For a very short period of time, individuals actually enjoyed a lot of benefits as far as debt settlement was concerned.
However, once the moment past, the professional con artists stepped in and everything went sour.
Do you know that there are many so called professional, service providers who charge thousands of dollars in upfront fees by promising to negotiate with lenders and end proceed to cheat the innocent borrowers of each and every cent? The situation with reputed and honest settlement companies is not any different.
The fact that the stimulus money is in the market and lenders are prepared to settle means that there is a huge demand for the services of professionals.
All this has laid to a large increase in the fees charged by the service providers.
Nine out of ten times, people pay whatever is charged because they feel they have no option.
They fear that they will end up in bankruptcy if the debt settlement agency refuses to take up their case.
Of course, the settlement company markets itself in such a manner that the people believe that it is a virtually a god and is capable of doing anything and everything.
There is no doubt that you are into credit card debt and that you needed relief desperately.
However, keep in mind that your lender too is keen on helping you avoid bankruptcy.
If push comes to shove and if you find a no affordable debt settlement agency, you can always approach your lender personally and you can be honest and indicate that you tried finding a professional but could not afford the services.
You can try to negotiate for a settlement on your own.
Who knows, your open and Frank approach may just make a difference.
Hence, do not presume that you have no option but to pay the high fees.
Now that the point is settled, it is time to focus on how to find those service providers charging affordable fees? When will you charge lower fees for your customers? Only when there is a competitor around and you are scared of losing business.
That is exactly what you should do.
You should make use of the World Wide Web to get in touch with other debt settlement agencies.
When you clearly show that you have a list of ten experts and that you are dealing with the third one, the point of negotiation of fees will become a lot easier.
Remember that debt settlement is a service and like any other service, it must be valued economically.
Only then it will provide profits.