PLEASE learn from our mistakes.....

I have been on this board now for about 5 months posting some questions and reading all I could read to eductate ourselves. We were too late unfortunately, so I hope our story helps someone else out there. Many of you helped out when questions when asked and I wanted to say "THANK YOU". You do good work here. I'm sure your efforts go unnoticed many times.

In Nov of 2005, we got into panic mode because my husband worked for his parents and they were selling the company (he went along w/ the new company), but we were going to be paying out of pocket for many of the expenses (dental, medical, 401K -- normal things we weren't paying or didn't have prior). I spoke with a cousin of mine and was very upset about our debt and what was going to happen. She told me her and her husband were going through a debt settlement company. I thought it sounded easy enough (they were 1 month ahead of us). I did some research and found a company on line and after a week, we decided this was our best shot. So, we started the process. A week later, I found out *I* was losing my job (I was not the bread winner, though).

We had 5 accounts through our DSC. One settled quite quickly. The other four? One was waiting, one was suing, one was arbitration and one just continued to send threatening letters and as of right now, it's been sold off yet again to another, so the calls are heavy. After a year, we were no further than we were last year. We were worse off. When the law suit stuff started happening, our DSC figured it was going to be easy and NOT TO WORRY! Well, we were doing legal documents we didn't know whether were right, we were sending out NUMEROUS things CMRR, it wasn't ending. To boot, we weren't accumulating many funds due to the company taking their portion. They have it figured right that after about 13 months, you've already lost a law suit and are in our horrible situation, so most people get out of it, like us. They made a LOT of money for doing NOTHING. See....DSC cannot do anything until there is MONEY to settle. We only had accumulated $2700.00. Not going to get us very far.

On December 31, my husband and I assessed our lives, and our debts to our income. After making a spread sheet of everything, we realized we only had about $150 extra a MONTH. It was time to see a lawyer. After all of that, we have opted on Bankruptcy.

We saw a lawyer yesterday and we talked awhile on these DSC. He said he cringes and he cannot tell me how many TRY these and end up where we are. My husband and I are lucky I am not on the house (he purchased it 6 months before we got married). If you own a house and have a judgement against you, most likely they have a lien on your home. You cannot get rid of those. There is no lien on our house since my name isn't on it and most likely there won't be. SOOOOO much we didn't know (just like whatever is settled with a cc company -- you pay taxes on that. If it was $3K in debt and you settled for $2K - you get 1099'd on the $1K!). We are putting everything in motion in order to prevent any more lawsuits, etc....

We will be filing a chapter 13. What we saved through the DSC is what we used to pay our lawyer. He does, on average, 20 chapter 13's a month. He knows his stuff and for once, we are feeling like a weight has been partially lifted off our shoulders.

I don't know how much worse our credit can be after the damage has been done. After 5 years, we'll be done with paying it off. We had told no one and I shamefully unloaded to my best friend. She then told me THEIR story (there are more out there than we know of!). Her husband had to file a chapter 7 in 2001. He had a job with Allstate for 12 years and in 2006, they built a new house under HIS name and HIS credit!!! Their interest is 6% on their 2500 sq ft home. There is HOPE! We have never defaulted on our secured debt and won't be buying a home soon, but we hope to save our credit down the line.

I don't think that BK is the way to go, but we'll be paying back some of our debt. Had we not gone with a DSC originally, I don't think we would have needed to use a BK lawyer. We've accepted our fate and even though this was NOT our original intention, we just are standing on the edge of a cliff. I don't think it will be the WORST way to go in the end. We are protecting our home and vehicle. We don't have any other major assets and things like that, but we are wanting to get our lives back on track and get through this huge mountain in our lives.

I just wanted to pass on to people that a DEBT SETTLEMENT COMPANY IS NOT THE WAY TO GO!!!!!!! I even told the lawyer I am on a few boards and have made it my mission to spread the word. I think the ONLY way it can work is if your balances are LOW. Even then, it depends on the OC. The ones that have been non-stop is Kohl's and that original amount was $1300.00.

I will still be lurking on the boards and will jump in w/ my experiences w/ the DSC. Thank you, again, for all of the advice and your experiences!!! This is a GREAT board!