There are so many Americans in debt today that debt relief scams are growing and will continue to grow. Unfortunately, these parasites have taken the most stressful and unhappy times in many lives and fed on it. They have offered and olive branch and people that find them in this difficult situation are not only reaching for it, they are holding onto it for dear life.
If you are considered a debt relief company to assist you with becoming debt free or to a better part solvent, there are several things to consider.
1.Verify the company that you are working with is reputable
The Better Business Bureau’s stamp of approval is one of the best ways to determine if a company is reliable and if their reputation is excellent and above reproach. If they have a website, the BBB (better business bureau) does have their stamp on these and is clearly marked generally on the bottom portion of their page.
You can also contact your State Attorney General’s Office to verify if any complaints or pending legal action is being taken against a company before working with them. This information is free of charge a good idea before you supply your very personal information with a company such as this.
2.Investigate a company’s reputation by customer feedback
The internet is an outstanding locale to discover a debt relief company and can also be an excellent arena to verify their reputation. Scams are blogged about as well as discussed on forums. Forums and related places are wonderful because you receive actual customers feedback that have worked with this company previously and what they have and have not received from them.
When companies provide great service you may hear about it from one or two people, but if services leave something to be desired you will hear about it more. Scams are something that people will scream about. If the debt relief service is a scam, there will be more than likely lots of information to be found on their techniques and how they are misrepresenting themselves.
3. What to look for that will be red flags to a scam
Many debt relief scams are merely providing you information as to where to obtain government grant information. They don’t provide relief at all to any of your creditors.
These companies may request payments for creditors only in the form of cash wired directly to their company or money orders. They will refuse debit card payments. In doing so, they are avoiding any paper trail that will lead to their company when things do go wrong with the services they have promised to provide.
Some will contact your creditors. However, it may not be in the form you had anticipated. For example, you are paying the company $200; the debt relief company may be only paying your creditors $100 and keeping the other $100 for the debt relief company. This is something that you could have done without the help of the company.
Beware of debt relief companies and understand what services they are providing for you. Get their agreement in writing with detailed information as to what they are receiving and what each creditor you have is receiving. Many times the largest misconception is that debt relief companies will fix your bad credit for you. This is not true. Your credit ratings and scores will still be hurt by the late payments and missed payments.