The first option available to you to get rid of your debts is an out-of-court settlement attempt with your creditors. In this process, it is possible to negotiate a one-time payment or a monthly installment plan that typically lasts for three years. When attempting an out-of-court settlement, it is important to differentiate based on our common goal:

If we have mutually decided that filing for insolvency is the best solution for you to become debt-free, we offer the creditors only your disposable income, which is usually much lower compared to the total debt. This will lead to immediate rejection and thus the failure of the out-of-court settlement attempt. This opens the path to insolvency since the failure of the out-of-court settlement attempt is an absolute requirement for personal insolvency. If, contrary to expectations, the out-of-court settlement attempt is accepted by all creditors, you will not suffer any disadvantage because, just like in insolvency, you will only have to pay the attachable portion of your income to your creditors. Even if it is clear from the outset that an out-of-court settlement has no chance of success, it must still be carried out. The unsuccessful attempt with the assistance of a “suitable entity” is an obligatory prerequisite for individuals to undergo consumer or personal insolvency proceedings. Suitable entities are members of the legal professions such as lawyers, notaries, or tax advisors. If we have mutually decided that we want to achieve an out-of-court settlement with the creditors, the procedure is different: To achieve the out-of-court settlement, we first submit an initial offer to all creditors, which is significantly lower than your original debt amount. If this initial offer is accepted by all creditors, we subsequently conclude the out-of-court settlement with all your creditors. If any or all creditors do not accept this offer, we present them with a higher offer. This process continues until either all creditors have agreed or it becomes clear that not all creditors will accept a one-time payment or monthly installment plan that is acceptable to you. It is difficult to predict how much the creditors can be negotiated down since it depends individually on each creditor. However, there are two prerequisites for the conclusion of an out-of-court settlement with your creditors to be meaningful:

1. You must be absolutely certain that you know all your creditors because only those creditors who sign the out-of-court settlement agreement will be part of it.
2. You must be confident that you can meet the agreed-upon installments over the entire duration since the failure to do so will result in the failure of the out-of-court settlement. In that case, the old debts, minus the payments already made, will revive.

If you successfully conclude an out-of-court settlement with all your creditors with our assistance and fulfill all contractual obligations, the procedure will end after the end of the contract term, and you will be debt-free!