Processes, systems and services of DebtBusters

The whole experience was not without issues but overall it came with great and valuable lessons I will use in future. First things first: Thank you DebtBusters for helping me to getting me debt free. Here is my first hand experience and some tips:

1. It is very important to set up that new bank account for debt review purposes to ensure the right debit orders are going off (e.g. only your insurance policies, school fees, debt review). This will cause a lot less hassles.

2. Make sure you ask your debt counselor to update your outstanding balances throughout the process (every 6 months or so). DebtBusters do not do this automatically (room for improvement). This has an effect on your time period. Tip: if you have extra money, pay your creditors. Note: Talk to DebtBusters when you want to settle an account, they can negotiate discounts. Wish I knew that: I found out too late.

3. Stay hands on with your debt review: know what is going on. If there are changes in your situation, let them know. If you can't pay or are struggling: also let them know. You may need to do adjustments. I have found that DebtBusters are willing to help - it may need take a few follow ups. What can help is a dedicated counselor. This has changed. Every time I talked to someone new. Quite frustrating.

4. When it comes close to the end: keep your paid up letters! My experience was that DebtBusters has misfiled one of it. Wasted some precious time when it came to the clearance certificate - especially when you just want this over and done with after so many years. Have it ready to email all of it just in case. Yes, everyone can make mistakes but one expect more when you pay quite a lot in service fees to debt administrators.

5. SmartCents: the system which you will have access to where you can monitor the progress. This systems is frustrating to say the least. My tip for this one: just use it as an indication. The balances are rarely updated. The timeline is messed up. Watch out for payment dates here (the only thing that actually works) - my debit order dates have been changed without notice (earlier).

6. Good experience: even though I have been frustrated many times with the processes, the majority of the staff on the phone was very patient and friendly. Thank you for that.

7. Another good experience: once they had all the paid up letters, my clearance certificate was issued within 2 working days. Was a great feeling to finally get that. Just a small tip: update your physical address with them if there are any changes. Your latest address will be on your clearance certificate and this goes out to all the creditors and credit bureaus.

Will I recommend them? I chose them because they are one of the biggest debt admin houses. Yes, there are room for improvement and everyone has their issues. All I know: it was worth doing this process. It was definitely not easy and I had to make some serious changes in my life. I will however recommend debt review if you want to sleep better at night and not want to worry about drowning in financial problems. You will be able to breathe again.