After being laid off from the job I was “supposed to have” for my college degree in 2008, I began going into the office of a small debt settlement company, owned by a friend I’d met at my church. 

Much to my surprise, I found the work very interesting and threw myself into learning as much as I could about debt, credit, and negotiating. I was a bit nervous for my very first negotiation, but I had the bug – the excitement and high stakes of debt negotiation had gotten me hooked.

When the owner of that small company got a position at a much larger debt settlement company as their director, I decided to go with him. I started off in customer service, and then quickly moved into their lead negotiator role. 

When I took that position in 2009, I settled over $550,000 in credit card accounts within a 3 month period. I had a 3 hour daily roundtrip commute via train, car, bus, and walking; and after another 3 months of that grueling routine, I realized I was starting to get burned out.

I was also noticing some major inefficiencies within the company – it was extremely sales heavy, and light on customer service. 

This was typical of the “traditional” debt relief industry, especially before the no-upfront fee rules were put into place by the FTC in 2011. I began working on my own ideas for a more efficient, focused, and effective debt settlement model.

Two years later in 2011, I became a certified credit counselor and began working on my own – my first client had over $250k in credit cards that he had used to (unsuccessfully) invest in rare coins. 

The coins’ value tanked after he bought them, and he found himself in major trouble with 15+ credit cards (I settled all of them successfully).

Two years after that, after getting some advice from one of the best student loan attorneys in New York; I settled my first private student loan with Sallie Mae (the collector I negotiated it with still works there, and I still work with him to this day).

Fast forward to today, and I am even more effective, more experienced, more strategic, with better industry relationships, and have added even more benefits to my service – including a major emphasis on credit recovery (something that is sorely lacking with the vast majority of debt relief companies and negotiators).

Over the years I have developed high level contacts at the largest private loan lenders, collection agencies, and attorney collection firms – working with everyone from front line collection agents, to the vice presidents of collection agencies – and everyone in between.

I even save a file of all of my negotiation contacts over the years – it now has over 100 contacts in it. This allows past negotiation success to build on future efforts. An established relationship makes a world of difference.

If you have a debt other than a private student loan, and you need a certified credit counselor to help you in settlement, visit my Other Debts page. 

If a debt can be settled, I can settle it for as low as possible – and make sure it stays settled (and does not come back to haunt you).