Best Loan Guide

CuraDebt has been helping individuals and small businesses for over 16 years nationwide making the company and team one of the oldest and most experienced in the debt relief industry.

CuraDebt Tax has a team of representatives that are qualified to provide help to both individuals and small businesses IRS or State tax solutions. The tax team has over 100 years combined experience with over 83 of it previously working at the IRS or other taxing authorities.

CuraDebt has an in-house debt relief program that is designed to help during times of financial hardship and save as much money as possible with your unsecured debt.

CuraDebt’s free consultation focuses on providing expert assistance, timely advice and solutions that are specific to your situation and your financial goals. The CuraDebt consultation is a no obligation, 100% free and confidential service.

Debt Relief Programs

You may be considering debt relief programs to help you resolve your debts for a variety of reasons. It may be because you want to pay off your debts in less time than making the minimum payments. It could be because you need a lower payment due to financial hardship. You may be considering bankruptcy alternatives. Another reason could be that you want to escape the minimum payment trap and finally start having control over your financial future.

Do Nothing Or Continue Paying The Minimum Payments

If you’re making your minimum payments, at the very least, you aren’t accruing late fees and will not be reported for delinquency to the credit bureaus. You will stay afloat.

However, the debt is often growing at a rate greater than the minimum payment because of the high interest rates.

Ultimately, paying the minimum payment does nothing to improve the situation. If you are paying just the minimum payments on your debt, then a major portion (or potentially all) of what you pay each month is going towards interest for the loan.

While this is a great situation for creditors, many earning billions of dollars per year from interest alone, it is not good for you. When one calculates the total payoff on unsecured debts, often it exceeds the principle amount by 10, 100 or more times.

Some people have come to us and let us know they had paid their debts back 4 to 5 times, yet the balances hadn’t gone down. Finally with the CuraDebt debt resolution program they were able to have peace of mind by getting them paid off.

Inherit A Lot Of Money Or Win The Lottery

Hoping for a miracle to happen is not a good strategy for anything. This is really just a delaying tactic to avoid having to face your problems. The sooner you come to terms with the fact that you need help, the sooner you will be able to find an adequate solution.

And for the record, the odds of winning the lottery are 1 in 175,223,510, so the chances of this being your way out of debt are very slim. You will be much better off if you choose from the various debt relief programs that are proven to have worked.

But let’s say that you do come across a lump some of cash, what are your options then? Here we go over different debt relief programs for paying off your debts.

File Bankruptcy

If you are having an extreme financial crisis and you are contemplating bankruptcy, it is best to know all of the facts first. At CuraDebt, we have over 15 years of experience and have helped tens of thousands of Americans with debt solutions.

In an effort to inform you, we are providing an overview of what bankruptcy entails. The information is provided as informational and is not legal advice. It is recommended that you speak with an attorney for legal advice. There are two kinds of bankruptcy for individuals, Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Whether Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy is the right choice for you depends on your income, assets, debts, and your financial goals.

Debt Management

A non-profit debt consolidation program (also known as a debt management plan, debt management program, credit counseling program, non-profit credit counseling program) is a creditor-sponsored program that has been advertised as a solution to individuals who are falling behind or having “trouble” paying their minimum payments each month.

To qualify for this debt relief program, typically the individual with the debts has to make at least a 2% minimum payment each month plus a fee to the credit counseling agency. In certain cases, credit counseling agencies may charge a monthly fee as high as $79 a month for their services. They then make one payment to the creditors each month. In the past, creditors would lower the interest rates a lot (even to 0%), but in recent years, creditors have not been so generous when lowering the interest rates. Some do not even lower them at all, and some do not even work with non-profit debt consolidation plans.

Also, on this option of debt relief programs, if one payment is missed or late, the creditors may kick the individual out of the program.

The credit report still shows a third party (the debt consolidation credit counseling agency) as paying the accounts. While interpretation is different from one lender to another, some lenders equate the credit rating of the person on this debt relief program to a chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Unsecured Debt Consolidation Loan

An unsecured loan is where an asset such as a property is not tied into the loan agreement. Credit cards, payday loans, personal loans are some examples. Unsecured debt is the most common form of debt and presents the biggest problem to consumers.

These types of loans often have astronomical interest rates as high as 23% (or sometimes more) as well as loan origination fees. This means you will end up paying back much more than what was originally loaned to you. Individuals with multiple credit card debt, small loans, or other initiatives often find that having multiple bills to pay is very complicated. Also, making monthly repayments to many different lenders increases the chance of a missed or late payment.

While your credit score may still look OK, your credit worthiness is lowered. Depending on the size of the new loan, new lenders may look at you and decide that you would not be able to make a payment on a new loan and therefore deny you for new loans.

Secured Debt Consolidation Loan

A secured debt consolidation loan is a loan in which the owner pledges an asset like a car or property as security to the lender for the loan. Therefore, if you own a home, land or other assets with equity you might qualify for a secured loan, using the asset as collateral.

Lenders often claim that this is the best way to eliminate your debts and that it is the best choice to maintain your credit score. While this sounds attractive, in reality it is one of the worst decisions a person can make.

Debt Settlement

Another option of debt relief programs is debt settlement, which is also referred to as debt negotiation, debt arbitration, debt forgiveness, and credit settlement. Debt settlement is an option of different debt relief programs that is designed to help you save as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, based on your unique financial situation.

There are many factors that come into play in the debt negotiation process. These factors include the age of debt, type of debt, your income, the state you live in, your age, and many others.

Debt Relief Services

CuraDebt provides the following core debt relief services to individuals and small business owners across the United States of America:

Debt Relief

Do you have credit cards and/or other unsecured debts and need a solution to resolve them as quickly as possible, for the greatest savings, based on the funds that you have available? While there are many options, the key is identifying the best option for you based on your unique financial situation and goals. At CuraDebt, we have provided tens of thousands of Americans with debt relief solutions since the year 2000. We have several debt relief options available. Learning what your options are and which is the best is a good start to helping you start resolving your debts. All of our consultations are free, confidential and with no-obligation. Read more about debt relief here.

Tax Debt Relief

The division of CuraDebt that provides state and IRS and state tax debt relief services is CuraDebt Tax. We are able to assist with your state or IRS tax issues. Taxing authorities have numerous extremely strong methods for collection, so if you do have tax debt issues, take action immediately. See the CuraDebt Tax Debt Relief Services page to learn more about our tax debt resolution options.

Debt Settlement

Debt settlement, also known as debt negotiation, debt reduction, debt forgiveness, or debt arbitration, is a process where you are in the driver’s seat. Instead of being a slave to credit card companies’ minimum payment guidelines and lifetime payments, you make a payment based on what you can afford (within program guidelines).

At the same time, CuraDebt works with consumer protection law firms to help protect you from TCPA, FDCPA and other collection violations. In the past, when successful, clients have had debts dismissed as well as received cash awards. No one can guarantee future results, but CuraDebt has numerous internal processes to ensure that everything is done to maximize violations for the benefit of clients.

Then, for the debts remaining, your arbitrator negotiates to reduce the amount owed as much as possible and finalize each account as quickly as possible based on the money available. The result is paying off your debts much sooner and for a lower payoff than most other options. CuraDebt offers debt settlement as one of our debt relief services and you can read more on the debt settlement page.

Debt Negotiation

Just to be clear, debt negotiation is part of debt settlement and many times debt settlement is referred to as debt negotiation. We have separated it out here to provide you additional information on this program. Before we start negotiating with your creditors, we begin with a free counseling session to see if our program works for you. We explain every detail and walk you through the process. Our debt counselors explain how the savings plan part of the process works and, of course, the most important part, how we negotiate your debts with your creditors. Learn more about debt negotiation as a debt relief option and whether it’s a good fit for you.

Debt Consolidation Program

A typical debt consolidation program offered by a credit counseling agency is called a debt management plan. The CuraDebt team is experienced with debt management and consumer credit counseling from having offered it in the past. With this knowledge, you can receive a balanced evaluation if it is truly the best program to help you accomplish your financial goals.

CuraDebt also offers a debt settlement type of debt consolidation program where the balances are negotiated on, instead of solely focusing on adjusting interest rates and late fees.

Unsecured Debt Consolidation Loan

As another type of debt consolidation program, some people look to unsecured debt consolidation loans. Many of these loans are advertised on television, radio, internet, newspaper, and other places. The unfortunate fact is that most have astronomical interest rates and put the individual in a worse place than they were before. For example, payday loans are a type of unsecured debt consolidation loan, but the interest rates are extremely high. Credit unions offer unsecured loans, but often unknown to the individual getting the loans, the credit union may have secured the debt against other things the client owns. The online ‘crowd funding’ unsecured lenders add various origination fees and are often very aggressive when a person has a challenge paying back the loan.

Secured Debt Consolidation Loan

Often, if you have a home or other property with equity, you will receive offers to take out a secured debt consolidation loan against your property. The lenders often claim that this is the best way to eliminate your debts and that it is the best choice to maintain your credit score.

While this sounds attractive, in reality, it is one of the riskiest types of debt consolidation and decision a person can make. For example, including loan and closing fees, to pay off $12,000 in unsecured debt, the new loan could be as high as $25,000. In addition, the unsecured loans are now replaced with a secured debt. Now, you still have a monthly payment, but if you fall delinquent or miss a payment, you risk foreclosure and losing your property.

While the payment part of your credit score may still look OK, your credit worthiness is extremely low because you cannot afford to take out any new credit, now you owe more debt than before, and you now owe secured instead of unsecured debt. This is why taking out a loan secured against an asset is so risky. If you’re in financial troubles and you are having a hard time making your monthly credit card payments, then it will probably be just as hard to make another loan payment on your property.

Additionally, statistics show that 70 percent of Americans who take out a home equity loan or other type of loan to pay off credit cards end up with the same (if not higher) debt load within two years.

Since your spending habits have not likely changed, in a few years, statistics show that you will probably have your home equity loan payment plus a new payment on your credit cards (that you had paid off). The bad news is that in a few years you may be so strapped financially that the only option is bankruptcy and potentially losing your home.

The whole point of debt relief is just that, to relieve you of debt and the stress that comes with it. At CuraDebt our first goal with all clients is to educate them on their options.

The best solution for unsecured debts is to pay back your credit cards in full by paying significantly more each month than the minimum payment. However, if you are in a situation where you are finding that the minimum payment is causing challenges in your finances or if your accounts have already gone delinquent, the best solution is a debt relief program because settlements can be reached with unsecured creditors. With secured debts (e.g. a home loan), the only solution in most cases is to lose the asset (e.g. lose your home).