How to Settle Your Debts (Paperback)

~ Norman H. Perlmutter (Author) "We live in a society that is drowning in debt right up to and including our national treasury..." (more)
Key Phrases: collector disclosure, debt collection regulation, hill collectors, Key Point, Karen Brown, Attorney General (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW - Among the unfortunate side effects of an economic downturn such as the United States is currently experiencing is the growing debt load that ordinary men and women find themselves having to labor under. Now in a fully updated and significantly expanded second edition, "How To Settle your Debts: Without Committing Financial Suicide" by certified public accountant Norman H. Perlmutter, is the perfect do-it-yourself manual for individuals, families, and businesses who find themselves sinking further and further into crippling debt. Of special note is the new chapter specifically addressing the problems associated with student-loan debt. A major culprit is the credit card companies who deliberately target people's desire for instant gratification for things they don't need and cannot afford. Complicated with deceptive interest rate schedules and conditions, anyone seeking to emerge from crippling debt must become informed with respect to the various techniques of predatory credit card issuers. Drawing upon his many years of experience and expertise in helping individuals and businesses deal successfully with the problems of excessive debt, Perlmutter deftly shows the non-specialist general reader how to wipe out their debt without having to resort to bankruptcy (which Congress has made even more difficult with the finance industry backed legislation); how to effectively deal with bill collectors; settling debts through leverage; clean up and rebuild personal and corporate credit ratings; deal successfully with tax debts, secured debts, and judicial judgments; resolve student loan debt repayment problems; as well as when and how to simply walk away from debts. "How To Settle Your Debts" should be considered profoundly valuable reading for anyone having to deal with problems arising from excessive debt, and be a priority acquisition for college, university, and community library Money/Finance reference collections. --The Mid West Book Review --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

HOW TO SETTLE YOUR DEBTS, by Norman H. Perlmutter, CPA, is the book that everyone needs to prevent economic meltdown. It’s the essential, up-to-date, comprehensive and gutsy survival guide to meet this ever growing serious problem of financial ruin that faces so many of us.

In a step-by-step format it guides individuals, families and businesses through a process that will end debt and reverse insolvency without filing bankruptcy. Even if you're on the brink of financial ruin, with this book you can regain financial health and get a fresh start without committing "financial suicide".

HOW TO SETTLE YOUR DEBTS provides legitimate workable solutions to repair financial chaos. It’s written in a conversational style and organized in an outline format that promotes understanding and ease of reading for the average person. You will learn in no uncertain terms how to climb out of the hole you are in and get your financial life under control without causing irreparable damage to your future in the process.

The author is a practicing CPA and Financial Advisor who formerly owned a Debt Collection Agency. He understands the tactics of the conniving moneylenders and their debt collector enforcers and all the other scam artists who are out there waiting to rip you off. He knows how to deal with these people and how to stop them from harassing you and from ruining your credit and your reputation. Furthermore and most important, with this book he will teach you how to take control of your financial life and get out of the mess you are in.

HOW TO SETTLE YOUR DEBTS is for all those individuals, families and businesses whose debts grow deeper by the day and whose lives are being adversely affected by them. Here’s a summary of how the book will help you deal with your problems with debt:

• It will teach you the basics – what you're up against, who the predators are, how to recognize and avoid their debt traps, the fundamentals of debt, the risks you take when you don't pay, and what they can and cannot do to collect from you.

• It will help you understand your problem – by following the steps outlined you will be able to expose, examine and evaluate your dilemma with debt, how it's affecting your life and the options you have to deal with it.

• You will learn to know your enemy – what makes creditors and bill collectors tick, what motivates them, what their weaknesses are, how you can exploit them and how they are vulnerable to attack.

• It will show you how to keep the wolves at bay – by creating doubt as to the validity and the collectability of your debts and by using "Dirty Tricks" and Counter Attack Techniques to frustrate and discourage creditors and bill collectors.

• It will teach you about your rights and how to take advantage of them – federal and state laws enacted to protect you from abuse and to punish bill collectors who violate them.

• You will learn how to negotiate a debt settlement plan – using basic negotiating skills and built in leverage to set up an advantageous arrangement with your creditors to workout and settle your debts.

• How to use the "Golden Rules of Debtsmenship" - to protect your assets and your privacy and to safeguard credit, and where necessary, how to repair credit and rebuild it.

• How to deal with lawyers – to negotiate debt settlements, contest lawsuits and protect your assets from judgment levies.

• How to settle secured debts and tax debts – by recognizing and seizing upon opportunities to settle or otherwise favorably resolve these debts that creditors have more power to collect.

• How to settle business debts – by understanding the differences that must be considered when negotiating workouts and settlements with business creditors.

• Where to get help if you need it - and how to watch out for all the scam artists who are out there waiting to take advantage of you.

• It’s a reference manual as well as a guide – with its outline format and comprehensive index the book can be used to easily and quickly obtain information on any of the many subjects covered relating to debt and debt relief.

HOW TO SETTLE YOUR DEBTS ~ Without Committing Financial Suicide ~ shows you how to end debt and reverse insolvency without resorting to the self-defeating and demeaning ordeal of filing bankruptcy. It provides you with all the knowledge, the techniques and insight required to successfully accomplish this.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 305 pages
• Publisher: Southern Mountains Press (September 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972396322
• ISBN-13: 978-0972396325
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #418,667 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Low on Substance, December 31, 2005

By	D. Watson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I got this book because of the outstanding reviews it already had. In hindsight, I suspect not all of them are legitimate reviews. It's difficult to imagine anyone could read the advice in this book, put it to use, and actually gain significant benefit. Though the book's description sounds very promising, I found that it didn't deliver the information it promised. Many of the scenarios in the book are unrealistic and make unhelpful assumptions. Over and over again the author directs the reader to research topics elsewhere without providing even basic information. For example: "Credit reports are difficult to read and even more difficult to understand. There are some excellent books available to help you with this." While this book is not specifically about dealing with your credit report, it seems that a bit more information about credit reports would have been provided.

Most of the advice is common sense (live within your means) or biased against any course of action other than settling with creditors. The author writes from the viewpoint that bankruptcy is the worst thing you could possibly do, but never backs up that claim with any information. I was left with the impression that the author himself isn't really sure what effect bankruptcy has.

In fact, the author's pervasive use of generalities and unrealistic suggestions made me think he doesn't actually know that much about credit (despite his alleged qualifications). For example, he repeatedly suggests bargaining with your creditors that you will pay part of your debt if they remove negative information they have already reported to the credit bureaus. But the author seems oblivious to the fact that the credit bureaus have specific rules against creditors doing this. Numerous such suggestions ruin the author's credibility.

At best, this book might be helpful as motivation to action for someone who lives behind his or her means. But if your debts are the result of unfortunate and unavoidable events in your life, and you are ready to take decisive action to get your debt under control and your credit back on track, you will find this book preachy and unhelpful.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy it and Save $$$, November 15, 2006

By	Stanley Brown (Englewood, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Using the information contained in the book, especially to have Patience and Persistence, I have settled 2 credit card debts, and saved $16,000 from what Credit Card #1 and Credit Card #2 were demanding. They gave in before I wore out. Having gone through this, I now feel extremely confident on settling the remaining debt for less then the current balance. Using the advice contained in Norman's book WILL work as long as don't give in until you feel you have reached a fair settlement.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Very Useful For the Average Consumer Debtor, February 10, 2009

By	Joseph C. McDaniel (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: How To Settle Your Debts (Paperback)

This is not, in my opinion, a very useful book for the ordinary consumer debtor.

It's also a little sloppy and fast and loose with facts and law. For instance, on page ten there's a "legal note" that asserts "in a bankruptcy, an unsecured debt that has been converted to a judgment retains its unsecured character and gets no preferential treatment in a distribution." Well, not exactly. First, a judgment that's recorded at the County Recorders office in my state, Arizona, where I've practiced bankruptcy law for thirty years, becomes a judgment lien upon real property owned by the judgment debtor in that County.

And that's just one example. But what bothers me more about the book is the assumption that it's fairly easy to negotiate credit card type debts. Frankly, it once was. About thirty years ago.

But these days a consumer who tries to talk to the credit card company with whom he is trying to negotiate is just as likely as not to get a call center in a country where English is not a first language. And trying to negotiate with folks there is all but impossible, because they're paid very few rupees per hour, and can only do what they are instructed to do on their call center flow chart.

In fact, credit card debts are among the most difficult debts to negotiate away, for the simple reason that there are a bunch of them in an ordinary situation. And to make the problems go away, all of them have to be willing to play ball. And the 80/20 rule applies in negotiations with a bunch of creditors. If you have 10 creditors, and all of them have to agree to get you to your goal, there will be two that never want to see things your way.

And another thing: ordinary consumer debtors, in my experience, don't have the mind-set and psychological balance to deal with negotiating their own debts away, or down. And one reason for that is that the debtor who negotiates for himself has no professional objectivity, and that clouds his judgment.

Another idea that this book pushes is that workouts with credit card companies and collectors can be done by the consumer borrowers themselves, and that in the process they will get the credit card companies to remove the derogatory information in their credit reports. I believe it will happen at about the same time the temperature in a place that bad people may go after the end of their lives drops below the point at which water become solid.

Another odd concept in the book is that bankruptcy is financial suicide, and that most credit card and unsecured debt problems should be easily dealt with by negotiation. I simply disagree, and it's not just because I'm an Arizona bankruptcy lawyer. I've seen people with overwhelming debt rebuild their credit and their lives after bad luck or bad decisions forced them to file, and they get on with their life just fine (note: it is absolutely correct that a bankruptcy, whether a Chapter 7, 13, 11 or 12 is a very big deal, and should never be gone into lightly. That said, you shouldn't take penicillin when you have the hiccups, but if you have pneumonia, you better head to the penicillin man.) Also take a look at Bounce Back from Bankruptcy, also available on Amazon, to see exactly how difficult it is to reestablish credit.

Is there anything good about this book? Sure.

For instance, the author strongly suggests that consumer debtors make a budget and learn their "nut", and learn to live within their means. Bravo.

But after I say that, I look back at another "legal note" that's misleading: "Judgments against corporations, limited partnerships and limited liability companies are normally not enforceable against individual owners, stockholders or limited partners and should have no effect on their personal credit record."

Well, that's true as far as it goes. But in the real world of small business, the primary owners of the business almost always have to personally guarantee substantial debt incurred by the business. So ignoring a threatened lawsuit because of the "legal note" above would get the average business owner with the average lawsuit against his business into substantial hot water, because that lawsuit would normally name him as a defendant as well.

So read this book, because it's interesting and because the author is clearly passionate and sincere. But before you take ANY of his advice, talk to an "av" rated bankruptcy lawyer, or a bankruptcy attorney who has a 10.0 rating from AVVO.com, or a Martindale AV rated bankruptcy lawyer, and read a lot of other books, because if your plan is based exclusively on this book, you may be stepping on a land mine.

p.s. as I write this postscript, there is a raging debate in Congress over a provision in the Bankruptcy Code that may, after amendment, permit the stripdown of some OR all mortgages on residential real property. Will that statute pass? Listen, I've practiced bankruptcy law in Phoenix, Arizona for about thirty years, and I've watched a long series of amendments to the "New Code" of 1979; and I've watched as Congress debated in the past. The 2005 amendments took about a decade to work their way through Congress. So MAYBE the Bankruptcy Code is about to change a lot. And MAYBE it's not. But if you're contemplating bankruptcy in Phoenix, Arizona, or anywhere else, you should be aware that the law is currently MAYBE about to change in a way that could be helpful to debtors, IF they qualify and are willing to put up with a Chapter 13 bankruptcy (which makes a root canal look like fun).