What is debt relief programs and debt help?
 
There are a few different debt programs design to help consumers with their unsecured debt. The main ones are Credit counselling, Debt management, Debt consolidation, and Debt Settlement.
 
What’s an unsecured debt?
 
Unsecured debts are debt with no collateral such as credit card debt, medical debt, personal loans, legal bills, utilities bills, and some private student loans. Secured debt are debts like mortgages and car loans.
 
What’s credit counselling?
 
Credit counselling is usually offered by non-profit and their goal is to help consumer have a clear idea of their personal finance situation, provide some education, budget assistance, and provide a list of solution with pros and cons for their debt. Some agencies also provide debt management plans.
 
What’s debt management?
 
A debt management plan is provided by a counselling agency and they negotiate with your creditors arrive at a lower monthly payment. The negotiation often involve removing some fees and lowering interest in exchange of you making regular payments directly to your creditor or through the counselling agency.
 
What’s a debt consolidation loan?
 
It’s a loan you use to pay all, or most of your debts, at once. Instead of paying multiple creditor and incurring high interest rates you only have to pay your loan back and its interest should be lower than your debts interest. You should then save on interest each month.
 
What’s debt settlement?
 
It usually involve a for-profit company negotiating a settlement of your debt(s) for a fraction of it’s total. The percentage you pay is usually 30-50% before the fees you pay the company.