http://www.primedebtmanagement.com/debt-settlement/n47.html A debt settlement company can get you big reductions in your debt. Why? Because the people who work at a debt settlement company are skilled in the art of negotiation. en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT Weblog Editor 2.0 Settle your debt at a fraction of what you owe? It's possible with help from a debt settlement company. These companies specialize in helping you achieve a credit card debt settlement agreement, to help your fix your finances and move on with your life. Sounds Impossible, Right? Yeah, it sounds that way, but people do it every day--the people who turn to debt settlement companies, anyway. When you enroll in a debt settlement program, the professional negotiators at a debt settlement company can get the total amount you owe reduced by 60-80%! Let's say you have access to a lot of money, but just not enough to pay everything off. That makes you a candidate for a debt settlement plan. What happens is the debt settlement company contacts your creditors and tells them how much you have access to and tries to get them to let you pay off all your debt at that amount. If your creditors don't agree to go that low, they might give you 1-3 years to pay it all off. Now, speaking of your creditors, as you can imagine, your participation in a debt settlement program doesn't thrill them. On the one hand, they know that this means they'll get something out of you instead of nothing at all, which is why they agree to debt settlement. On the other hand, they only get a fraction of what you actually owe them. As a result, they will probably not issue you credit in the future. But worse than that, they will report your participation in the program to the three major credit reporting agencies. This will effect your credit record in the same way as a late payment will. Consider this when you're considering debt settlement. Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT