A whole bunch of people that come to see us are in debt settlement until something goes very wrong and they end up calling us. Normally they call us because they have been sued and they thought the debt settlement company was going to handle it.
They were mistaken.
What we do
When clients meet with us at Steidl & Steinberg, we try to determine how much money they have available to pay back their creditors in a typical month. What continues to mystify me is that the amount I calculate is often hundreds of dollars less than the amount they are paying the soÂ-called debt settlement companies. That includes the companies that say they are not debt settlement companies but really are.
How can that be?
How can my numbers be so much different than the numbers given to them by the debt settlement companies? The answer is simple: the debt settlement companies often don’t care!
They don’t care!
They don’t care that you don’t have the income to pay the amount of money they need to settle the debts. Their job is to add together all of your bills and tell you how much you have to pay to the debt settlement company. Why don’t they care how much your income is compared to your expenses? Because they need your money to run their business. It is not their concern that you really don’t have enough money to pay on these bills.
They ask for your bank account number, they attach it once per month, and that is that. . . until you get sued.
You are probably saying that our law firm needs money to run its business. Yes, we do, but not at your expense. If you don’t have enough money to pay back your creditors, or if your money is limited, we are going to tell you that. We are not going to look at your debt, say, $40,000, and set up a payment of $1,000.00 per month if you don’t have $1,000.00 per month. We don’t run our law firm that way.
The next time you hear how much money a debt settlement company is going to save you, do yourself a favor: contact us at Steidl & Steinberg as well. Get some answers from a law firm that has been doing this for over three decades, and then compare what we say versus what they say.