One of the things I hate to do is admit that I can’t handle something. One of my biggest depression episode triggers is money/finances.  I hate it with  a passion. I am not a good money handler.  I never have been.  I was engaged to a guy who took advantage of me and my trusting/generous nature and helped me rack up a huge amonth of debt.  Moving out took it up even farther.  I had a job that paid well, but was making my depression and anxiety much much worse.  I quit and started a new job, but lost $400 a month when I did so.  That took me from being able to make my payments into the world of not being able to make them.

Sunday I made a decision.  I was going to do something about my debt.  I did look into credit counseling, but that didn’t do much to lower my monthly payments.  Hey, I need money to be able to eat, don’t I?  That’s when I came across Franklin Debt Relief and debt settlement/negotiation. I was able to talk to someone today about it (a very nice man) and get more information.  Its not the best or easiest thing.  One of the things you have to do is stop paying your creditors.  That may sound nice, but it gives you big black marks on your credit report.  After so many months FDR approaches the creditor and negotiates a settlement, usually for much less than is owed (up to 60% less than you owe now).  FDR gives you a monthly payment (and they’re flexible about the pay date as long as you give them 5 days notice) and you pay that each month up to 33 months.  By then you’re out of debt and on the way to earning back that good credit.

There are some cons about it.  One thing is that you open yourself up to collection calls and collection letters.  They tell you to change the address/phone number to their’s, but creditors are persistant and will most likely call you last known number as well.  Another thing you open yourself up to is lawsuits.  Creditors can take you to court if you don’t pay them. From what I understand its not a common occurrance, but it is out there.  They do charge you – 15% of what you owe.  However, since you now owe only approximately 40% of what you did originally, the 15% raises what you owe to about 55% of what you orginally owed.  Much less, isn’t it?  Another plus is the short term of the payments.  No more thirty years of paying minimum balances and thousands and thousands in interest.

After looking at all my options I decided to pursue this one.  I’m addressing something that I’ve been avoiding an yes, I will be closing ALL of my credit cards once they are paid off.  I am NOT going to get into this mess again.  I will do my best to keep you all up to date on my progress with FDR as well as the credit cards I’m not turning over to them (I don’t owe enough on them to make it worth going after at this point – plus on two of them I haven’t made enough payments to qualify).