Hi there. This is Michael Bovee with ConsumerRecoveryNetwork.com
and I want to continue our ongoing series
on debt settlement with the topic how to work with collection attorneys.
You know when it comes to settling debt obviously the best opportunities
we have talked about are settling with your original creditor before
they charge the account off so in the first 6 months of delinquency.
Your second best opportunity is to settle with collection agencies
or even debt buyers or collection agencies working for debt buyers
after the charge off event. So between month 7 and 12 sometimes month
7 and who knows forever will be the best opportunity to settle.
When you are not going to hit those targets is when you start to risk
the fact that you could be sued. The fact you might be watching this
video because you were recently contacted by an attorney collecting
a debt on behalf of your creditor or a debt buyer. The fact you may
even be watching us because you have been sued or you have a judgment
against you and now you are in a position to manage your way through
an unfortunate circumstance like this. The fact is judgments, lawsuits,
getting a letter from an attorney and you just opened it today.
You haven't been sued yet. All of that is managed a little bit differently
than settling with the original creditor or a debt collector, why,
because well, there is leverage. If you already have a judgment you
can be garnished. You can be limp with your bank account. Wake up in
the morning and all of it is gone. You can have property and a lean
placed against it as a result of a judgment or you are scared out of
your mind right now because you got sued and that is unfamiliar and
you are not sure what your options are so the first thing to establish
is should you even settle with that. I mean sometimes when it reaches
to the point where you are being garnished, judgment, levy, it is time
to look at your legal rights in bankruptcy to stop any of that from happening.
Let's assume for a moment or you just got a letter from an attorney
and you want to prevent being sued or judgment being entered against you.
Well, in this sense since debt collection it actually is pretty similar
to dealing with your bank or debt collector you will use the phone.
You don't use letters. I know there is a ton of information out on
the internet about how you right this letter and it is special ones
supposed to do this or you offer some kind of amount to satisfy the
debt through the mail. It just doesn't happen like that. You really
do have to pick up the phone at these law offices or these major collection
law firms. It is still there to collection agency. There are people
in the phone standing by and that is what they do. They reach out to
you, you reach out to them settling with an attorney is just as much
as an option as it is at any other stage of any collection cycle.
It is just that you will probably end up having to pay more in the settlement.
So what you need to know is that attorney's often know what they know
about you through public means. They can see real time access to your
credit report. If you are paying other creditors and not this one,
they are probably not going to be as open to settle. If your credit
report looks like a grenade blew up on it then it is looks like your
somebody and this is your hardship and when you start talking about
the numbers and you know what you are going to afford obviously like
any collector they just want to get you paying all of it or the whole
balance over time, what can you afford, months to pay. Well you can't
and you have to stick to your guns about that. Assume where sometimes
you can settle debt buyers and your original creditors and sometimes
debt collectors working for your creditors at 40% assume sometimes
that you are going to have to settle with an attorney at more than
that so 50 and 60% in some cases depending on the creditor and depending
on the situation and depending on your hardships. Also depends on where
you live, on the salary you lived in. It actually comes into play because
if you live in Pennsylvania or North Carolina or Florida or Texas,
where you know you can't be garnished, they a lot of times these collection
attorneys are going to be much more willing to deal with you and settle
these kind of debts as compared to somebody who lives in New Jersey
or Minnesota or other states that are very litigious like Missouri.
So it is important to recognize all these details and I know that I
threw a bunch out there and just this brief description of dealing
with the debt collection attorney or a judgment and we have a ton of
information and access and experts right on our website at consumerrecoveynetwork.com.
We have a toll free number that you can reach out and speak with a
specialist and kind of help understand some of the tricks and traps
to negotiating or trying to solve a judgment or lawsuit or a settle
within attorney debt collector as early as possible for it reaches
one of those other more problematic stage . So reach out to us on this
page, you can interact with us. We monitor these pages, all of our
video pages so right below you can start post comment, post questions
and we can answer here, we can answer consumercoverynetwork.com or
you can call 800-939-9357
and talk And with a specialist about your specific situation. The more
we know about you. The more we can give you detailed information and
help you out. thanks for tuning in to this video and we look forward
to seeing you on the next one. Thank you for watching.