Debt-Free Forever by Gail Vaz-Oxlade (the beginning after the end read novel .TXT) 📕

receiving. Remember each call for a separate debt is considered a separate call, so if an agency calls you six times in a day for six different bills that have gone to collections, they’re not offside.

2. Deal with the problem. The best way to deal with a collection call is to speak to the agent straight up and professionally. Remember, they’re doing a job, and no matter how much you hate the job they’re doing, they’re just people like you. The sooner you pay the bill, the sooner you’ll make the collector go away. Can’t pay the bill off all at once? Explain why and offer some alternative method of repayment, like a series of monthly payments. Follow up in writing and make sure you send a good-faith payment.

If you can’t pay the full amount you owe but can make a significant payment toward eliminating the debt, try to negotiate with the collection agency to see whether they’ll take a lesser amount in order to have the account resolved.

Don’t bother with a lengthy explanation of why you can’t pay since bill collectors hear down-on-your-luck stories all day long. Instead, be straight up with your information: “The reality is I have three collection agencies after me right now. In all I owe $26,000. I don’t have the money. I owe you $4,200, but I can only afford to pay you $2,600. If you can settle for that, I’ll have the payment to you by Thursday. If that’s not enough, then I’m going to have to find a way to get out from under all this debt, but it won’t be by paying it all back. I have a family to feed, and that’s my first priority. So, will $2,600 be enough to close this account for good?”

3. Never send cash. Do I actually have to say that you should never, ever send cash in the mail? You need to have some proof of payment; a cancelled cheque or a receipt from the collection agency works fine.

4. Make only the commitments you intend to keep. Don’t let them bully you. Yes, some do try. You don’t have to make any commitment you don’t think you can keep. And you should only say yes to things you’re actually going to do. Saying yes to get them off the phone just means they’ll step up their calls. Ignoring a collection call won’t make the problem go away. If a collector gives up on trying to work out a plan with you, they’ll simply take the next step, which is legal action. Judgments against you show up on your credit history, and stay there for a long time.

5. Don’t try to pull an end-around. Once the account has been turned over to an agency, they are the only ones you can deal with. If you try to contact the original creditor, you’ll just create confusion. The exception: if there’s an error in the account, you need to deal with both the creditor and the collection agency, and you should do it in writing so you have a paper trail.

GAIL’S TIPS

Created and funded by Lenders, credit counselling is designed to get borrowers to commit to repaying their debt and is positioned as being more “noble” than declaring bankruptcy. Credit counselling turns off the interest clock but keeps borrowers on the hook for their debts for up to three years of repayment. The fact that you participated in credit counselling remains on your credit history for a further five years. Credit counselling doesn’t help you to see how you got into the mess and doesn’t do enough to help you change your financial behaviour.

Debt counselling is an opportunity to make money often disguised as a public service. Debt counsellors arrange for a consolidation of debt with their hefty fee built in. Or worse, they completely ruin your credit history by suggesting you make no payments for up to six months so they have some leverage with lenders to negotiate rates and balances down. if they don’t succeed, they won’t charge you. You, however, will be left with a credit history that is in tatters.

Bankruptcy trustees are the only route to discharging debt and, like other professionals can be valued advisers or financial hacks just in it to make the big bucks. Filing for bankruptcy tarnishes your financial record for seven years.

With debt settlement companies springing up like so many dandelions, this edition of Debt-Free Forever brings you the pros and cons of using a debt-settlement company. it also provides the steps to take if you decide to negotiate your own debt settlement. it’s all in the new Chapter 14 on page

WHAT TO DO IF YOU MUST FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY?

Bankruptcy isn’t the worst thing in the world. Living in the hell you’ve created is. And if you’ve been given a whack of credit that’s way above what you can manage, maybe it’s time to rub the slate clean and start again.

I’m not absolving people of their personal responsibility. Nope. I’m all about personal responsibility. But when I see couples earning $60,000 in family income being given $136,000 in credit, I scratch my head and wonder whatever happened to “responsible lending practices.” And I feel for the people who have debt they can’t manage because of significant changes in their lives like disability, divorce, widowhood, illness, unemployment, and the like. I even feel for the silly buggers who went out and charged up a storm, never understanding the implications and the impact the payments were going to have on their rest of their lives.

For many people, the decision to go bankrupt isn’t an easy one to make. It’s a thorny path. But if that’s what it’ll take to get you out of hell, then do it. It won’t be easy to live through. And the black mark will stay with you for a long time. But there is an end and you can have a life—a good life—after bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy is considered by many as a