Hello-

In part one of my review of Michelle Boudreau’s Debt Rescue book, I covered the first two chapters of the book. In this post, I will review the 3rd through 5th chapters and hopefully offer some insights into this get out of credit card debt book.

On a side note, my credit card was not charged for the monthly Debt Rescue club membership so that saved me $39.95. Thank you Michelle.

Chapter 3 is about how debt can be a good thing. And in some cases there are good reasons for you to get into debt. The main reasons are to buy assets and not liabilities. You want to spend money on things that can provide you with a positive return on your investment.

Some examples of these are student loan debts, mortgage loans, and debt you take on to start a small business.

Michelle offers some good tips to keep even these good debts down to a minimum. Sometimes it’s better to bootstrap a startup instead of having too much money.

Chapter 4 is about the plastic jungle that is credit cards. She offers the standard tips about comparing credit card offers before applying. She advises you to pay off your balances each month and not to fall behind.

That’s good advice but kind of hard to follow if we are reading a book called Debt Rescue.

She advises you pay off the highest interest balances first instead of the lowest balance like Dave Ramsey in The Total Money Makeover.

She offers plenty of other tips on choosing the right credit cards that you can read for free at any credit card or personal finance website.

Nothing new in this chapter.

Chapter 5 is about taming the beast - dealing with collection agencies.

She goes into detail about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA. She offers tips on what to do if you have a collection agency is harassing you at work about your debts, or if they are using profanity.

She goes through some of the main points of the act and how to protect your legal rights.

Then she talks about the Statute of Limitations on your debts. Basically if you have debt older than the Statute in your state, you do not have to pay it back anymore. That does not mean the debt collector will stop calling you. It just means you are not legally required to pay it back anymore.

For credit cards or revolving accounts, the Statute is 3 to 8 years. Only West Virginia has 8 years, most of the other states fall in between 3 and 6 years.

In any case, no not ignore collections agencies. You do not want to be sued. If you are being hounded by a collection agency it is likely you may be sued soon if you do not settle your accounts as soon as possible.

So there is chapters 3-5. Overall, there is nothing new in the book. That does not mean the book does not have any value. It’s just that if you picked up this book and possibly the Debt Cures book, you would be disappointed. They contain much of the same information.

That’s my review and I’m sticking to it.

What are your thoughts?

-Adam

Debt Rescue Reviews

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