Suze Orman Show and Debt Relief

The Suze Orman Show

Suze Orman is an internationally acclaimed personal finance expert and best-selling author. She has written several books and is host of her own television show, the Suze Orman Show which she hosts each week on CNBC. She can be found as a guest on many other programs, such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live and The View as well as radio appearances and motivational speaking engagements.

There have been six PBS specials based on Suze Orman Books including one of her most popular books, Women and Money. Suze Orman has also hosted the Financial Freedom Hour on QVC network for the past 10 years. When it comes to personal finance advice, Suze Orman is a financial guru with some great advice.

Suze Orman Debt Relief

If you find yourself in credit card debt - maybe 60, 90 or even 120 days past due, you are likely under a lot of stress and looking for ways to find some debt relief. Perhaps some of the debt has already been written off and your FICO score has dropped into the 500’s, you are probably receiving offers in the mail from various credit card debt relief companies or debt consolidation companies offering to help you consolidate your debt and get out from under your credit card debt. However, the Suze Orman show strongly discourages using one of these companies because there are things you can do on your own that will cost you a lot less money.

When you use a debt settlement company, they will have stop paying on your credit cards or bills. While you are not paying your bills for a long period of time your FICO score continues to decline; while this is bad for you, the consumer, it is exactly what many of these debt settlement companies want. While you are not paying your credit card bills, the debt consolidation companies will have you take the money you are not paying and send it to them. They will take this money, along with a fee, which is typically $700 to $1,000 upfront and they will eventually make a settlement with the credit card company for $.40 to $.60 on the dollar. Once a settlement is reached, you will then pay an additional fee based on a percentage of the settlement cost.

One of the biggest problems with using a debt consolidation company like this is the simple fact that $700 to $1,000 is a lot of money for someone who doesn’t have any. If you had that kind of money lying around, chances are you wouldn’t be in over your head. Another problem with these companies is they are selling you a service that you can easily do yourself for free.

How to Settle Your Credit Card Debt on Your Own

The credit card companies are willing to settle with you directly. If you find yourself in a situation where you are behind in your credit card payments, or maybe they have already been charged off or gone to a collection agency or it’s about to; if you have some money to work with, you can call the collection agency directly and they will oftentimes be more than willing to settle with you. After all, they would rather get something instead of nothing.

It is important to understand that you have everything you need to negotiate a credit card settlement on your own. There is no need to hire an expensive debt consolidation or debt settlement company to do this for you. They will charge a huge amount of money that you don’t have and the end result will be the same.

When you arrange a debt settlement it is very important that you follow a few simple steps:

1. Once you have reached a settlement with the collection agency or credit card company, do NOT pay that settlement using a check from your personal bank account. Use either a cashier’s check or a money order; you do not want them to know where you do your banking.
2. On the cashier’s check or money order be sure to write something to the effect that “if this check is cashed Account # xxxx is settled in full.”
3. Ask the credit card company to report to the credit reporting agencies that the account is “Paid in Full” rather than “Settled.” Accounts marked as settled will signal to future creditors that you did not pay the account in full and that it was settled for a lesser amount. This will flag you as a high risk.
4. If you are settling a debt with a collection agency that purchased the debt from your original creditor, you need to get an assurance in writing that the original creditor can never come back to you seeking the difference from what you originally owed and what you paid in the settlement agreement.

Another important factor you need to understand is that it is possible you could owe income taxes on the difference between the original debt and the settlement amount. Always ask the collection agency to state in the settlement that you will not owe taxes on this difference.

If you can follow this simple process, you will not need a debt settlement company and you can save a lot of money.