There are many ways to incur debt, from credit cards to car loans. If you are struggling to make ends meet each month because of your debts, don’t despair. There are several ways you can get debt relief, whether that means you work out an agreement with your creditors, or take legal action and file for bankruptcy. Despite the negative image bankruptcy tends to receive, the process is one of the most effective ways to get debt relief in the long term. In fact, bankruptcy can resolve your debts without the “band-aid effect” other kinds of debt relief result in. With the help of Behm Law Group Ltd., you can rid yourself of unmanageable debts by filing for bankruptcy and steering clear of the negative impacts of debt consolidation, debt settlement, and debt adjustment in Waseca, MN.
Almost all non-bankruptcy forms of debt relief (with the exception of debt forgiveness) create similar situations for the debtor and treat debt in similar ways. Debt adjustment, settlement, and consolidation are three common methods of debt relief outside of bankruptcy. However, they may only give you temporary relief with the added damage of more debt in the long run.
How Common Debt Relief Methods Work
- Debt adjustment is an agreement you can work out with your creditor to lower your monthly payment amount, allowing you to pay that debt off over a longer time period. While this means you’ll have to pay less each month, it also means you’ll end up paying more to your creditor overall because of the added interest.
- Debt settlement is another agreement you can make with your creditor and a debt settlement company. In this case, you and your creditor agree on a reduced debt amount and you begin making payments to the settlement company. However, the company can withhold your payments from your creditor, making your credit decrease significantly when your financial records show that you’ve defaulted or made late payments on your debt. In addition, you typically will get taxed on any debt that may be forgiven or written off.
- Debt consolidation agreements between you and a third party creditor work to take out a loan from that creditor to repay all your other debts, effectively consolidating all your debts into one. These debts often have interest rates that increase over time and force you to be in debt longer.
Why Bankruptcy Is Better
Debt relief options like debt adjustment, settlement, and consolidation provide quick fixes without addressing long-term solutions. They will most likely put you into a situation where you pay more in interest for a much longer period of time. Choosing bankruptcy instead gives you a chance to resolve your debts under the administration of a court-protected process as well as the added protection of a bankruptcy attorney. While it will cause your credit to drop (just like most other debt relief processes), bankruptcy will effectively discharge or restructure your debts into a reduced plan spanning over a predetermined payment period.
To learn more about filing for bankruptcy over debt adjustment in Waseca, MN, or other forms of debt relief, contact Behm Law Group Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 today.
