Patience

All of our clients are aware that some creditors may still pursue legal action to collect on debt owed even though our clients have enrolled in Provanta’s Debt Settlement Program.  However, that does not make a creditor’s lawsuit any easier to deal with  In fact, some of our past clients have decided to withdraw and look for other options when litigation began.

I can’t say I blame our clients for making that choice.  Knowing something might happen and then actually experiencing it are two completely different things.  The latter can be extremely unpleasant.

Despite the creditors choice to litigate, we always encourage our clients to stay with the program and reach their ultimate goal of becoming debt free.  We provide support and guidance to help them through the unfortunate situation.  We explain that although one creditor may have filed a lawsuit, it does not mean others will.  More importantly, we continue to negotiate for settlements on accounts even if the accounts are in litigation or have judgments.  Settlements may still be reached in these situations.

For example, a client who recently graduated from Provanta’s Debt Settlement Program started the program with 7 accounts.  In 2006, one of her creditors decided to file a lawsuit and obtained a judgment against our client for a balance of $8100.  We had already settled 3 accounts for her and she had 4 accounts left including the judgment account.

Though she was distraught over her situation, she decided to stick to her original plan- to complete Provanta’s Debt Settlement Program and resolve her unsecured accounts.  We continued negotiations with the remaining creditors.  About a year later, in the spring of 2007, the creditor who filed a lawsuit finally realized our client would not be able to pay the judgment.  They offered to settle the account for $5698.  This was a good offer considering our client’s situation so we helped her take advantage of it.

Even though this particular account settled for 70% of the balance, the overall settlement percentage for our client at the end of her program was 42%.

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