Comments on: Ask the M-Network: How to Know if a Debt Consolidation Company is Legit

By: Joe Aldeguer

Joe Aldeguer — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:52:08 +0000

Great article!! Thanks for sharing.. :D

By: loan consolidation

loan consolidation — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:02:02 +0000

Thanks for sharing this useful article.

By: The Friday gathering - Not the week I planned edition

The Friday gathering - Not the week I planned edition — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:17:09 +0000

[...] Ask the M-Network: How to Know if a Debt Consolidation Company is Legit @ Being Frugal [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:58:13 +0000

I agree with Patrick - debt consolidation loans may help in the short run, but if you haven't changed your spending habits, the debt will rack up again. Tom’s last blog post..Employment and the Recession

By: Lynnae

Lynnae — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:36:30 +0000

@Linda – I absolutely agree with you. P2P lending can be a good tool, but only if it’s used responsibly. As with any consolidation loan, if you don’t change your spending habits first, it won’t do a bit of good. In fact, if you don’t change your habits before getting a consolidation loan, it could do far more harm than good.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:16:47 +0000

Don’t you think getting another loan from P2P lending sites is yet more cigarette before quitting smoking? I took a loan through Lending Club and it did helped me save interest from credit cards, but my habits did not change from one day to the next. When I saw my credit cards at $0 and the $100 I was saving in interest, I started using that to buy things… it took me almost a year before I started realizing I needed to save those $100 or pay more of my loan. I’m in good shape now and will be prepaying my loan in full in the next few months, but all I’m saying is change your habits BEFORE you get the loan. I had more than 50 people give me the money through P2P lending, and boy that helps… because you know you owe real people… That kept me wanting not to miss a payment.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:24:54 +0000

I work for a non-profit credit counseling agency. A few tips I would offer is to check with the Better Business Bureau, your state attorney general’s office and the Federal Trade Commission to see what kind of a track record the company has. You want to find an agency that will disclose all of its terms and fees upfront and in writing before making you sign anything. Avoid any place that charges high fees, especially if there are a lot of fees right off the bat before the company does anything to help you. Avoid any place that solicits your business without having first been contacted by you. Avoid any place that pays their counselors a commission.

Also, there is a difference between debt consolidation, debt settlement and credit counseling which has a debt management program component. Debt consolidation is nothing more than one big loan to cover your smaller loans and doesn’t address the root problem. Debt settlement is complicated, expensive, and has many negative implications. Credit counseling is a good start if you find a non-profit that offers free counseling. The debt management plan may or may not be a good fit depending on the individual’s circumstances and the agency offering the program.

It’s very hard to explain it all in a quick post. I would just encourage people to do their homework before committing to any company.

By: Trudy G.

Trudy G. — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:40:47 +0000

When changing my spending habits just wasn’t enough to get me back on track I used a debt consolidation company to pay off credit cards as the interest rates were killing me. The company I went through was able to reduce the interest rates significantly, to zero on some which I am sure I would not have been able to do on my own. So yes I may have paid them a small charge to do it, but in the long run it saved me more. Best of all it improved my credit rating at the same time. And with so many things affected by credit ratings nowadays, I saw savings here as well. One monthly payment was all I had to make that was less than the individual payments combined and in 3.5 years time I was debt free! I would recommend, and in fact have, reducing your debt this way.

The key to it all was research. I spoke with and researched several companies before I picked the one that worked for me, which was a non-profit.