The current recession in the market is said to be even worse than the depression of the 1930's. Most common consumers expected the good times to continue and designed their lifestyles accordingly. They took huge loans for everything from houses and automobiles to electronic goods. To add to this was the growing trend of using credit to pay for everything. In fact many consumers have brought about their financial ruin due to the overuse and mismanagement of credit cards. The recession hit the market when the common consumers were comfortable in their feeling of financial well being.

Many people were suddenly unemployed due to large scale lay offs in every industry. Those who managed to stay on with their jobs were subjected to heavy salary cuts. Students who had taken loans to study could not find employment to pay off these loans. The result was that many debtors were unable to pay off their debts. This created a precarious situation for the financial money lending institutions. They lost huge sums of money due to a large number of debtors filing for bankruptcy and were themselves threatened by financial ruin.

But just at this juncture the federal government provided immediate relief to the financial institutions in the form of stimulus money. This saved these institutions from bankruptcy and they in turn passed on this financial benefit to the debtors in the form of debt settlement programs. With the help of these programs the loan amounts payable by the debtors were reduced considerably. It became possible for them to pay off these loans and avoid bankruptcy. At the same time the creditors were able to recover at least some of their money. The popularity of debt settlements with both the creditors and debtors has led to a rise in their numbers at an unprecedented rate.