I found this forum when I had some of my own credit issues, and it left a great impression on me. I'm happy to say my credit has been doing very well, thanks in part to help from here. Now I'm back though. I have a sailor friend who is interested in getting help from an credit help agency (they negotiate with your cards to lower the payments, and you pay them in one lump sum). I've heard bad things about these agencies though, that some are unreliable or even harmful to people. So I wanted to come and ask if anyone knew of some of these agencies that have good reputations. As far as I know he has a few low card balances (Probably 3 or 4 with about $500-$1000 on them) and one large (not sure how much, I would guess over 10k) private loan from a bank. From the way he's talking, I think he's paying the debts, but not on time or not every month. I've encouraged him to try to make a personal financial plan or call the banks himself to negotiate lower rates, but he seems deadset on using an agency. I told him not to do anything for a couple days so I could check on this forum. Can anyone give recommendations?
Don't do it. The creditors will denote the accounts as being in some type of payment plan. Much the same as bankruptcy insofar as it implies trouble in re-payment. Moreover, he can settle the accounts himself for about the same terms.
