“Dear Steve,
My sister , against my advice, enrolled in a plan called Global Debt Management. She says it’s backed by the current federal administration to help people with too much credit card debt. She’s currently collecting worker’s compenation for an on the job injury and cannot pay her bills.
Is Global Debt Management a legitimate company or a ripoff? Are they funded by bail out funds set aside by the Obama Administration to help people with credit card debts?
Lynne”
Dear Lynne,
If your sister was sold debt settlement services under the guise that it was some sort of government backed, government funded, debt stimulus plan, or Obama debt help program, she was lied to. There is no such thing.
In fact, Global Debt Management, which displays they are a member of TASC, would be an idiot for doing that since their trade association The Association of Settlement Companies (TASC) has sent out warning that plans marketed under the fiction of being a government program are bogus. See Examples of Deceptive Official Marketing Sent Out By Debt Settlement Companies to Trick Consumers. Some are Members of TASC & USOBA, for more information on this subject.
If she is on worker’s comp and can’t pay her bills she has no business being in a debt settlement plan, at all. You might want to suggest that she click here to find a local bankruptcy attorney and take a close look at bankruptcy.
Please update me on your progress by posting updates here in the comments section of your question. I’m very interested in how this works out for you.
Steve
Absolute Scam!!
My wife decided to go forth with this company and insured me that they were above board. She had back surgery and was unable to pay her outstanding debt. Even though we were keeping our head above water, we were really struggling and times were tough. She felt incredible guilt and wanted to rectify this situation on her own, that was when she made the dire decision to turn this matter over to GDM – BIG MISTAKE!!! Sure, there were a couple of small depts settled, but the amount she settled was just enough to cover the penalties and interest that were accrued from the time we stopped paying. We payed over $4000.00 to save little from the original outstanding debt!!
The came the court summons. She was ill-advised to show up in court and say nothing and sign nothing. I was unaware of what was really going on here since she was to handle this by herself because deep inside she wanted to rectify this problem on her own.
I trusted all was OK but I was concerned that she was going to court for this. At the time I was not aware that the state I lived in was a State where garnishment was a viable option. Our checking account was joint and this information was not provided to us but the so-called “experts” at GDM – Oh, did I forget to mention that these folks who we were dealing with and represented themselves as “Global Debt Management” are not who they say they are? No, these people are a contracted independent organization who operate under the name of GDM, we were really dealing with a Company called “Nationwide Support Services” 1-800-498-7510. If you don’t believe me and you are involved with these Sharks, call them and give them your primary phone number or your GDM account number. They’ll pull up your account.
Anyway, I digress…
I awakened one morning shortly after my wife’s court appearance and went to my on-line checking account to pay some bills…. Log-on, take a sip of coffee and WHAM!!!! THE FREAKING CHECKING ACCOUNT IS EMPTY AND OVER DRAWN!!!!!!!! We bounced checks because the court had ordered a garnishment of my checking account – Holy moly! Heck, I could have done this on my own, I didn’t need to spend over $4000.00 to be garnished. Plus the fees for overdrafts and the potential credit dings that were going to hit my credit rating.
My wife was in tears and she felt that she had really harmed our family by attempting to resolve this financial situation against my advice. She requested that I get involved in helping her here which I did.
On her next Court appearance I decided to take some time from work and go with her. When the Judge called her to the front I went with her. A lawyer of the company she owed the dept to was there representing the case. The judge, after hearing our position had absolutely nothing good to say about these debt management companies. He called them ripoffs and snakes who prey on desperate people such as ourselves.
We were given the opportunity to meet with the attorney who was representing the creditor. But before we could talk with her we needed to sign a paper that would overturn the “cease and desist” document that “Nationwide Support Services” (GBM) had my wife send in to the creditor. This doc prevents the creditor from discussing the case with you and therefor the only dialog is with NSS/GDM. You see, this keeps you, the debtor out of the loop. What these sharks don’t tell you is that these Creditors have pretty much stopped dealing with these Companies. Many have jointly decided to not to settle with nobody but the debtor.
In essence, we were paying this shill company more money than we could afford and they knew that there was little to no chance of settlement. Yet they just kept taking in our money as the tied a rope around our necks and dragged us to the edge of the cliff towards financial ruin. The next step after garnishment in the state I live in is personal property garnishment… Great!
So after signing the doc with the attorney she was then allowed to enter into negotiations with we the debtor. She simply asked how much were we willing to pay. We threw her out a number that was significantly lower than we figured she would accept…. She jumped on our offer like a duck on a bug. The ironic thing here in that this cost us NOTHING!!!
We have since canceled our contract with Global Debt-Nationwide who the hell ever they are. We spoke with a man named Sam who agreed to offer us a refund….. a very small refund that is totally unacceptable. The guy proceeded to negotiate with me the amount of my refund. Now, if these people were to have negotiated with my creditors as hard as this guy negotiated with me, to keep my money, then perhaps they would have been able to save me some money. He finally offered me a 25 cents on the dollar refund which is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable.
I see in the above comments that full refunds will be returned to dissatisfied customers – that is an absolute and complete lie. They sure did not do this with us!
We are now in the process with contacting many authorities with our complaints about this Company and we will be perusing much more than the outstanding debt to include punitive damages.
I read the comment above where obviously a rep from GDM/NSS has requested that previous comments be removed. PLEASE – DON’T REMOVE THESE COMMENTS – I WILL BACK EVERY WORD I TYPED HERE.
Here is a list of contact you fellow ripped off consumers can contact, and please do. This is a scam and your hard earned money is providing a big fat leech a very good meal every moment of the day.
California Attorney General
General Edmund G. Brown Jr
Attorney General’s Office California Department of Justice
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
Better Business Bureau
https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/pub…
The State Bar of California
The State Bar of California
1149 S. Hill Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-2299
Federal Trade Commission
https://www.ftccomplaintassist…
The Association of Settlement Companies – TASC
16 N. Carroll Street, Suite 900. Madison, WI 53703
Tel. 888-657-8272 (TASC)
Social Media
Steve Rhodes – The Get out of Debt Guy
https://getoutofdebt.org/
Damon Day
http://open.salon.com/blog/dam…
http://www.ripoffreport.com
http://www.complaint.com
http://www.complaintsboard.com
http://www.consumeraffairs.com
http://www.my3cents.com
http://www.pissedconsumer.com
Regards,
Mark
[email protected]
Absolute Scam!!
My wife decided to go forth with this company and insured me that they were above board. She had back surgery and was unable to pay her outstanding debt. Even though we were keeping our head above water, we were really struggling and times were tough. She felt incredible guilt and wanted to rectify this situation on her own, that was when she made the dire decision to turn this matter over to GDM – BIG MISTAKE!!! Sure, there were a couple of small depts settled, but the amount she settled was just enough to cover the penalties and interest that were accrued from the time we stopped paying. We payed over $4000.00 to save little from the original outstanding debt!!
The came the court summons. She was ill-advised to show up in court and say nothing and sign nothing. I was unaware of what was really going on here since she was to handle this by herself because deep inside she wanted to rectify this problem on her own.
I trusted all was OK but I was concerned that she was going to court for this. At the time I was not aware that the state I lived in was a State where garnishment was a viable option. Our checking account was joint and this information was not provided to us but the so-called “experts” at GDM – Oh, did I forget to mention that these folks who we were dealing with and represented themselves as “Global Debt Management” are not who they say they are? No, these people are a contracted independent organization who operate under the name of GDM, we were really dealing with a Company called “Nationwide Support Services” 1-800-498-7510. If you don’t believe me and you are involved with these Sharks, call them and give them your primary phone number or your GDM account number. They’ll pull up your account.
Anyway, I digress…
I awakened one morning shortly after my wife’s court appearance and went to my on-line checking account to pay some bills…. Log-on, take a sip of coffee and WHAM!!!! THE FREAKING CHECKING ACCOUNT IS EMPTY AND OVER DRAWN!!!!!!!! We bounced checks because the court had ordered a garnishment of my checking account – Holy moly! Heck, I could have done this on my own, I didn’t need to spend over $4000.00 to be garnished. Plus the fees for overdrafts and the potential credit dings that were going to hit my credit rating.
My wife was in tears and she felt that she had really harmed our family by attempting to resolve this financial situation against my advice. She requested that I get involved in helping her here which I did.
On her next Court appearance I decided to take some time from work and go with her. When the Judge called her to the front I went with her. A lawyer of the company she owed the dept to was there representing the case. The judge, after hearing our position had absolutely nothing good to say about these debt management companies. He called them ripoffs and snakes who prey on desperate people such as ourselves.
We were given the opportunity to meet with the attorney who was representing the creditor. But before we could talk with her we needed to sign a paper that would overturn the “cease and desist” document that “Nationwide Support Services” (GBM) had my wife send in to the creditor. This doc prevents the creditor from discussing the case with you and therefor the only dialog is with NSS/GDM. You see, this keeps you, the debtor out of the loop. What these sharks don’t tell you is that these Creditors have pretty much stopped dealing with these Companies. Many have jointly decided to not to settle with nobody but the debtor.
In essence, we were paying this shill company more money than we could afford and they knew that there was little to no chance of settlement. Yet they just kept taking in our money as the tied a rope around our necks and dragged us to the edge of the cliff towards financial ruin. The next step after garnishment in the state I live in is personal property garnishment… Great!
So after signing the doc with the attorney she was then allowed to enter into negotiations with we the debtor. She simply asked how much were we willing to pay. We threw her out a number that was significantly lower than we figured she would accept…. She jumped on our offer like a duck on a bug. The ironic thing here in that this cost us NOTHING!!!
We have since canceled our contract with Global Debt-Nationwide who the hell ever they are. We spoke with a man named Sam who agreed to offer us a refund….. a very small refund that is totally unacceptable. The guy proceeded to negotiate with me the amount of my refund. Now, if these people were to have negotiated with my creditors as hard as this guy negotiated with me, to keep my money, then perhaps they would have been able to save me some money. He finally offered me a 25 cents on the dollar refund which is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable.
I see in the above comments that full refunds will be returned to dissatisfied customers – that is an absolute and complete lie. They sure did not do this with us!
We are now in the process with contacting many authorities with our complaints about this Company and we will be perusing much more than the outstanding debt to include punitive damages.
I read the comment above where obviously a rep from GDM/NSS has requested that previous comments be removed. PLEASE – DON’T REMOVE THESE COMMENTS – I WILL BACK EVERY WORD I TYPED HERE.
Here is a list of contact you fellow ripped off consumers can contact, and please do. This is a scam and your hard earned money is providing a big fat leech a very good meal every moment of the day.
California Attorney General
General Edmund G. Brown Jr
Attorney General’s Office California Department of Justice
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
Better Business Bureau
https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/complaintlink.aspx
The State Bar of California
The State Bar of California
1149 S. Hill Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-2299
Federal Trade Commission
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en
The Association of Settlement Companies – TASC
16 N. Carroll Street, Suite 900. Madison, WI 53703
Tel. 888-657-8272 (TASC)
Social Media
Steve Rhodes – The Get out of Debt Guy
https://getoutofdebt.org/
Damon Day
http://open.salon.com/blog/damonday
http://www.ripoffreport.com
http://www.complaint.com
http://www.complaintsboard.com
http://www.consumeraffairs.com
http://www.my3cents.com
http://www.pissedconsumer.com
Regards,
Mark
[email protected]