Can A Lawyer Help With A Debt Relief Plan?

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If you are facing financial troubles, you are in a stressful and complicated situation. You know you need help, but you might not know where to turn or who you can trust. If you are a South Carolina resident who needs to come up with debt relief solutions, you can count on the team at David Aylor Law Offices to help you. If you aren’t sure where you want to go with resolving your financial problems, or if you aren’t sure that bankruptcy is the best option for you, we are ready to help. So, to answer the question, “Can a lawyer help with a debt relief plan?” The answer is, “Yes.”

A South Carolina debt relief attorney can help you come up with a way to reduce your debt, stop the harassment from the debt collectors, and get your finances back in order so you can regain control of your financial situation. And, you don’t have to feel like you are alone if you are facing financial problems. During 2011, 1.37 million people across the United States filed for bankruptcy protection. There were countless others who set up debt relief plans as a way to protect themselves from financial downfall and to get their financial situation back on track and re-established. You are definitely not alone and help is available with the experienced legal team at David Aylor Law Offices.

How A Debt Relief Plan Can Help You

You might be wondering how a debt relief plan can help you. Your debts are far behind, your credit score is dropping, and creditors are calling you all day long wanting you to pay your bills. A debt relief plan will help you get your debts paid so you can get back on track with your financial situation. If you are struggling to pay your debts, you might be wondering how to proceed with getting your debt taken care of and starting off with a fresh slate. Sometimes a debt relief plan is an effective solution. With a debt relief plan, you are negotiating with your creditors to reduce your amount of overall debt. For some people, a debt relief plan might be a better solution for their financial needs. However, if you cannot make large lump sum payments to settle your debts, bankruptcy might be the best solution for you.

As an example, you might owe a credit card company $3,000. With the interest and other fees that you might encounter, your bill could increase several hundred dollars or even thousands of dollars over time. If you agree to pay a lump sum to the credit card company, they might be willing to take $1,500 to $2,000 and mark your bill as paid in full. Sometimes creditors aren’t willing to negotiate without some incentive to do so, which might be payments that have gotten behind. There is no paying a lowered settlement amount over time either. You must be able to pay the agreed amount in a single payment, so don’t agree to pay more than you have available in funds. Our offices will help you look at the options and make the best decision so you can get the right solution for your particular needs.

What Are Your Negotiation Options for a Debt Settlement Plan?

While some debtors choose to negotiate their own settlements with creditors, most debtors don’t feel like they can get the best deal by handling their own negotiations. Some creditors even have a policy in place that prevents them from negotiating directly with the borrower. So, that leaves you with either working with a debt settlement agency or an experienced debt relief attorney. Usually, your best bet is to skip dealing with debt settlement companies altogether and hire a knowledgeable law firm to help you. However, you need to make sure you are dealing with a legitimate South Carolina law firm and not a debt settlement company that is pretending to be a law firm.

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How Do Debt Settlement Companies Work?

Debt settlement companies often reel in clients by claiming they can settle your debts for pennies on the dollar. If you aren’t behind on making payments, they will tell you that your creditors will only settle with you if you stop making payments and are delinquent on your accounts. To do this, the debt settlement companies will tell you to forego making payments to your creditors and make the payments to their firm while they negotiate with the creditors. The payments you make to the debt settlement firm will provide them with a monthly fee to work for you and establish a savings account that allows them to set aside funds to grow for the future settlement of your debts. The debt settlement company will wait to contact your creditors until you have enough money put away so lump sum payments can be made. There might be a contingency fee charged by the debt settlement company, which is a percentage of the amount that you save through the agreed settlement.

Is There More Debt Settlement Companies Don’t Tell Us?

If you are working with a debt settlement company, they might not tell you everything. They might not explain to you that after you stop making payments your total amount of debt will increase because of interest charges, late fees, and possibly even over the limit fees. They might not even tell you that your creditors don’t have to accept the lower amount than you owe them to settle the debt or that many creditors refuse to accept a settlement. Some creditors especially refuse debt settlement programs if you are working with a debt settlement company.

Some creditors might even become more motivated and go after you sooner if you have a debt settlement company representing you. That means you might face lawsuits more quickly than you would have without a debt settlement company representing you. You need to remember that debt settlement companies are for-profit entities. This means they are in business to make money. In almost every situation, you end up in a better financial situation if you use the money you are paying to a debt settlement company to pay down your debt. Another option is to work with a debt relief attorney to focus on getting your finances back on track.

Would It Be a Good Idea to Hire an Attorney?

If you are not sure about how to proceed with taking care of your financial challenges or you want to get help negotiating a debt settlement with a creditor, you should schedule a consultation with a South Carolina debt relief attorney. An attorney can fully analyze your financial situation and give you practical legal advice that is suited for your particular situation. This is definitely something that a debt settlement company cannot offer you. A seasoned attorney will take the time to go over all your options with you. Your lawyer can help you determine if you should focus on trying to settle your debts or if you should try something else, such as file for bankruptcy protection.

A debt settlement company will focus on trying to convince you that you need to settle all your debts because of course, that is the only service they provide. Another advantage to working with an attorney is that if you are sued by an original lender, third-party debt collection agency, or a credit card company, you attorney can defend you. If one of the creditors or debt collectors violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) your attorney can tell you how to proceed and give you specific advice for that situation.

How to Avoid Bad Lawyers

Just because someone claims to be an attorney doesn’t mean he or she is good at it. There are bad debt settlement lawyers out there and you need to steer clear of them. South Carolina attorneys must be properly licensed. They are also supposed to uphold high ethical standards, but not all of them do. Some debt settlement companies even employ attorneys to act as fronts, or attorneys and debt settlement companies team up together to make the company look as though it is legitimate. In those cases, the attorneys usually have very little or nothing to do with your situation or the debt settlement process that is set up for you.

Don’t just pick a lawyer out of the phone book or online. Your best bet to ensure you are on good, solid ground is to work with a local debt relief attorney whom you can meet with. You want a lawyer you can sit down and talk with. You need to make sure the attorney will deal with the debtors directly instead of sending a member of the staff to talk with you. If a company claims they are backed by an attorney and you don’t get to meet or talk with the attorney, it should be sending up a big red flag that indicates the attorney has little or nothing to do with that specific operation.

The Advantages of Hiring a Consumer Debt Relief Attorney

There are several advantages to hiring a debt relief attorney to help you with your financial difficulties. Here are just a few of those advantages:

  • A debt relief attorney can offer legal advice.
  • If you are sued by your creditors, the attorney can represent you in court.
  • If a creditor violates the FDCPA, your attorney can help you sue them.
  • Your attorney can help you make the best decisions for your financial predicament.
  • An attorney can help you file a bankruptcy petition should you need to do so.

When you seek the guidance of a South Carolina debt relief attorney, you can have the access to experience and knowledge that can guide you in getting your finances back on track. The advantages for hiring a local and easily accessible debt relief attorney over a debt settlement company are very significant, so making the best choice for the situation should be obvious.

Schedule an Initial Consultation Today

David Aylor Law Offices have helped numerous South Carolinians overcome their financial woes and make the best decisions to help them get back on their feet. Our experienced bankruptcy attorneys will help you assess your current financial situation and give you a list of options. We will thoroughly detail these options and help you make the best decision for your situation. Our goal is not to offer a quick fix, but to provide you with solutions that will help you regain control of your financial situation so you can basically start over and rebuild your credit rating.

When it comes to South Carolina bankruptcy attorneys, you can entrust your situation to David Aylor Law Offices. With years of experience and a legal team that is highly skilled and knowledgeable in the current bankruptcy laws and how to proceed with an effective debt settlement program. If you are ready to learn about how our offices can help you, call (843) 744-4444 right now. We have attorneys available 24/7 to answer your questions and to help you get your life back on track.

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