Debt Relief Programs - How New FTC Laws Can Help Consumers Settle Credit Debt

Feb. 10, 2011 - PRLog -- Debt relief programs help the consumers to get out of their unsecured loans without affecting the credit or the FICO score. These programs are designed to help the consumers as per their financial requirements. Sometimes, customized approaches can be taken but on an average, most of the relief programs have the same mode of operation. Despite the fact that the debt relief programs managed to help millions of consumers, one problem that posed a serious threat was that of scam and fraud.

The ever increasing demand for the debt relief programs helped the scam companies to grow in the industry and take advantage of the troubled consumers. These fraud companies relied on two specific things to cheat the consumers. They are:

They made false promises to the consumers to attract them. These promises made were same the promises made by the honest and legitimate business firms.
They asked for advance payment of the fees from the consumers. This again as in accordance with the existing rules of the relief industry.
The consumers trusted them and paid the money. After these fraud and scam firms had the money in their hand, they did not really approach the creditors for negotiation and later after a couple of months, they reported the consumers that the creditors were not ready to negotiate and settle the outstanding. This way, the consumers lost their money because, the service fee, according to the relief industry norms, was non-refundable.

The Federal Trade Commission noticed this brutal blow on the consumer rights and with a motive to help the consumers, the FTC came up with a new law, which was implemented on 27th October 2010. As per this new law:

The settlement firms are not allowed to ask for service fee in advance.
The settlement firms will have to bear the cost of negotiation on their own.
The settlement firms become eligible for service fee when they settle the dues of the consumers by the promised amount and the consumers are satisfied with the results.
The settlement firms will eventually get their money when the consumers get out of their dues completely after paying the amount which is not waived by the creditor. This means that the settlement companies need to wait for 1-3 years before they actually get paid for their services.
In case the consumers are not satisfied with the results, the consumers have the right to decline the deal and not pay the settlement companies. This was a major blow for the fraud companies as they did not have ample expertise to negotiate with the creditors and also they did not have enough money to cover the costs of negotiation for 1-3 years. They were therefore, forced to quit the industry and this helped the consumers to settle their credit debt.

Debt settlement is a viable option to filing bankruptcy and is becoming increasingly popular amongst Americans with over $10k in unsecured debt. Creditors are ready to negotiate. You can literally eliminate 50% of your unsecured debt with a settlement. Check out the following link to locate legitimate debt help in your state.
Free Debt Advice
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