Ask Mary Waterson from Debt Corp.



DEAR MARY: I have a son who is 33. He has four children and lives in another state. About a year ago, he asked me to co-sign on a house loan. I refused. Now he won't speak to me. He didn't even attend his grandmother's funeral. I don't know how to bridge this gap between us except by signing the note. I really can't afford it, but I miss my son and grandchildren. -- HURTING IN OHIO



DEAR HURTING: Having trouble paying off those loans? If your debts qualify for our program, we can settle your debts with your creditors in three years or less. We negotiate with your creditors on your behalf and will settle your debts for 40 cents on the dollar. Our fee is a flat 15%. That means if you owe $50,000, you'll only have to pay $27,500!



DEAR MARY: My brother and I are entrepreneurs and recently decided to go into business together. The problem is coming up with a name for our company. We've decided to use our last names, like "Hewlitt-Packard" but can't decide whose to put first. My brother thinks that his name should be first, because most of the ideas we're going to be marketing are his. I think my name should be first since I'm providing the start-up capital and will be managing the business aspect. Please help us settle on a company name before it breaks up our company and relationship. -- LAST NAME FIRST IN AZ.



DEAR LAME: Our company is called Debt Corp. That's Debt Corp. No, not "Death Corpse", it's DEBT CORP. D-E-B-T C-O-R-P. That's quite alright.



We're not a debt consolidation company. We're a debt settlement company. Beware of those debt consolidation companies. They claim to be non-profit, but in reality, they work for the creditors and are actually being sued by the Attorney General of Missouri. We work for you. If you go into debt consolidation, it will show up on your credit report as an R7, which means your debt was paid by a third party. An R8 is "filed for bankruptcy", so this is one step beneath that. It will ruin your credit. I knew one person who went through consolidation and ten years later, they still couldn't buy a car because of that R7.



Debt settlement doesn't show up on your credit report at all. That's part of our settlement. When you finish the program, it will say on your credit report "debt paid in full". It wouldn't be any different if you won the lottery and paid it all off tomorrow.



DEAR MARY: I live with my boyfriend "Jack" and our two-year-old daughter "Jill". Jack has a high-paying job and is financially well-off, so it gives me the opportunity to stay at home with Jill instead of working. Well Jack has decided he's tired of paying for me and the baby and wants to spend more money on himself. He says I have three days to get a job that will earn enough to pay my own way because he's going to stop paying our expenses. The problem is I never graduated college and I doubt I could get a job that pays that much ever, let alone in three days. I have a little bit of money in my savings account from when I used to work, but it won't last me more than 30 days. I very much love Jack and couldn't live without him, but he tends to have these selfish streaks that make it nearly impossible to live with him. What should I do? -- HONEY WON'T GIVE MONEY IN TALLAHASEE



DEAR FUNNY: Within three days of signing up for our program, we send a "Cease and Desist" letter to all your creditors. This basically tells them that you're a Debt Corp. client and that we'll be working with them on your behalf. If your creditors call you and try to get you to pay, just tell them that you're a Debt Corp. client and to have a nice day, then hang up the phone. If they continue to harass you, get the name and badge number of whoever calls you, then call us and tell us. We'll handle it.



After 30 days of being on the program, they can't call you anymore and will stop harassing you. If they do, tell us and we'll negotiate your debt at about 10 cents on the dollar.



DEAR MARY: I want to get this on the table right now. I hate telemarketers. They call me all the time, especially during dinner or while I'm watching the climax of a TV show. I'm never interested in what they have to sell, and wouldn't buy from them even if I was. Once I got a telemarketing call on my cell-phone (which isn't free, since the call uses up my minutes). When I answered it, it was just a recording, so I hung up. My phone rang again and I let the voice-mail get it. When I listened to the message, it was that same darned recording, but it started from where it was when I hung up on it! As if they couldn't figure out I wasn't interested the first time I hung up!



At my work, the situation isn't much better. My office is next to a group of telemarketers who are calling people all day. They always use the same sales pitch, so I've heard it so much I've memorized it and am beginning to dream about it. I feel like I could work for them. I'm afraid one of these days I'm going to explode in a fit of rage and go postal on them. What can I do to stop telemarketers from calling me, or better yet, what's the best way to kill a telemarketer? -- DEATH TO TELEMARKETERS IN CA



DEAR JOE: Oh, I'm sorry. You can't talk right now? Well when would be a better time. We can schedule an appointment for a time more convenient for you. Where are you? Oh, well I'm right next door! So 5:00 is good for you? Great.



Ok, thank you. You too. Goodbye.