I'm Alex Mooradian, CEO of Resolve, a public benefit corporation designed to help people get out of debt. AMA!

Hey Alex! What are they ways you are helping people with their debt? Thanks for taking the time.

This is a good first questions. :)

Here is the short answer

1) If you have "late" credit cards or loans, we can help you settle those accounts for less than you owe
2) If you have "current" accounts, we can help enroll you in low-interest hardship programs that allow you to focus on paying down the debt versus interest
3) We provide a debt expert to answer all of your debt questions (like this)
4) We help you track and monitor your income and expenses
5) We provide you a credit report each month so you can track your progress to get out of debt

If you have "late" credit cards or loans, we can help you settle those accounts for less than you owe

How do you do that if you don't mind me asking? I'm guessing you mean a reduction on the interest rate?

Banks and credit card companies are willing to settle accounts for less than you owe if you are around 5 or 6 months behind on payments. If you owe $1000, they'll often take $500 and forgive the rest. But this only works with late accounts.

For current accounts, creditors are willing to reduce your interest rates if you can demonstrate a hardship and are willing to close the account.

Both of these, you can do online, on Resolve.

Hello, what are your thoughts on young adults being encouraged to go into debt for higher education? Is the system broken and if so, can it be fixed?

Oh. This could be a really long answer. The short answer is yes, the system is broken. One should not need to go deep into debt to get ahead in life. I'm not optimistic that a "fix" is on the horizon while our two-party political system is getting more and more extreme. I'm come back to this one with some more thoughts...

I would like to hear his take on this.

I strongly believe a major part of the problem is prefatory lending with the knowledge that the loan can never be discharged. Student loans are great because you never have to verify that the borrower can even pay the loan.

At the top of the list of "bad" in my opinion are payday loans, "buy now, pay later", etc. These are loans that are designed to target people in a time of weakness and are based on charging extremely high-interest rates knowing that a $500 loan will often turn into $2000 of interest over the life of the loan. While I am not a huge fan of waiting for our political system to solve problems, our government does have a responsibility to protect and support people in a time of need.

How are you different from other non-profit debt management companies?

We are fans of the non-profit credit counseling industry and, in fact, work with them closely. We are different in a few key ways...1) we are a tech company and 100% online (no need to talk on the phone), 2) we do more than offer debt management plans, for example you can also settle debt on Resolve (also online). 3) Because we are 100% online, you'll pay lower monthly fees for a debt management plan compared to calling the non-profit.

How much, if any, has your company directly or indirectly spent on lobbying the United States Congress?

Zero, but we plan to start in the future and there are many antiquated regulatory rules that interfere with solving financial distress.

I'm curious...do you view lobbying as a good or bad thing? Maybe a necessary evil. :(

I am someone who has been struggling with cc payments, and creditors for several years. What would be the steps for Resolve to help me? Is it free or paid?

Currently, Resolve is a paid membership, but we allow our members to select how much they pay us each month. You'll also have the opportunity to give our team "tips" if you are happy with the service your receive. In terms of the steps, it really depends on your specific situation. Most people come to Resolve with very low credit scores and multiple "late" accounts. In that case, we start by getting those late accounts paid off by getting settlement offers for less than they owe

Why should your industry exist at all? I have a friend who needs to be paid in cash, because she was given a lifetime of medical debt when she needed life-saving surgery at the age of 20. She wasted an awful lot of time in court to get a $15/week allowance by people who make six figures. I feel like even the non-profit debt management companies are just perpetuating a broken system.

I don't fully understand your point. In the US our lending system is based on the fact that there is always another company willing to lend you money at a higher interest rate. Loans lead to credit cards. Credit cards lead to payday loans. Once you start paying 50%+ interesting rates, it is pretty hard to get out of that cycle.

Hi, Alex! What are some common reasons people get into debt that people aren't aware of?

Lost job or reduced hours.

Medical issues either personal or family related

Divorce

Poor financial decisions (ie buying stuff you should not buy, spending more than you make)

Not understanding the "deal" a bank offers (0% apr for x months) - this is a big issue in our opinion

These days...Covid.

If I am in debt, why would I want to pay you a monthly fee when I am trying to get out of debt?

This is a very fair question. In order for us to build software and delivery an amazing service, we need to make money to stay in business. Many people will also choose to address their financial problems on their own and we fully support that. But imagine if you paid Resolve $50 and in 3 days and 10 clicks we saved your $1,000. That seems like a pretty great deal, no?

Hi Alex, Resolve was working on negotiating a debt with me, after successfully helping me with two other debts. During the process the debt collector was not really negotiating with Resolve so I reached out to them myself to negotiate and was told they can't negotiate with me because I retained Resolve's law firm to negotiate on my behalf. A few weeks later I was sued by the debt collector. I reached out to Resolve and advised them that I was sued and never got a response. What's up with that?

I'm so sorry this happened, I'm DMing you to sort this out now.

Why does your logo look like this at the bottom of your site?

Yikes. I'll let our design team know about that. Thanks for the heads up.

Is your company for-profit?

We are what is called a Public Benefit Corporation. That means we are for-profit but with a social mission. :)

A few months ago I received an email thru one of the credit score monitoring company promoting your company. Your company wasnt able to verify my identity. I received an email stating that I would have to wait a certain amount of days before I could reapply. I sent an email to support to see if they could assist me. I never received an email back. And yes I checked all the folders in my email account. So why would I want to use your company to help me resolve credit card debit when your support center won't respond to a potential customer??

First off, I'm very sorry about the issue and the poor support. Certainly not our goal. We've been having some technical issues with TransUnion, our credit report provider, and have not actually solved this issue yet. Please email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and we've designed a process to solve this issue for most potential members. Thank you for bringing this up.

How much focus should companies like yours put into educating folks prior to getting into life altering debt?

Absolutely there are predatory practices out there, and I strongly believe that proper education can help people recognize and avoid these instances.

I do think education can make a big difference and we've spent a lot of time and money creating high-quality, honest content. That being said, in this world of TikTok and low attention span, we believe people need easy ways to make changes when they are ready. That's why we've taken a tech-enabled approach and moved the debt relief "online". Financial distress is embarrassing enough...you should not need to explain to another human how or why you got into trouble.

Hi — do you only offer services to clients in the US? If I wanted to refer someone to a similar service in Canada, can you recommend one pls? Thank you.

Really only in the US today.

How does Resolve make money?

See above.

Yes, saw after I posted.

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Another Question.

Do you sell customer data?

We do NOT sell customer data.

Thanks for hosting this Alex!
How do you handle when people actively reach out wanting to get out of debt, but are resistant to any meaningful changes they'd have to make since it might impact their current lifestyle?

Another great question. We find that our members are more willing to make the needed changes if they have a trusted advocate in their corner. When you are struggling with debt, there are many companies that will try to take advantage of you. One of the common questions our debt experts get is "is this fair?" or "is this an ok deal?". Knowing that they are being treated fairly allows to move from inaction to action.

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I'm sorry, we don't provide loans.

How does Resolve make money?

What are some examples of average fees you are charging?

What is the most important thing you think most people overlook when it comes to personal finance?

We make money in 3 ways today. 1) Resolve is a paid monthly membership. Our members get to pick how much to pay us each month. Note: we are currently working on a free version too. 2) Our members "tip" us when they are happy with settlement offers. 3) Our partners will sometime pay us a referral fee when we suggest their services to our members.

The average monthly membership is about $12/month. The average tip is about $50.

I have two important lessons...1) you are not alone. there are millions of people in the US just like you. our financial system makes it very easy to get into a hard spot, 2) there is always something you can do the make it better. living in financial distress is hard...if you are willing to ask for help, 99% of the time there is a way to make it better.

Hi Alex! It seems that one of the hardest parts of resolving debt is getting started-- how do you decide where clients should start? Or do you?

We think of the world in terms of baby steps. Do one positive thing today to improve your situation and another tomorrow. This makes it easy to get started. On Resolve, we do try to provide some guidance on where to start, but also realize we don't know enough about your life to tell you what to do.

One easy thing you can do to get started is to sign up for Resolve :) [I bet my marketing team is going to get mad at me for that shameless plug.]

How would you advice a person who accumulated a lot of debt during the pandemic on how to bounce back and gain financial stability once again?

My mom, without or knowledge , got a lot of loans (around $8,000) to finance our survival and we're still struggling to pay it all. I'm from the Philippines. Hoping you can help.

We don't provide help to people in the Philippines today. Sorry about that.

The number one place to start to get out of debt is to make sure you are spending less than you make every month. Be brutal in cutting expenses. Work an extra job if you can. While Resolve can help restructure your debt, you'll end up in the same place again if you keep spending more than you make.