Calling Creditors to Negotiate Lower Debts and Interest Rates
If you are currently in an unstable financial position, use your communication skills to negotiate with your creditors on lowering your debts and/or interest rates. Just making the effort to work with your lenders to reduce your debt will save yourself lots of stress.
Before calling your lenders review your budget to get an overview of your financial situation. See how much money you can actually afford to pay monthly without putting yourself in financial jeopardy. List out who you owe money to and prioritize your list by order of payment. Depending on your personal financial needs there are lenders whom you will choose to pay off first.
Once you have organized your information make that phone call. In your call be sure to note the number of years you have been a customer, your history payments, and your current financial situation (including how much you can afford to pay monthly). By doing so and sticking to the facts – the representative or someone at the company may be able to help you out with your financial situation.
By being professional, polite, organized, realistic, and flexible you can make great in-roads with your creditor. Negotiating down your debt is not guaranteed, but it certainly would not hurt you to try. In the worse case scenario, despite receiving a “no” you have tried your best to work out a settlement and have faced up to your debt head-on. If at first you do not succeed, try and try again. In the current economic market, what may not seem like an appealing offer to a creditor, now may look like a great deal several months down the road.
