You are not required to have an attorney to negotiate with your creditors; however, when an attorney calls to work out a “deal”, the creditor is put on notice that you are serious, you took the step to make this debt go away, and if the creditor is not willing to negotiate a reduced payment, you may just file bankruptcy and the creditor runs the risk of getting nothing instead of something. Believe it or not, if you are not behind for at least three (3) months, the creditors are not interested in negotiations, even with an attorney; this is not a good approach to obtain good credit, of course, you need to realize that although you are not paying your bills for three (3) months to gain negotiation leverage, if you change your mind or the creditor will not reduce the balance as much as you have anticipated being three (3) months behind may cause your finances some devastating results. You have to have a plan, a strategy to be sure to get the best settlement offer while preparing for the worst, if you do not like the way the negotiations concluded. Let the attorneys at Schwam-Wilcox & Associates assist you in devising the best plan to attempt to reduce your balances and interest rates in order to pay off some of your unsecured debt.