Avoid Falling Prey to Scam Artists with a Referral from the Credit Exchange

When I was gainfully employed, I never really thought about my credit card debt. I just payed the minimum payment each month and went about my merry way. Then I became unemployed. For awhile, while I still had retirement money in the bank and was delusional enough to think that a law firm or another court would hire me, I still didn't think about it. I figured that I'd be gainfully employed again before the credit cards became a problem. I figured wrong, however. The retirement money ran out. No one would hire me, and I had no choice but to think about how much high-interest debt that I had accumulated. It wasn't a pretty picture that formed in my mind. It still isn't.

I wish that I could somehow consolidate those credit cards into one monthly payment, preferably one that is both lower in amount than all the minimum payments put together and accompanied by a lower interest rate. At the interest rate that I'm paying now on some of the cards, even if I never use them again, I think that it's altogether possible that I'll still be paying off the balance when I'm 80.

Every day my spam box gets bombarded with emails whose senders promise to reduce my interest rate, consolidate my debt, or negotiate it down to a smaller amount. I never open those emails. I'm scared that they're either virus carriers or phishing scams looking to snag my social security number. Thus, I usually delete them in bulk.

I know that there have got to be legitimate Debt Counseling and debt consolidation businesses out there; I just don't know how to find them. There is always the Yellow Pages, but these days you can't even trust the businesses listed in them. After all, anyone can just buy an ad and say that they do such and such. I doubt the Yellow Pages actually investigates the advertisers to see if they're legit.

The Credit Exchange Corporation, a debt referral service, does go that extra step. It thoroughly screens the companies to which it refers its customers, weeding out any "loosely wrapped" or fraudulent companies. According to the Federal Trade Commission, there are plenty of the latter companies out there. For example, there are companies that charge large upfront fees; pressure its clients into making large, "voluntary" contributions to the company; falsely claim to be nonprofit organizations; refuse to send you free information about their services unless you provide your financial information upfront; automatically enroll you in a debt management program without first reviewing your financial situation; urge you to create a new credit identity by applying for an employer identification number to use instead of your social security number; and tell you to dispute everything on your credit report, even the accurate stuff. The Credit Exchange will help you weed out those companies and find the best, legitimate, financial services company to meet your needs.

I wonder if the Credit Exchange is affiliated with any financial services companies that can help the unemployed. There's only one way to find out--filling out their online request form at TheCreditExchange.com. If you need help dealing with your own financial situation, you may want to consider filling out the form, too.

In the meantime, I'm tempted to relieve some stress by cutting my credit cards up into tiny little pieces. I'd like to say that I'll never use them again, but realistically I can't. I never went on shopping sprees with the cards anyway. I mostly used them for to buy groceries and gas and pay vet bills. However, I can say that I'm going try my hardest not to use credit in the future. Of course, there is always the chance that an unforeseen emergency will arise, and I'll have no choice but to use credit, in which case maybe I should just freeze the things instead. So what's better to freeze a credit card in--Tupperware or a Ziploc bag? I have no idea.