You may have seen those ads for debt settlement companies. Most are written off as a scam. A local one has retained me as part of an effort to move clients too deep in debt into a more sensible bankruptcy option. I have found some startling things about the debt settlement business, and debt in general.

I expected to find hard-sold customers, pissed off and looking to blame someone. Instead I have found that these are people who are mostly trying to continue their life in denial of the financial facts of life. The first thing I have discovered is that debt settlement companies can reduce peoples debt in astonishing amounts (50K or more wiped out sometimes in a few phone calls).

The second thing I have learned is that the people who seek debt settlement services have some common issues in communication within their household. It seems that Bankruptcy will force them to admit the true state of their credit to their wives, husbands and families. It seems that so many simply want to ignore reality and just keep kicking the can down the road until, somehow, their finances improve. Sadly, these people are 40, 50, and even 60 years old. Short of a lottery ticket, their opportunities to massively increase their income are non-existent.

What has stunned me the most about this experience is that the people I am talking to, who  should be old enough to understand and make the necessary changes, are the ones least likely to accept the facts. I am finding that the younger debtor has a much more intuitive understanding of their debt, their options and they are not as hung up on image and stigma of Bankruptcy. The older one, the ones who can least afford to keep up appearances are the ones who hold on until the catastrophic end.

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