"Unmanageable Credit Card Debt"

[NJSPEEDER]

Does anyone else find all these get out of debt commercials comical?

Some of the statements they make are so misguided, 2 out of 3 Americans have more than $10k in debt! Yes, nearly half the nation is paying a mortgage and about 11% of the population has active college debt. So what they are saying is less than 10% of the population could possibly have $10k or more worth of junk on credit cards, car loans, and other misc junk. That doesn't sound bad to me at all.

Another commercial that was just on showed people buying groceries and gas and then talked about unmanageable debt. I consider food and the ability to get the places I need to go rather essential, so is the goal of this commercial to interest people in managing their debt or making everyone afraid to eat?

There was even one on earlier that talked about getting "harassed" by the IRS and then showed people with the 'I owed millions and only paid dozens' stories. That doesn't really motivate me to worry about debt as much as question how someone comes up a few mill in the hole to the IRS, I mean, a total like that can't just sneak up on you.

People are funny I guess. Companies market to stupidity and make the simplest tasks seem complicated and now we can add paying taxes to that list. I know the short form is terribly complicated, it took me nearly 15 mins to fill it out. Of course I spent ten of those minutes reading it over as I ate my bowl of cereal, but still, it took at least 15 minutes in the end.

[firebirdcrazy]

This leads me to a question. Who here has actually used one of these debt relief services that you hear on the radio, TV, and News Papers? And if so was it good or bad? I know I could use some relief, but I am sure these are all scams.

[ShitOnWheels]

Since I wasn't getting paid from September - December 08, our credit cars have crept up a bit. We are constantly getting calls from these debt releif companies saying they can reduce our out of control debt (it's no where near out of control...it'll be paid off in a few months now that I'm making money again). We weren't even at $5k on the cards (we only have 2) before they started calling. It's ridiculous.

[Frosty]

Most of those debt relief places are baaaaad ideas. They'll actually hurt your credit. I've read stories where they don't pay the card bills for months which kind of strong arms the credit card companies into lowering the rates, payments or wiping a lot of the debt out. That's great but your credit rating takes a huge hit in the process.

[BlueGTS]

The reason they show people buying food and gas is we all buy them so everyone can relate. So I view the commercial, am swimming in debt and say "hey, that person is just like me, we both eat and drive". What is more realistic is showing someone at Best Buy purchasing a 50" 1080P LCD TV and throwing it on plastic. No one wants to be told they are in debt due to unneeded expenses. They want to think it is their groceries that are pushing them over the edge.

[NJSPEEDER]

Originally Posted by firebirdcrazy

This leads me to a question. Who here has actually used one of these debt relief services that you hear on the radio, TV, and News Papers? And if so was it good or bad? I know I could use some relief, but I am sure these are all scams.

Stay far far away from them. It is all stuff any person with common sense can do on their own a number of ways. Just need to apply a little common sense and some planning.