Best Debt Settlement Companies
With all the negative press surrounding the debt settlement industry, it is clear to most consumers that there is certainly an abundance of bad players in the marketplace. Consumers must take their time and really do their research to discover who the Best Debt Settlement Companies are.
With every program claiming to be “the best” and consumers feeling the constant stress of debt collector phone calls and bills piling up, it makes it very difficult for a consumer to take their time and really investigate every program they come across. To help consumers narrow down the field of prospective Debt Settlement programs we created a short list of questions that would allow them to eliminate any company that didn’t meet all of the below criteria.
5 Simple Questions To Help You Find The Best Debt Settlement Companies
1. Has the company been in business longer than 5 years?
If they haven’t been in business for at least 5 years then they do not have a long enough track record to prove they are successful for their clients. A debt settlement process can sometimes take several years so any track record short of 5 years is simply insufficient. New Era Debt Solutions has been successfully assisting consumers for over 10 years and has a clear and transparent record of client success.
2. What is the BBB Rating of the company?
Some companies claim to be among the Best Debt Settlement Companies but happen to have a large number of complaints and an F rating with the BBB. Often times the sales reps will claim that the BBB is Bias and no debt settlement company can get a rating better than an F. This is simply not true. New Era Debt Solutions has an A+ rating with the BBB and over 24 positive real client reviews on Trustlink (The BBB consumer review site). If a company always puts their clients first and does what they promise to do, it will be very evident in the positive and unsolicited consumer feedback.
3. Do they charge Fees Upfront?
The FTC outlawed the practice of debt settlement companies charging upfront fees in 2010. Unfortunately most debt settlement companies where taking advantage of consumers and charging all of their fees before they actually settled any debts. This resulted in a very high number of consumers getting sued by their creditors and losing thousands of dollars to debt settlement company fees with little to no results. Since the FTC banned this practice, many companies have stopped doing it or have gone out of business. However there are still some companies out there that unfortunately care more about lining their own pockets than they care about helping consumers. Don’t ever hire a debt settlement company that charges their fees upfront especially if they are claiming that they are exempt from the law because they are a law firm.
New Era Debt Solutions has always charged our fees based on our performance even before a law was passed requiring us to do so.
4. Do you find many consumer complaints about them when you do a Google search for the company?
Type the company name into Google and see if there are a lot of consumer complaints about the business. If a large number of current or past clients were not happy with the service, there is a good chance that you won’t be happy hiring them either. A high number of consumer complaints should certainly knock out any program claiming to be among the best debt settlement companies.
5. Are you speaking with the entity that will actually work to negotiate your debts or just a sales person that will refer you to another company after they get your money?
More often than not, the person speaking to you about their program is actually not the organization that will be performing the debt settlement service and thus, they are not in a position to promise you anything. Once they get paid and refer you to someone else, they have no control over what happens to you. New Era Debt Solutions takes care of our clients from start to finish. You are never outsourced to anyone. When you speak with us, you are talking to the people that will actually be negotiating directly with your creditors to resolve your situation.
Even though this is a short list, asking these 5 simple questions will go along way to saving you time and insuring that you are hiring one of the Best Debt Settlement Companies. There are very few programs in the industry that can satisfactorily answer all 5 of these questions and when you find one that can, you should definitely put it on your short list of potential companies to hire to help you resolve your debt issue.
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