How Much Will I Pay to Settle My Debt?

Anyone in the Lilburn, Georgia area who is struggling to get caught up on past-due debt may be considering the possibility of debt settlement. As you might know, debt settlement has much less of an impact on your credit than a bankruptcy filing and can allow you to get out of debt. The process for a debt settlement agreement involves negotiations with your creditor or creditor. The aim is to negotiate an agreed amount that you will pay in exchange for the creditor forgiving the remaining amount of debt owed. Creditors are willing to engage in these kinds of agreements when they believe this is the best way to get some of what they owe before selling your debt to a debt collection company.

If you are considering debt settlement, you are most likely wondering: how much will I have to pay to settle my debt? The answer to the question will depend on the amount of debt you owe. Our Lilburn debt settlement lawyers can explain in more detail.

You Will Pay a Percentage of the Debt You Owe

There is no specific amount of money that is common in a debt settlement agreement. Similarly, as a recent CBS News report underscores, there is “no specific percentage that guarantees a successful debt settlement.” What is true is that a debt settlement agreement will involve you (the debtor) paying a percentage of the debt you owe. Typically, that percentage payment will need to be made in one lump sum. Once that amount is paid, the debt settlement agreement will entail the creditor forgiving the remaining debt.

The CBS News report emphasizes that it is never a given that a creditor will agree to a debt settlement. Rather, you will need to make a strong case in your negotiations. This is a key part of the process where a lawyer is often indispensable.

How Much of a Percentage Will I Pay?

There is no common amount that a debtor ends up paying in a successful debt settlement agreement. Yet CBS News does suggest that most successful debt settlement agreements involve the debtor paying between 50 percent and 80 percent of the total debt they owe. In some cases involving particularly strong negotiations on your behalf, you could ultimately pay less than 50 percent of what you owe.

For example, if you owe $20,000 on a credit card, a debt settlement agreement might involve you paying $10,000 (i.e., 50 percent of the amount owed) in exchange for the remaining $10,000 being forgiven by the creditor. Typically, the greater your financial hardship and the later you are on payments, the lower the percentage a creditor may be willing to accept.

Contact a Lilburn Debt Settlement Lawyer for Assistance 

Negotiating a debt settlement agreement can be an extremely stressful process when you do not have an experienced lawyer on your side who is representing you. Creditors can be difficult to deal with, and it may not be as easy as you would think to reach an agreement with a creditor through negotiation.

By working with one of the experienced Georgia debt settlement attorneys at Konn Law Firm LLC, you can be certain that you will have an attorney with significant debt settlement experience negotiating with your creditor or creditors. Our firm will work to reach the best debt settlement offer for you so that you can pay off a portion of your debt and have the rest forgiven. Contact our firm today to find out more about how we can assist you with creditor negotiations in your debt settlement.

Source:

cbsnews.com/news/what-percentage-should-i-offer-to-settle-debt/