The detective blows smoke in your face. He gets so close, nose to nose, that he slobbers on you when he screams at you in rage. He appears on the brink of losing control. He slams chairs around in the interrogation room. At any moment, he will surely snap and crush your forehead up against the back of your head.
Just an instant before this "bad" cop would have exploded in murderous rage, the gentle guy suddenly runs into the room to rescue you. "Hey! What's going on here, Jack? You know you can't do that! Why don't you go get some coffee and relax for a few minutes while I talk to my buddy here?"
Jack leaves. "You know, I understand where you're comin' from. I mean, if I was in your position, hey, I'd clam up too. But I just don't know how much longer I'm gonna be able to control the Jackster. You want a cigarette? Here, you can have one of mine. You know, Jack has been under a lot of stress lately. What with his wife leaving him and all. And the strange coinci dence is that she took up with a guy who looks a lot like you. Well, he used to look a lot like you. He doesn't have much of a face anymore, poor guy! Jack caught him in a parking garage and almost beat him to death with a tire tool. You just got to give me something! I mean this guy is gonna snap and twist your head around and around before I can get over here to stop him."
The bill collectors call and scream at you like you are a degenerate who just decided one day to not pay your bills. They talk to you like you are a complete idiot and worthless and threaten to garnish your wages, seize your property, and take your house and spouse and several body parts. They call you at work and perform this demeaning spectacle intended to humiliate you in front of your coworkers.
Suddenly, the good cop, the Consumer Credit Counseling Service, rescues you. The good cop negotiates some lower interest rates on some accounts, helps you to develop a budget, and sets up a paymen t plan. He helps by perhaps getting the interest "clock" turned off t emporarily on some accounts and maybe getting a few balances on some accounts reduced. As long as you comply with his payment schedule, the good cop, the CCCS, will shield you from the collectors, the bad cop.
You leave after your counseling appointment, but then realize that you left your keys in the CCCS office. As you start to open the door just a crack, you see the bad cop. You pull back so they do not see you and, with the door barely open so you can see and hear them, you realize they are buddies and the whole thing has been staged. The bad cop tells the good cop that he will pay him the usual 12% and it's a bargain because the collection agencies charge up to 50%.
The bad cop drives you into the good cop's arms. The bad cop accepts a reduced amount and even pays a 12% "donation" out of this reduced amount because he knows that if you have a total financial meltdown, he could get nothing.
Decisions - Decisions - Decisions
You walk into a studio a nd find yourself standing in front of a microphone. You are handed a script and you start reading it. You have not chosen any of the plot twists. You have not sketched any of the characterizations. You are just performing what has been set before you. A lot of what goes on in the credit world is like this. I am not denouncing an evil conspiracy. We are all just playing our part in a spectacle that we did not write. The creditors are just doing what they have been conditioned to do. The counseling services are playing the role that has been handed to them.
Everybody is just doing the best he can
With the piece of the puzzle he has in his hand.
So, how do you respond to the piece of the puzzle in your hand? Should you ever use a credit counseling service? That, of course, is each person's decision, but maybe I can help you think about this as you consider this question. You can do the same things, in most cases, for yourself that a service could set up for yo u. You can run an inherent momentum version of the debt destruction e ngine. You can contact your creditors and ask for a lower interest. But do you remember our old friend Clyde? Clyde is the financial partner in your life that tries to run the water out of the tub while you are trying to fill it up. Remember him?
Sometimes you have someone in your life that simply will not submit to any authority or exercise any restraint or self-discipline of any kind. Even if you do not have a problem yourself with financial responsibility, you may have to submit yourself to the authority of a credit counseling service just to get your Clyde under authority. Even if the guy who runs the "non-profit" organization writes a salary check to himself for $40,000 a month and you know you are being used by these people, you might have to let them use you if that is what it takes to slap the foolishness out of your Clyde.
It would be far more efficient to destroy your debt on your own with your own debt destruction engine. All of the financial power that is unleashed in your life by doing this would be enjoyed by you and your family without being shared by a "non-profit" guy profiting off of you. But, you do whatever you have to do to win! If you or your Clyde or both of you need the structure and discipline of an authority controlling your financial life for a while, then go ahead and do the CCCS thing or let one of the other credit counseling services help you.
http://www.WithDebt.com - Destroy your bills with the money you already make.
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