Debt Elimination Success Seminar
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Section 1
A Look at Debt
History of Debt
Credit Card History
Current State of Debt
How You Got Into Debt
Good Debt Bad Debt
Business vs. Personal Debt
Section 2 Dealing With Your Money
The Two Step Plan
Doing The Two-Step
Step One
Step Two
The Paths Out of Debt
1- Create a Debt Payment Plan
2- Neogtiate Better Rates & Terms
a.Consolidation Loans
b.Consumer Credit Counseling Services
3- Negotiate Lump-Sum Settlements
4- Bankruptcy
5- The Easy Way
6- Win $1,000,000
Living Debt-Free
Manage Your Money
Make More Money
Save Money
SameMoney-MoreFun
Stay Debt-Free
You as a Business
Section 3 Dealing With Your Creditors
Alerts/Scams
The Credit Industry
Credit Industry
The Fine Print
The Secondary Debt Market
The Debt Collection Process
Original Creditor
The Charge-Off
Collection Agency
Legal Problems
Dirty Creditor Tricks
Dealing with Debt Collectors
Dealing with Debt Collectors
Statute of Limitations
Cease and Desist Letter
Section 4
The Credit Report
The Credit Report
Credit Score
Credit Repair
Section 5
Dealing With Yourself
The Critical Factor
The Art of Prosperity
The End of Failure
Prosperity Coaching
Section 6
Kids and Money
Kids and Money
How to Pay for College
Section 7
Debt Information
Bookstore
Debt Facts
Radio Show
Resources
About Us
Privacy Policy
Site Map
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Debt Negotiation |
Host: Tom Allen
Guest: Colemann R. Cassel II from Start Over Today
Segment 3 Becoming Debt-Free
Tom: I’m Tom Allen, and I hate debt. I invite you to make the decision today to join with me in living a debt-free and prosperous life. The decision to become debt-free can be made in a second. But you really have to have a determination and a strategy to make it a reality. Sharing some strategies today is Coleman R. Cassel, the CEO and financial strategist of StartOverToday.com. Coleman, we already learned that StartOverToday.com is a complete financial solutions company, but I know that once the decision has been made to become debt-free, there are still a lot of other things that come up, like living within your means, making more money, dealing with creditors. In your experience, what is the most common thing that gets people off track, and how can they prevent that?
Coleman: Typically, when we see people in programs and they are involved with StartOverToday.com and they are on a success track, we find that what typically knocks them off is when someone will talk to a creditor who’s calling and harassing them. We have certain checklists and things you are supposed to say to creditors, and a creditor will call and tell you just about anything, from what we’ve seen so far—
Tom: No kidding!
Coleman: They’ll tell you just about anything to intimidate you and to try to step in between and sever the relationship that we’ve built with the client. And they simply harass and intimidate the client, so the client will call us with a fear-based reaction. Emotion steps in. This is a very sensitive industry in terms of being a very high emotional business.
Tom: Yes.
Coleman: And when the creditor calls and is saying, “You can’t take care of your family, why can’t you pay your bills, why can’t you this and that, whatever program you’re enrolled in doesn’t exist”—they’ll say just about anything.
Tom: Yes they will.
Coleman: “We don’t work with them” is a real common one we hear. But Tom, that’s what really knocks off our clients. This is a process that we go through. Getting out of debt is not easy, but we do it every day for our clients and we have to stay focused on the end goal, and we have to know how the person on the other end of the line gets paid. They get paid via you writing a check to their company.
Tom: They are working on commission.
Coleman: Yes, for 28 plus percentage.
Tom: (laughs) And they are, for anybody who’s been to IHateDebt.com knows that my experience comes from being in debt. And I know that it is extremely uncomfortable to get a call from a collection agent who’s screaming at you. They are very good at getting to you emotionally. In fact, I’ve been told by someone who’s been in the industry that they have a saying, “Criers are payers.” Meaning, if they can get you emotionally upset, that they are 90% of the way towards getting you to take out that checkbook. So that is their goal, to get to you emotionally, and as you say, Coleman, whether or not what they are saying is actually true. And we would like to think that most collectors are honest and legitimate, but there are some out there who will say things that are untrue and illegal. But even if they are telling the truth, it’s not a comfortable situation.
Coleman: From my point of view, and I’m not saying all creditors are big and bad, but this is an honest situation that we had with a current client. At that time, they were a prospective client and they told us that a creditor actually told them that they could go sell their blood for $20 a pop so they could make their minimum monthly payment, which was effectively—it wouldn’t even have covered the interest, much less the $29.95 late fee that got bumped up to $49.95. And I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be accountable for your credit cards. What I am saying is that if you run into a financial hardship, selling your blood probably isn’t the answer.
Tom: No, no. And I will say that, again, going back to IHateDebt.com, I think you should have all the options. And that’s, Coleman, again one of the things I’m so impressed with in learning about StartOverToday.com, is that you are a full-service company that can offer a wide range of solutions. And once you have made that choice, you need to stick with it.
Coleman: Absolutely.
Tom: The worst thing you can do, in my opinion, is to get two or three months into a program, get hooked up into it, and then let some phone call throw you off track, because you are going to lose the time, lose all the momentum, have to start over somewhere else, and it’s not worth it. So make up your mind. That’s why I always say, “make the decision to change your life” and then—
Coleman: Make an educated informed decision.
Tom: There you go.
Coleman: And that’s why I recommend looking at the Better Business Bureau reports, looking at the guarantees they have, reviewing the contracts. Do your homework. Make a decision and jump. And that’s why I encourage anyone to look into us all you like. You can come visit our office in Grass Valley, California. You can lift our skirt up anytime, we have nothing to hide here.
Tom: You got it, I understand.
Coleman: That’s why I pride myself with what we do here. Anybody can come in at anytime and we tell you every cent that we’ll ever make from you. We are a for-profit company, but at the same time, you know where our intentions are. Our intentions are not in the bank or anywhere else, it is to get you out of debt, and we work for you. And so when that call comes in from somebody who’s harassing you, you need to say, “You need to call this number because I’m not dealing with this.” In your mind, remember that you are paying someone else to deal with this.
Tom: Yes, and know that that company will be paid off. It’s not like you are ignoring them forever, but you are ignoring them in the short term in order to give the process the time to work.
Coleman: Exactly. We are following a very specific plan, we’re being proactive, we’re paying the creditors what we can within our means, we’re not running from the problem. But they need to know that harassing you is not going to do any good. “Leave me alone; talk to the people who are helping me.”
Tom: Well Coleman, what other kinds of things do you offer for support for people who are in your program? Do you offer them tips on saving money, making more money, anything of that nature?
Coleman: Right now we have a referral program where if clients who are friends of clients send someone to us, we actually mail them a check for $50. In terms of keeping people in contact and keeping them focused on the program, our financial strategists are there. A lot of people say they are the best friends they’ve ever had. People call our office all times of the day or night and they talk to them all the time. We do routine check-ins. We want to make sure that you are doing good, that you are not getting harassed too much with calls. We have creditor call-logs: if someone’s harassing you, we need to document it so we know what’s going on. Fax that in to us, let us know, let us fix the problem, and then the follow-up calls are big for us. We have financial coaching that we go through with our clients. We want our clients to create a plan for success.
Tom: Good! There you go, that’s what I was hoping for.
Coleman: Yes, we don’t just randomly stumble onto success, unless you’re buying lottery tickets.
Tom: And that doesn’t work very often.
Coleman: No. You have to create the path to success, and failing to plan is planning to fail. Also, in the length of our program, we offer other programs. So if you were to get into a debt-settlement program at StartOverToday.com, at the same time, we will run you through a tax recovery program, where we’ll go back through with a company, we’ll look at your last three years’ tax returns, find out how much you overpaid, and find out if maybe you deserve earned income credit or something else. Right now we are averaging almost $8000 per client that’s enrolled in that program that they are getting back from the government.
Tom: That is such a great idea. Honestly, I’ve talked to a number of people in the debt-settlement industry, and I’ve never, ever, heard of any company doing this. And for anybody who thinks this is a crazy idea, I had my accountant, that I just basically signed up for this year, look at my last 3 years, and fortunately I’m a very good bookkeeper and because I am, there was not too much work for him to do. He charged me about $500 to go over the last 3 years. But I got a $1500 check back! So it paid me to go to my accountant. That makes perfect sense to me: take advantage of what is out there, because, as we alluded to before, there’s not really a course in money management. But we have to take responsibility ourselves. There are things out there that may just be waiting for you, to benefit you. But you’ve got to make the choice and make the decision.
Coleman: Yes, and in our case, on that tax recovery, like you did with your accountant Tom, there’s no upfront cost to our clients on that. We go through it for free, do the full review for free, and there’s just a percentage of servicing fee. So when the check comes in from the government, a portion of that goes to the servicing company. There’s no upfront cost, so if you don’t get anything back, you don’t pay anything. It’s a no-brainer.
Tom: Wow! So all you have to do is go through the process, if you have money coming back to you, you pay a little percentage to the servicing company. If not, then no harm no foul, you don’t lose anything. That’s fabulous! Now, again, why don’t you go ahead and give us the toll free number to StartOverToday.com.
Coleman: 800-251-1991.
Tom: And of course on the Internet at…
Coleman: StartOverToday.com.
Tom: Excellent. Well in the next segment, I’d really like to focus on the future. We’ve been talking about how to get out of debt, but I want to talk about how getting out of debt really impacts your future. So everybody, stay tuned. Coleman R. Cassel II, the CEO and financial strategist of StartOverToday.com will be right back. We’re going to help make sure that you get and stay out of debt. For more information, visit IHateDebt.com. I’m Tom Allen, and I hate debt!
Debt Negotiation
Listen to the I Hate Debt Radio show interview withColemann R. Cassell II from Start Over Today Becoming Debt-Free
Start Over Today
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