Anyone successfully negotiated their debt?

[cymbeline]

Just wondering if anyone else has done this. Since our business took a hard fall this spring, we've been slowly paying off a mountain of debt... but it is slow going, and recently revenues have fallen flat, meaning we aren't going to get this stuff paid off any time soon and we are in serious danger of declaring bankruptcy.

We were successfully able to negotiate one account for about 50% of what we owed. We're working on the others. Anyone else BTDT? Tips? Advice?

[Charlize]

I'm not sure of where you're located, but you may want to go through a non-profit debt settlement agency if there's one available in your area. We were unable to negotiate our debt last year, but it mostly concerned our mortgage company. Needless to say, they're now in a huge financial mess because of their refusal to help borrowers last year alone. Alot of it just depends on the company and how negotiable they are. Every company is different. Another good pointer is to pick through the financial managers at the companies to find one that is actually willing to thoroughly listen to your case. Good luck.

[cymbeline]

We did interview a few companies anyway, but the fees made it undesirable. I was hoping we could try to do it ourselves -- which is what a lot of articles online suggest, but I was wondering if anyone else had actually done it successfully?