Does the debt negotiation program I'm in count towards credit counseling ?

[jzak423]

I'm into my 7th month of a debt negotiation program and I'm starting to loose faith in it. I've already gotten my first summons (and it's my smallest CC) and I'm freaking out about it. If I do file, do the prior 7 months of the program count against the new 6 month required counseling law that was passed?

On a side note, has anyone ever actually heard of anyone successfully going through debt negotiation?

[bige1030]

Probably not. The agency that you're going through is probably not an approved nonprofit budget and credit counseling agency, first of all. The list of approved agencies can be accessed through this link:

http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/ccde/cc_approved.htm

Secondly, the Code says that you must have received a briefing from the agency within the 6 months before filing. You probably haven't had a meeting within the last 6 months, so your time paying into the program doesn't count.

On the off-chance that this agency is actually approved, you need to tell them that you need pre-bankruptcy counseling (with a certificate to file).

You need to see a real, approved credit counselor (not a debt negotiation program) and tell them that you're interested in filing bankruptcy. They'll give you the required counseling and give you a certificate of completion. Consult the link above for the approved agencies.

I've never heard of anyone successfully completing a debt negotiation/settlement program. One of my friends did the negotiation on his own and got somewhere - but that was because he had the money to pay a percentage of his debt outright at the time of negotiation, and the creditor hadn't sold his debt to another entity.

[BKTango]

No it does not apply unless you have received a certifcate of completion of the prior-bankruptcy counseling. If you don't have that then you will need to see a court approved counseling service to receive one. For example we went to CCCS as it is court approved in our area, had an hour long budget planning meeting to determine BK was to be our best choice.

On the Debt management/negotiating company, we were with one for one year. After spending a few thousand in fees, barely getting by, not being able to save enough each month to "settle" promptly, a few lawsuits, two accounts with arbitration, we gave up and filed BK. So I do not personally know of anyone who has ever been able to complete one of these things as most I do know that were in them had the same experience as I did and ended up in BK also. However there are reputable credit counseling services that work like these programs (such as CCCS) they have court approved services, I don't think they negotiate your debt just consolidate it and possibly have no more interest being added.

[SinkingFast]

However there are reputable credit counseling services that work like these programs (such as CCCS) they have court approved services, I don't think they negotiate your debt just consolidate it and possibly have no more interest being added.

We went with CCCS for a professional opinion of our finances prior to deciding to file BK.

CCCS figured a DMP for us. They did not negotiate any reduction in the $$$'s amount owed to Creditors. CCCS did have set interest rates that the CC's were paid at. Like BoA would be 6%. Something CCCS has prenegotiated with the Creditors.

In our particular case, the payment was gonna be the same as we were paying on our minimums every month. The only difference was, at the end of 5 years, we woulda been outa debt with the DMP. Paying minimums, we wouldn't have made any headway at all.