5 Not-So-Secret Tips for Debt Consolidation Program Success
People love to talk about their secrets to success. When it comes to managing your debt through a debt consolidation program, our tips are not a secret at all! We’ve listed five ways you can set yourself up for success in debt resolution, with no guessing required.
Our most successful clients follow these five tips for program success:
- Turn off Automatic Payments Directly to Your Creditors
- Sync Your Program Deposit Days With Your Paydays
- Send All Creditor Correspondence to Us
- Let Us Communicate With Your Creditors
- Reach Out to Us if You Are Having Serious Concerns or Questions
1. Turn off Automatic Payments Directly to Your Creditors
During a debt consolidation program, you must demonstrate hardship to your creditors by delaying direct payments to them. Instead, your payments are combined into a monthly deposit that goes into your Dedicated Account that we help you set up.
These monthly deposits are your top priority. So, if you haven’t already, make sure that automatic payments directly to creditors are turned off. Not doing this can slow down your progress and make it harder to reach new terms and agreements with your creditors.
Extra tip: If the creditor on your enrolled account is the same financial institution where you do your banking, consider closing that bank account and opening a new one with a different bank to avoid any billing confusion.
2. Sync Your Program Deposit Days With Your Paydays
For example, If you are paid bi-monthly, consider making two smaller deposits a month that align with your paydays. This is a great way to manage your finances and make sure you always have funds available on your program deposit days.
To change your payment schedule, or make extra payments, contact our Client Success Team.
3. Send All Creditor Correspondence to Us
Creditors may send letters with important information about your enrolled accounts.
In order to ensure your success, we ask you to send us copies of any letters you receive from your creditors.
When you receive letters from your creditors:
Scan or take clear pictures of the entire letter and send a copy to our Client Success Team as an email attachment to [email protected] or fax to: (888) 495-4207. Legal documents should be sent to [email protected].
Types of letters you may receive from creditors include:
- Delinquency notices showing your pause in payment while you save to your Dedicated Account for future resolutions
- Resolution offer letters
- Legal documents
Legal action is extremely rare and only affects 1-2% of accounts enrolled in our program. Luckily, the majority of accounts that see legal action are resolved without going to court. If you receive a legal summons, please contact us as soon as possible. We can walk you through the next steps.
4. Let Us Communicate With Your Creditors
One benefit of a debt resolution program is that our Client Success Team will work on your behalf to handle all communication with your creditors. Of course, that doesn’t mean creditors won’t try to contact you directly. Early on in your program, frequent creditor calls are normal.
To limit the disruption caused by these calls, you can:
- Change your contact number with creditors to our number, so when they call, they’ll reach us instead.
- Block or silence creditor calls from your cell phone.
If you do answer a creditor call, you can simply say, “I’m experiencing financial hardship. I intend to address the debt through debt resolution with Beyond Finance, but I cannot pay at this time.”
5. Reach Out to Us if You Are Having Serious Concerns or Questions
Debt is stressful, we get it! And while we do our best to make sure that you have all the information you need when you enroll, it’s normal to feel a bit overwhelmed or confused when you start your program.
If you feel uncertain, have unanswered questions, or are second-guessing your decision, please reach out to us! Our Client Success Team is here to walk you through every part of this process, and that includes making sure that you feel confident in your decision.
You can call us at 800-282-7186!
Extra tip: In addition to speaking with our team, we recommend joining one of our weekly video sessions where our financial therapists address common concerns and answer questions. Knowing you are not alone in your journey can make a big difference.