Keep in mind—the more you owe, the more you save by choosing to do it yourself!

How much time will it take to do this?

The amount of time it takes to settle your debts is significant. By our estimates, between the training, keeping track of your accounts, and the actual creditor negotiations, expect to put in at least 30 hours over the course of two years. Think that you should hire a professional instead? These companies charge upwards of $150 per hour for the typical client ($30,000 in debt at 15% of the debt amount) and that fee only increases as your debt amount does. Unless you’re wealthy, which chances are you are not, then settling on your own makes a lot of financial sense if you educate yourself about what to do.

If you do not want to put the time and effort into ensuring success, then we urge you to seek out a professional for assistance. Of all the companies in the industries, SettleOnYourOwn recommends Franklin Debt Relief. Quite simply their track record is the strongest and they are among the most honest, consumer-focused companies in the industry.

For consumers who are ready to follow the more rewarding path – settling your own debts – then learn more about the process at our how does debt settlement work page.