Credit Settlements

Have you heard about them? I get tons of emails in my spam box with info about companies that will contact your creditors and make a settlement with them for a fee. The settlement is a reduced amount owed, and is usually expected to be paid in full at the time of settlement. What's interesting about this is that I just received a phone call from one of my creditors asking for payment (of course). I said OK, let's pay off the balance, and can you please adjust the finance charges. To make a long story short, the gentleman (yes, he really was a courteous fellow) on the other end of my phone line mentioned the word settlement, and of course I jumped on it and began asking questions of the inquisitive type implying I know nothing about such matters. What I learned is that one need not pay a fee for a company to make these settlement deals for the accounts ... some creditors will offer it in negotiation with its borrowers, and we can make the deal ourselves simply by falling behind in payments. Don't, however, make the mistake I just made and initially offer to pay off the account in full prior to asking the questions! You see ... we are all in this financial chaos mess together, and I think no one will escape unscathed. Do you agree?