First and foremost, always remember to be polite with whomever you deal with. Many times we lose our patience dealing with people, especially customer service representatives that seemingly couldn’t care less about helping us. It is important to remain calm and respectful with all parties that you deal with.

You must understand that creditors are willing to negotiate with you in good faith, but you also must realize that they are not in the business of giving charity so don’t expect any handouts from them. Negotiating from a position of mutual respect is always the best way to go.

If you are having a hard time making your payments then offer to make a partial payment and work out future payment plans that are affordable to you. It is in the best interest for the creditors to extend to you whatever assistance that they may offer. They do not want you to go into default or file bankruptcy. If that happens, they get nothing.

When negotiating with creditors be sure to ask how any agreements will affect your credit rating. You also want to know if there will be negative marks on your credit report and if so, how long will they remain on your credit history.

If you are negotiating debt settlement then start low. Creditors receive 10% of the total amount under bankruptcy laws. It is of course in your best interest if you can get the creditors to make financial concessions in order to keep your payments as low as possible. Once again, remember that as far as the creditors are concerned getting something is better than getting nothing.

If you are struggling to make credit card payments then you’ll want to request that your interest rates be lowered. In many cases the credit card companies are willing to work with you but you’ll more than likely have your credit card account closed while you are repaying the debt.

I think you will agree that it is understandable on the part of the credit card issuers. After all, if you are already struggling to make payments with your current debt level, the credit card companies do not want to see you take on anymore debt, which of course, increases their risk exposure.

And finally, do not be shy, embarrassed or intimidated when negotiating with creditors. They are people too and I am confident that if you approach them about your situation in the right way and deal with your creditors in a professional manner you will get positive results.