It’s a known fact that credit counselors, debt management services, and attorneys charge debt counseling fees when they offer their debt settlement and debt elimination services to their clients. Whether you employ the services of your attorney, or you plan to engage a professional company to deal with your debt issues and problems, the net result is the same – you end up “hiring” an attorney in the end, since professional companies employ attorneys on their panel. So whichever way you look at it, you end up paying the attorney’s fees in the end. And attorneys charge hefty fees, most of the times. The main question is “Is it possible to avoid paying the attorney’s fees if your debt problems are not so severe.” The answer is, "Yes, theoretically you can." However, practically it depends upon your understanding of your debt issues, and your confidence level in dealing with your creditors. The debtor has one additional option of availing debt consolidation through debt consolidation loan to seek some debt relief.

Professional debt management personnel have the experience and the knowledge to deal with debt settlement issues. They “do it” everyday, so they also have the required expertise and necessary confidence to deal effectively with the creditors. Their presence is a “must” if you have severe problems and wish to solve them. However in certain cases the debt issue is not so “big”, and in that case, it might be possible to deal with the “problem” on your own.

The following three tips can be very helpful if you plan to settle your debts on your own:

1. Don’t negotiate via phone

Collection agencies generally record all their telephone communications carried out with their debtors during debt settlement program, and the information is stored for “later use”. Agencies claim the recordings are to be used for "quality assurance" purposes, however in reality, the information is retained so it can be used against you, and in many cases, the “saved” information has been used as “evidence” in litigations and law suits. There’s an option available for you to record the phone call for your “usage”, however to do that you need to get permission from the collection agency. And even if you do record the conversation, you are still experience disadvantage for two main reasons:

• The debt “agent” you're communicating with is a trained professional, and so he or she’s not likely to “speak” or “commit” anything which can be useful to you, and
• Whatever the debt collector says may or may not “obligate” the agency from the legal point of view, but whatever you say can and will definitely obligate you. So a promise made by the debt agent over the phone may not be enforceable against the company, but whatever you say "can and will be held against you." Negotiating over the telephone to avail debt help is not a good idea. Recordings can be very common during credit card debt settlement programs.

2. Correspond by mail and get everything in writing

Since the phone option is “out”, the only other option available is corresponding through “written letters”. It’s advisable to “send” everything via “Registered Mail” or “Receipt Requested” so you have some confirmation for your correspondence. It’s recommended you “save” everything that you receive from the collection agency, and a copy of all your letters sent. And most important, before you pay them one dime, be certain to get the entire terms of your debt settlement agreement in “writing”. The fact is debt solutions have to be “availed”, and aren’t offered for “free”. You need to support your debt solution process in an organized manner to avail maximum benefit.

3. Know about your rights and leverage

The debt collector’s interested in you because you “have” what he “wants” – money. So the question is does the debt collector have something that “you” want? Debt collectors “recover” their money by employing various methods and techniques such as threatening letters, adding up your net payable interest in addition to penalties etc. If the debt collector wants, he or she can help you with these kinds of issues by not writing threatening recovery letters, or remove a “bad credit” flag from your file. It’s important to try for debt negotiation and arbitrate with your creditor for some advantages. If phone calls are your main concern, you can inform your debt collector that you can’t pay your outstanding amount, and as per law the collector has no other choice but to leave you alone. However, it’s important to know that this particular protection provided by the law is only applicable to third-party debt collectors and not your original creditor. In case the creditor desires to take the issue heads on, it’s required to take you to court, sue you, later win the case, and before collecting a dime sue you again to enforce the judgment. The question is “Is it worth the candle to spend a lot of time and effort to recover a few hundred or a couple of thousand dollars? That’s your leverage.