This past weekend I held a meeting titled the “Rally in Raleigh” where a number of debt relief companies, and some guest regulators got together to talk openly and honestly about the current state of the debt relief industry. We wound up focusing more on debt settlement since it is a subset of the debt relief industry that is going through a lot of change at the moment.
Of interest were the discussions of attorney model debt settlement companies that feel they can continue to charge up-front fees to offer debt settlement services.
Apparently some debt settlement companies feel there are loopholes and exemptions to the recently enacted Federal Trade Commission telemarketing sales rules that gives them a free pass to continue the advanced fee models of debt settlement services.
These advanced fee models have continued, not because they provide better service to consumers, but because they allow companies and affiliates to feel they can collect fees for services up-front before services are delivered. Time and time again that model has been proven to earn a quick profit for debt settlement companies that follow that business model but do not treat consumers fairly.
In fact I would say that the advanced fee model resulted in a tremendous regulator focus of the industry since consumers were complaining they paid fees for services not received and the debt settlement companies would not give them a refund of those fees. When debt relief companies don’t act fairly, regulators are forced to step in.
During our meeting one of our guests was Allison Brown from the Federal Trade Commission. Allison is involved on the front lines of the FTC debt settlement effort and is intimately familiar with what led up to the new regulation and what the FTC sees as problem loopholes that people are attempting to take advantage of, but that do not really exist.
For example, some companies are hiring local representatives to meet with consumers face-to-face at local Starbucks to get them to sign contracts and agreements for debt relief services. That’s just not going to be an accepted practice.
In her sharing of information with the attendees she said the FTC has their eyes on companies that are doing the following:
- Attorney Models – Not a loophole approach in mass marketed debt settlement services using affiliates and distant marketers. If a local attorney is a “small town player” sitting down face-to-face with a local consumer and has established a traditional attorney client relationship then that is a different matter. But, if an attorney model debt settlement company is using marketers, telemarketers and runners to sell debt relief services, these attorneys and/or firms are NOT exempt under the FTC TSR.
- The Runner – Companies that are doing the sales pitch for debt relief services over the phone or with internal representatives and then sending out a “runner” to visit the consumer in their home or place of business, typically at a Starbucks, are NOT exempt from the FTC TSR and “will fail as a loophole”, said Allison Brown from the FTC.
- Debt Relief Services Other Than Debt Settlement – Companies selling debt relief services or alteration of debt such as contract validation or Fair Debt Collection Practices Act trip-up suits, that are not local attorneys representing local clients, is NOT a loophole and is fully covered by the FTC TSR regulations.
- Bundled Products – Selling products or services other than debt relief services in order to then offer debt relief services is NOT a loophole. The FTC has a long history of targeting the bundled product approach and has specific written guidance covering these activities from their experience in going after credit repair services.
- Marketers – The FTC is planning to take action against companies that market debt relief services using unsubstantiated claims on the web, over the phone or via mail. Enforcement actions are already in the works. These will be against companies that collect leads, prepare mailers, and otherwise attract consumers for debt relief services.
Allison Brown mentioned that they already have a number of companies on their radar that are operating as “loopholers” and will begin enforcement actions soon.
I asked Allison Brown what companies should do to not be on the enforcement radar of the FTC and avoid massive fines. Her response was that companies need to pay close attention to their advertising and marketing material. Ms. Brown said,
We’ve seen so many companies that over-promise and under deliver. Some claims that raise red flags are “become debt free”, we’ll be asking companies to substantiate that the typical customer becomes debt free. Another one is save 60% off your credit card debt, we have not seen a company that can substantiate that for the typical consumer across the board.
The next few months will be very interesting as enforcement actions against advanced fee debt settlement companies of all types will begin to roll out.
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BK is not the answer to everything!! We never claimed to protect anyone…We simply offered to help folks with debt!! We referred hundreds of people to BK…That’s not the issue…At least not mine!! Sites like these do not protect consumers…They simply pilfer other viable businesses clients by spreading half truths & using fear tactics…Not charging upfront doesn’t prevent the clients from getting phone calls, from getting sued or any of the abuses that this site claims…Debt Settlement has been hung out to dry!! Good Job!!
Thank you so much for your business advice…I did the math before I ever shut down & the profit margins didn’t justify the risk & exposure that this industry is currently providing…I chose to expand other ventures & opened up two car lots locally…Debt settlement has been beat down so much by sites like this & others that reagardless of what model you operate under no-one believes in it any longer!! Great job guys!! like I said, all of you are bottom feeding off of our models left overs!! No wonder you have less than 10 employees after being in business for 4 years…But thanks, anyways good luck.
“Reindeer”…. Just kidding.
Truth- I get it. I saw a thousand jobs lost in my neighborhood alone. Some were good friends. The up front ban was forced upon our industry because of the terrible abuses by MOST of the sales companies. The model did very little to help consumers. If your company wasn’t one of the thousands of bad ones, Good for you.
The discussion here became very personal & I’ve had businesses fail so I understand that youre upset. Regardless of our differences, I do understand how you feel.
We’re a small company, four years old with less than 10 employees but we can continue to stay open because were paid AT settlement. We have clients who will continue to pay us for years because we run that model.
Most of the companies that were truly abusive are in a 50 mile radius from my office. I know the owners, affiliates, lead brokers and sales people. Whether I like them or not, the industry was a sewer. The companies still charging huge upfront fees in opposition to the ban are some of the worst from before the ban.
Believe it or not, there is an opportunity to make money and still follow the law. It won’t allow you to quickly build a large phone room like the old models but it works better; It better serves the client. The back end, compliant companies HAVE to settle their clients debts in order to earn money. I can show you how it’s done. I’d be happy to show you you how it’s done.
I agree- Post the calls you supposedly made to me. Pants…. On fire
You know so much? Where you keep saying 25%… It’s of the SAVINGS at settlement. Not the total debt, regardless of whether YOU settled any. We actually EARN our money.
Hey Truth, you can bring alot of great past experiences to the table and you have a great solid group of listeners on this site if you just share what is it that you think would work for the industry and for the consumers. we all know people still need debt settlement as tool to become debt free but also people need to trust us again and the sad part is alot of the folks took advantage of it and made this industry look bad. I can remember just 2 years ago my family used to brag that I help people get out of debt now they look at me and wonder how many people i ripped off? so i do understand the fustration and i do take pride in my work and i genuinely want to help people that are in need of help with their debt issues, but guess what, so what if the regulators is making it harder to operate. It sounds to me you have the right capital to continue your operations if you choose too. so why not create a new legacy and try to be suceessful with the new model expected from the regulators. You are a leader, and by just giving up and letting people go because you feel its not as profitible as it once were so be it find a way to make it profitible but yet consumer friendly.
Thank you for taking care of your staff. It was a great thing to do.
I’m up for agreeing to disagree if you are and wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.
Steve
🙂
I did fail yes & I what I lost sleep over @ night was the decision to walk away from debt settelment, laying off people that believed in me. I had a talented group of people that I know will succeed going forward. They received 6 months wages, that was where I chose to spend the reserves. The industry was destroyed & I made a difficult business decision because I no longer wanted to be subjected to the insanity that the industry is currently in. I have rehired many of the people I layed off & I am partners with several others that decided to start there own ventures. I did fail Steve, but I did it the best way I could given all of the circumstances. I have failed many times before. I will fail again. What is the fundemental lesson we could all learn from this?? Learn from our mistakes & do not fall prey to the banks lures & do not borrow more than you can afford to re-pay & please folks set something aside for retirement!! I have preached that in every sales training that I have ever conducted!! Steve you have been making a profit off of this industry much longer than I!! You are very good @ what you do!! I am very good @ what I do!! We all fail @ some point don’t we?? Good nite all, my wife thinks I’m a lunatic because I have been participating in what she says is quote “Raindeer Games”. She made me feel like a wimp! LOL
Regardless, posting the calls is very easy to do and it might change how people take you, which right now from looking at the comments, no one is giving you any repect. Posting the calls is very easy to do. Do you need instructions how to do it? I bet Steve would even show you how to post the calls for everyone to hear. We all want to hear them and posting the calls is your path to earning some respect on this site.
No you can’t pick the place, you have to walk into my office like a man … we’ll see. Don’t worry I can be a nice guy.
Until then I’ve come to the end of my journey in bizzarro-land with ‘the truth’. I prefer to speak with real people that can put their real name to their words. I wish you the best of luck.
I am going to relinquish the right to the last word and let you have it now .. go ahead, hit reply and let er rip.
Thank you, we are almost neighbors 🙂 Can I pick the place?? I have a few favorites. I am dissapointed in you Andy, you give us a bad name 🙁 Again folks go see Andy & his thugs for 25% debt settlement!! LOL “They charge you later!!” Hilarious!!
Hey Truth,
I’m at 320 W. Main St in Norton MA. You’re welcome to come visit me anytime. We’ll do lunch…
.. and don’t worry, I’ll buy. I know times are tough for you right now.
Andy Faria
Northeast Settlement Group
How about asking Steve “How consumer friendly it is to charge $495 to settle an average debt of $2,000??” We don’t charge you up front!! No we are nice guys!! We charge you an extra 15% for charging you later for the exact same service!! We charge you 25% they charge you an average of 10% what a great deal!! Sign me up Mr Question!!
Andy, you already know me or know of me!! I promise you on everything that I am that I will personally pay you a visit!! You gamble?? I am soooo sorry to hear that because you just lost another bet!! You are a no good loser that has very little!! That’s why you are now feeding off of my business models leftovers!! As a matter of fact all of you have proven that you are praying on & feeding off of all of our leftovers!! Buyer Beware!! Bottom feeders feeding off of bottom feeders!! Anyone who bets the farm without adequate info is a loser just by definition!! People do you really want this clown gambling your futures away??!!
If that is true, how about posting some audio recordings of the mystery shops?
Mr Spellcheck Guy Joe debt needs some help!! TMZ & this site!! Excellent analogy!!
thanks for sharing that you recruit low life debt collectors? so once they are on yourside working for you, than they are no longer considered low-life? is the people that collects trash all day low-life too? a job is a job as long as you do it with integrity. you come on here to vent your fustration for what? maybe you should vent the fustration on the companies that made this industry look bad with bunch of loose cowboys, raping and pilaging distress consumers. if you truly care the consumers you wouldn’t have so much anger towards this site or the people on here participating in it. and all the name calling, is it necessary?
I DARE YOU TOO!! LOL!! Why in the world wouldn’t we call?? You may not charge “FRONTLOADED FEES” but you still provide debt settlement right??? There’s only 1 difference between the model that I operated under & what model you operate under, which is how the fees are collected. We never promoted any of the bad practices that you guys have SLANDERED our model with!! It’s just a business model!! It doesn’t mean that we don’t provide just as good a service as a “NON FRONTLOADED COMPANY” Have you ever provided you service for free if the client couldn’t afford the service & didn’t want BK?? $495 per act like Steve said when the average act debt is around $2,000 is 25% f****** percent people!! We did programs for 2% if that’s all the client could afford….You “DON’T BELIEVE ME” because we charged “UPFRONT” & did it ethically!! Steve suggested charging what equates to 25%!! That’s really looking out for the consumer!! Look, business is business, I’m not gonna bash what I believe in, but you guys on your high horses charging even more than we did & acting like godsends is ludicrous!!
Mr Truth Sir, with honor and respect you did not answer the questions I proposed. You blame it all on the banks but rarely mention Bankruptcy which would absolve debt and lawfully relieve consumer debt with legal protection.DEBT SETTLEMENT DOES NOT PROTECT YOUR CLIENTS NOR SHOULD IT CLAIM TO BE SO. Bankruptcy Laws do just that. I ask you, yes you, to embrace the TRUTH.
Mr Truth,
Just stop, you’ve exposed yourself enough. I couldn’t care less about your threats, I have nothing to hide. I wish we could debate this on a sensible level, but you passed that point at about 5pm yesterday with your nonsense. I’m forced to take this down to ‘the street level’.
You’re not a phony because you attacked my friends, you’re a phony because you can’t back up the claims you’re making. You’re not a wimp because you’re smaller than me, you’re a wimp because you lack the balls to even post your name or the company you allegedly represent.
If I was a gambling man (and I am) I would bet the farm that you’re nothing more than an unemployed former sales rep from the debt settlement underworld. And I’ll let that ride…
Good luck with ‘lucrative career’. I look forward to “soon enough”.
Andy Faria
Northeast Settlement Group
Seriously???? The difference between front loaded debt settlement & a bank??? Really???? You guys are so focussed on your jibberish that it has left you dumbfound to good debate!! LOL!! The banks drove consumers into debt settlement because of all of the reasons I have previously mentioned!! Ask the consumers how they felt when they had 4.99% & were never a minute late in their life, then 1 year later they get whacked with 22% or 29.99% interest tripling their payments. They want to re-pay it, but simply can’t & all you care about is “FRONT LOADED DEBT SETTLEMENT??!!” Please??!!
You must be a debt collector!! We recruited people from the collection industry to be our debt mitigators & you sound exactly like a low life debt collector…If you’re not, you should be because you spew the same venem they do!! Every day banks lure people in with rates as low as 0% that the consumer could afford to re-pay…They had no clue that their payments would triple 1 year later not because they were late, but just because! Then after they are rate “RAPED!!” & they are now “SLAVES” & pay these insane payments for 6 years & they lose their job & call into get releif (I can spell it like I like to) the bank says “I’m sorry to hear that, but “PAY WHAT YOU OWE” driving the client into the open arms of the debt settlement industry!! Do I make sense now??!!
We will flying in the week after next & we will be more than glad to drop in on you so you can teach how to run a business with no employees!! LOL
TheTruth,
So far you’ve blamed me, the government, regulators, and banks but you have not found any blame on the part of debt relief companies or yourself for failure to police and protect your own debt settlement industry.
You don’t want big government but you say you reported me to the FTC and filed a complaint against me. You want the FTC to be there to take your complaint and investigate me, hoping they will take some action against me but you don’t want them to act on the complaints of debt relief companies they received and take action?
You complain about having to lay off 122 employees but you want to pass new rules to highly regulate the banks which would probably result in layoffs. At the same time it would create new government regulations which you are against.
You say, “Without their [banks] bad practices there would’ve never been debt settlement abuses now would there?” But that is the same argument you are crying out against when others say advanced fee debt settlement abuses needed to be controlled.
It is painfully clear you are not going to accept any responsibility for your actions. But consider this. If you were on top of the industry then why did you not see these changes coming far in advance as others did, or I did in 2008. You could have then make the slow transition to a compliant contingency fee model, riding on the residuals through the transition, and would not have had to layoff any staff.
And while you are still on your high horse, my testimony to the FTC was in support of for profit companies and to balance the playing field for all debt relief providers. See my 2008 testimony. Nearly a year before the ban went into force, I wrote: “There is no doubt that the workshops and hearings by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are going to result in changes that will significantly impact the debt settlement industry.” I also said, “The FTC is currently leaning towards imposing an up-front fee ban.”
One position could be that the end result of you laying off employees was created by you not having the foresight to take early action or heed the warnings to adjust your business approach and prepare for the inevitable change that was coming. Because of your failure to adjust your business, 122 people lost their jobs.
TheTruth,
So far you’ve blamed me, the government, regulators, and banks but you have not found any blame on the part of debt relief companies or yourself for failure to police and protect your own debt settlement industry.
You don’t want big government but you say you reported me to the FTC and filed a complaint against me. You want the FTC to be there to take your complaint and investigate me, hoping they will take some action against me but you don’t want them to act on the complaints of debt relief companies they received and take action?
You complain about having to lay off 122 employees but you want to pass new rules to highly regulate the banks which would probably result in layoffs. At the same time it would create new government regulations which you are against.
You say, “Without their [banks] bad practices there would’ve never been debt settlement abuses now would there?” But that is the same argument you are crying out against when others say advanced fee debt settlement abuses needed to be controlled.
It is painfully clear you are not going to accept any responsibility for your actions. But consider this. If you were on top of the industry then why did you not see these changes coming far in advance as others did, or I did in 2008. You could have then make the slow transition to a compliant contingency fee model, riding on the residuals through the transition, and would not have had to layoff any staff.
And while you are still on your high horse, my testimony to the FTC was in support of for profit companies and to balance the playing field for all debt relief providers. See my 2008 testimony. Nearly a year before the ban went into force, I wrote: “There is no doubt that the workshops and hearings by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are going to result in changes that will significantly impact the debt settlement industry.” I also said, “The FTC is currently leaning towards imposing an up-front fee ban.”
One position could be that the end result of you laying off employees was created by you not having the foresight to take early action or heed the warnings to adjust your business approach and prepare for the inevitable change that was coming. Because of your failure to adjust your business, 122 people lost their jobs.
I did fail yes & I what I lost sleep over @ night was the decision to walk away from debt settelment, laying off people that believed in me. I had a talented group of people that I know will succeed going forward. They received 6 months wages, that was where I chose to spend the reserves. The industry was destroyed & I made a difficult business decision because I no longer wanted to be subjected to the insanity that the industry is currently in. I have rehired many of the people I layed off & I am partners with several others that decided to start there own ventures. I did fail Steve, but I did it the best way I could given all of the circumstances. I have failed many times before. I will fail again. What is the fundemental lesson we could all learn from this?? Learn from our mistakes & do not fall prey to the banks lures & do not borrow more than you can afford to re-pay & please folks set something aside for retirement!! I have preached that in every sales training that I have ever conducted!! Steve you have been making a profit off of this industry much longer than I!! You are very good @ what you do!! I am very good @ what I do!! We all fail @ some point don’t we?? Good nite all, my wife thinks I’m a lunatic because I have been participating in what she says is quote “Raindeer Games”. She made me feel like a wimp! LOL
Thank you for taking care of your staff. It was a great thing to do. I’m up for agreeing to disagree if you are and wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.Steve
Hey Truth, you can bring alot of great past experiences to the table and you have a great solid group of listeners on this site if you just share what is it that you think would work for the industry and for the consumers. we all know people still need debt settlement as tool to become debt free but also people need to trust us again and the sad part is alot of the folks took advantage of it and made this industry look bad. I can remember just 2 years ago my family used to brag that I help people get out of debt now they look at me and wonder how many people i ripped off? so i do understand the fustration and i do take pride in my work and i genuinely want to help people that are in need of help with their debt issues, but guess what, so what if the regulators is making it harder to operate. It sounds to me you have the right capital to continue your operations if you choose too. so why not create a new legacy and try to be suceessful with the new model expected from the regulators. You are a leader, and by just giving up and letting people go because you feel its not as profitible as it once were so be it find a way to make it profitible but yet consumer friendly.
“Reindeer”…. Just kidding.
Truth- I get it. I saw a thousand jobs lost in my neighborhood alone. Some were good friends. The up front ban was forced upon our industry because of the terrible abuses by MOST of the sales companies. The model did very little to help consumers. If your company wasn’t one of the thousands of bad ones, Good for you.
The discussion here became very personal & I’ve had businesses fail so I understand that youre upset. Regardless of our differences, I do understand how you feel.
We’re a small company, four years old with less than 10 employees but we can continue to stay open because were paid AT settlement. We have clients who will continue to pay us for years because we run that model.
Most of the companies that were truly abusive are in a 50 mile radius from my office. I know the owners, affiliates, lead brokers and sales people. Whether I like them or not, the industry was a sewer. The companies still charging huge upfront fees in opposition to the ban are some of the worst from before the ban.
Believe it or not, there is an opportunity to make money and still follow the law. It won’t allow you to quickly build a large phone room like the old models but it works better; It better serves the client. The back end, compliant companies HAVE to settle their clients debts in order to earn money. I can show you how it’s done. I’d be happy to show you you how it’s done.
Thank you so much for your business advice…I did the math before I ever shut down & the profit margins didn’t justify the risk & exposure that this industry is currently providing…I chose to expand other ventures & opened up two car lots locally…Debt settlement has been beat down so much by sites like this & others that reagardless of what model you operate under no-one believes in it any longer!! Great job guys!! like I said, all of you are bottom feeding off of our models left overs!! No wonder you have less than 10 employees after being in business for 4 years…But thanks, anyways good luck.
LOL!! Thank you Andy! I knew that all of you on this site are in cohoots with each other!! “PERSONAL FRIENDS” did you hear that folks??!! I attacked your friends so that makes me a phony??!! Eureka @ last!! Don’t be scared & confused!! You are praying & hoping that I’m just a low level pion who doesn’t have the resources to expose you clowns. I am 5’10 & a 175 lbs so your wimp claim has some truth to it, but I’m afraid I have more than enough resources to adequately protect myself!! Your name on the list is exactly what prompted your response!! Andy I could care less what you believe!! What you believe has will not stop what happens next!! Because you jackasses don’t charge upfront makes all of you Saints!! What a joke!! You will know exactly who I am soon enough!!
Now I think you’re confused. When a consumer goes to a bank for an expensive product, it’s like going to a high priced prostitute. It’s not ideal, but the consumer gets what they wanted (money/a loan/credit/etc.) When a consumer gets tricked by misleading advertising to sign up with a front loaded fee debt settlement company, significantly more than half are getting zero service for their money. That’s rape. The 10% to 34% that got some debt settled still got raped, but at least they got a reach around. The banks may be greedy, but they aren’t the bad guys. You seem to confuse greed, free enterprise, socialism and rape and your arguments just don’t make sense.
Mr. Truth,
My name is on that list above, will you be ‘mystery shopping’ me? I dare you to, in fact I give you my permission to record it and post it in its entirety, wherever you would like. You’ll probably learn something.
I’ve been watching this post, and at first I felt bad for you. Now I don’t believe you. I don’t believe that you ever ran a debt settlement company, I don’t believe that you had 100+ employees, and I don’t believe that you are independently wealthy. My guess is that you were nothing more than a low level pion sales guy at some debt settlement company that wasn’t smart enough to read the writing on the wall. Otherwise you would be man enough to give your name and the company you “own”.
My name on the list is not what prompted this comment. The fact that you have taken potshots at both Active Debt and New Era as somehow substandard companies is what has prompted my comment. I consider both Sean and Alex to be personal friends of mine, but beyond that I know for a fact they both operate companies that I could refer people to without a doubt that they will receive results.
I wish I could say the same for you Truth, but that’s impossible because you’re too much of a wimp to even give you’re own name.
Andy Faria
Northeast Settlement Group
Come down to my office & mystery shop my non existent sales people yourself. I have nothing to hide. You, on the other hand, obviously do.
We received NO inquiries today. We do not have a sales staff. If there was an inquiry, I would have received the call. When your complaint is filed be prepared for a lawsuit for slander- Youre a liar and a jerk. Go away.
We dont have any sales people. You’ve just proven yourself a liar.
Oops.. I meant how many luxury cars do you own?
your welcome, BTW that list was public information on this site feel free to watch the video too. If you can stop people from sharing information and making reviews than you can get TMZ shutdown too right? How luxury cars do you own?
Then do something about what caused debt settlement to thrive!! Don’t support socialism regulation that now has even more people unemployed!! I create jobs you help destroy what our country was founded on!! FREEDOM!! The banking industry is not ideal??!! REALLY!! They leagally rape people every day!! You idiots are confused because I don’t support bad debt settlemet, but i do support free enterprise, not government control. Educate not regulate. Am I clear or are you still confused??!!
Then so be it!! That’s what this country is all about!! People pay everyday for services that they can do themselves!! I have never advocated to anyone to not repay their debt!! I have simply advocated to stop the loan sharking practices of the banks that force people to longer be able to re-pay their debt!! In case you haven’t looked @ the unemployment rate lately, some people simply don’t have the means to re-pay their debt after they were lured into debt with 0% then had their rates jacked to 29.99% simply because they can!! Just look at what the banking industry did when they thought Obama (I am not an Obama fan!) was going to crack down on their practices!! They rushed & raped everyone accross the board by jacking up their rates to what should’ve been criminal levels who had never been 1 minute late in their lives!! Simply because they thought that this “PRIVELAGE” (did I spell it right?!!) was going to be taken away…They hand delivered these consumers to debt settlement not because they were dead beats as you insinuate, but because they were “LEGALLY RAPED” far worse than any debt settlement company ever thought about doing!!
Your argument has me confused as well. At least when a consumer signs up for a bank product they get something (credit/money/a loan), however expensive that product may be. When a consumer signs up for front loaded fee debt settlement, 10 – 34% of them *may* get something in the distant future, and the rest just get screwed out of their money and get nothing but misery. The banking situation is not ideal, but debt settlement was a complete disaster until the TSR.
Trust me Sean you now have much more to worry about than me providing supporting evidence!! To be honest, I am having much more fun mystery shopping all of your sales people so I can expose you clowns for who you are!! You better give your sales staff a crash course in TSR training because they failed miserably today!!
To the Truth,
Would you lend me $50,000 so I can only pay you back half? Where does the line start? Is this business mode something you tell your chidren? Do not honor your debts?
What about the people who pay thier debts. ISN’T THE “PRICE” OF DOING BUSINESS PASSED ON TO THEM IN THE FORM OF HIGHER RATES?
Why Punish your clients with YOUR PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS with upfront fees when they can be collected when you do your job of negotiation? You are just doing a job they can do!
To the Truth,
Would you lend me $50,000 so I can only pay you back half? Where does the line start? Is this business mode something you tell your chidren? Do not honor your debts?
What about the people who pay thier debts. ISN’T THE “PRICE” OF DOING BUSINESS PASSED ON TO THEM IN THE FORM OF HIGHER RATES?
Why Punish your clients with YOUR PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS with upfront fees when they can be collected when you do your job of negotiation? You are just doing a job they can do!
Then so be it!! That’s what this country is all about!! People pay everyday for services that they can do themselves!! I have never advocated to anyone to not repay their debt!! I have simply advocated to stop the loan sharking practices of the banks that force people to longer be able to re-pay their debt!! In case you haven’t looked @ the unemployment rate lately, some people simply don’t have the means to re-pay their debt after they were lured into debt with 0% then had their rates jacked to 29.99% simply because they can!! Just look at what the banking industry did when they thought Obama (I am not an Obama fan!) was going to crack down on their practices!! They rushed & raped everyone accross the board by jacking up their rates to what should’ve been criminal levels who had never been 1 minute late in their lives!! Simply because they thought that this “PRIVELAGE” (did I spell it right?!!) was going to be taken away…They hand delivered these consumers to debt settlement not because they were dead beats as you insinuate, but because they were “LEGALLY RAPED” far worse than any debt settlement company ever thought about doing!!
Mr Truth Sir, with honor and respect you did not answer the questions I proposed. You blame it all on the banks but rarely mention Bankruptcy which would absolve debt and lawfully relieve consumer debt with legal protection.DEBT SETTLEMENT DOES NOT PROTECT YOUR CLIENTS NOR SHOULD IT CLAIM TO BE SO. Bankruptcy Laws do just that. I ask you, yes you, to embrace the TRUTH.
BK is not the answer to everything!! We never claimed to protect anyone…We simply offered to help folks with debt!! We referred hundreds of people to BK…That’s not the issue…At least not mine!! Sites like these do not protect consumers…They simply pilfer other viable businesses clients by spreading half truths & using fear tactics…Not charging upfront doesn’t prevent the clients from getting phone calls, from getting sued or any of the abuses that this site claims…Debt Settlement has been hung out to dry!! Good Job!!
How could you possibly be confused???!!! Fixing the banking mess will help everyone!!! Then we wouldn’t need debt settlement!! I am still running businesses, just not debt settlement after the TSR ruling!! You should worry more about how to properly train your sales staff so they don’t practice in the very things that you idiots are so eager to denounce!! We called in today Mr Active Debt Solutions & when my assistant is done putting everything together we will be more than glad to share it with the world!! You are no better than the worst of the “BAD ACTORS” that gave our industry a bad name!! You just don’t charge “UPFRONT”!! Becareful what you wish for!! You may have helped run us out, but now it’s our turn to return the favor!!…I have several hundred people that I will be having conversations & correspondence with over the next week that will expose all of you clowns to be exactly what you denounce!! You just don’t charge upfront!! I bowed out before the ruling kicked in, but you chose to expose yourself the solcialist reguation then happily viloated almost everything except “YOU DON’T CHARGE UP FRONT!!” WHAT A JOKE!!
If you have so much $, why dont you simply use it to finance 6 months worth of operations?
Still waiting for the supporting evidence that Congress didnt pass the debt relief bill because, as you say, it was “unconstitutional”.
SELF RIGHTEOUS
I don’t look for loopholes, I have multiple businesses & could shut them all down now & retire happliy ever after!! But that’s not who I am!! I enjoy creating jobs & putting people to work!! Again you proved my point, you guys blindly bash companies on this site so you can drive consumers to your affiliates!! It’s very clear that the ONLY reason you put this little list together was because we mystery shopped New Era Debt today & found them practicing some of the very same sales practices that you so eagerly denounce, they just don’t charge “UPFRONT!” Thanks for the list though, we will be reporting what the other companies sales practices are for you throughout next week!! We already checked out Mr SELF RITEOUS Sean Ryan’s cronies! I will add later word for word what 1 of his sales people are telling these poor people that you act like you are trying to protect!! Like I said becareful what you wish for!!
Attorneys also work on contingency
Im confused. How would fixing the banking mess help you back into your 150 man front loaded call center?
Again you have no clue how we conducted business…A B C & D are happening right now to people who have never been in or ever heard of debt settlement…Please be clear to the readers, you bash front loaded debt settlement because it fills you & other people on this sites pockets! It’s that simple. There is no one on the planet stupid enough to think that ALL FRONT LOADED DEBT SETTLEMENT COMPANIES do you guys claim!! There were thousands of companies operating under that model & not all did as you say! That’s what pisses me off!! You’re not interested in helping people, just in making money which what you accuse our industry of!! The banks are legal loan sharks period!! Without their bad practices there would’ve never been debt settlement abuses now would there? I speak about the true cause of this mess, you idiots rant & rave about a dieing industry that has no bearing on the real issue!! Debt Settlement did not create debt…Debt Settlement did not arbitrarily (if I didn’t spell it right, BITE ME!) raise interest rates & minimum payments forcing people into default!! I am not a crusader, but if I was I wouldn’t waste my energies on companies trying to clean up the mess, I would spend it on the banks who created it!!
If you want to protect the industry you have to proactively police it to stop bad actors who will draw attention and lead to regulation. It doesn’t matter if you do lots of stuff right when so many others didn’t.
I simply conducted my business the best way I could!! Which was to police my employees & affiliates. There are bad people in this world & in every industry including yours. Like I said before, I believe in Education not Regulation!! We did everything we could with what we had control over. Which was to educate our clients & conduct ethical business. I admitted that we had people who misled clients & I fired them immediately which made my staff fearful of losing their job if they participated in bad practices. I can’t control what other people do, but I can conduct my businesses with integrity which is what I have done since I started my 1st business over 25 years ago!! I also have the right to despise bleeding heart liberals like you who feel regulation is the answer to everything!! Help REGULATE THE BANKS if you truly want to help people out of financial hardship!! They created this mess not front loaded fee model debt settlement!! Seriously while you are ripping a dieing industry millions of people are being shafted by the banks whose profits you helped protect! I will continue to expand my businesses creating good paying jobs for honest hard working people! I create jobs to help the economy which creates taxes which creates more jobs & so on & so on! That’s what I do! You promote socialism, I create jobs inspite of idiots like you who make it harder than ever to run an honest business!
Directed reader to view your comments in this recent post.
Let’s talk about the difference between a bank and a front loaded fee debt settlement company. The bank gives you the product (the money) now, and then charges an arm and a leg for it later. The debt settler charges an arm and a leg now for the promise that they might provide a service at some point in the distant future if the consumer can endure a) the collection phone calls, b) the damage to the credit rating, c) the law suits, and d) the potential wage garnishments all attributable to the debt settlement process (i.e. don’t pay your bills any more.) They have to endure this while putting up with generally unhelpful customer service reps that can’t do anything for them even though the consumer has already paid a ton of money.
You mentioned working for 6 months without getting paid. What work was being done? Counting the money? Because the consumer didn’t get the benefit of any of that “work.” You made them pay fees for 6+ months without giving them any service.
First of all I would like to appologize to other great debt settlement companies for not listing them and just mentioned one when there are more out there. These folks came together and to share and be opened about how they can improve the debt settlement industries – https://getoutofdebt.org/23618/… . BTW are you on this list Mr. The Truth or you went hiding behind attorneys to see if there is a loophole to continue your operation?
â– Damon Day, DamonDay.com
â– Scott Johnson, U.S. Debt Resolve
â– Andy Faria, Northeast Settlement Group
â– Alex Viecco, New Era Debt Solutions
â– Angelo Anzalone, Active Debt Solutions
â– Jordon Olsen, SilverLeaf
â– Sean Ryan, Active Debt Solutions
â– Ashley Eichelberger, SilverLeaf
â– Jason Byrum, SilverLeaf
â– Dan Smith, New Era Debt Solutions
â– Mike Croxson, CareOne
â– Robert Zangrilli, Franklin Debt Relief
â– Michael Reilly, Emerge America
â– Steve Anello, Emerge America
â– Rod Ebrahimi, ReadyForZero.com
â– Anisa Sharif, Personal Credit Solution
â– Diane Chen, CESI Debt Solutions, CEO
â– Ignacio Thayer, ReadyforZero.com
â– Chris Schornak, Debt Solutions Network
Then you read what we found out about New Era Debt today when we mystery shopped you!! Everyone on this site seems to somehow be affiliated with New Era Debt…My assistant asked very specific questions allowing your sales person to hang themsleves with TSR VIOLATION AFTER VIOLATION!! Find a new job Alex your company is going down hard!
What did you do to protect and police your own industry from harming consumers like truwizkid so regulation was not necessary?
thank you very much!! I need clowns like you to correct my spelling. Do you wanna job? I will hire to proof read my posts.
Oh it’s about me alright!! It’s also about a lot of unemployed people who you so self riteously bashed by spreading fear about “ALL FRONTLOADED DEBT SETTLEMENT”! Truewizkid got shafted by the credit card companies way before he enrolled into debt settlement…Consumers need to research who they enrol with…Government control is not the answer! Education, not regulation!! Again the banks are responsible for this mess not debt settlement!! If you spent as much time demanding regulation for the banking industry maybe some of these people would’ve never needed debt settlement!! The banks & clowns like you should be ran out of this country on rail!! Your views would be better served in communist China!! Block me all you want, I am holding a meeting Monday morning & a conference call Monday afternoon to discuss people like you & sites like this as well as your affiliates that you promote so much!! I can assure you that your site is getting ready to get bombarded with hundreds of pissed off people that will point out exactly what is that you are doing on this site!! New Era Debt & others like it will soon be standing in the unemployment line because they are so far from being compliant under the new TSR, they are hanging themselves!! Have fun trying to answer & combat “The Truth” that you will soon be bombarded with on all of your media outlets!! I love this free country of ours!! Two can play this game!! Or in this case HUNDREDS! I hope there aren’t any employees of New Era Debt on this site! Better find another job because yours won’t be around much longer!
Truwizkid, and all others here on this thread,
I want to try to clear things up. Like in any industry there are bad players and good players, the only problem with our industry is that the VAST majority of people in this industry are or have become part of the bad players, so much so that the FTC had to step in. What I truly like about Steve’s site is that he tells it as it is. I am sure he make enemies sometimes but when you are consumer advocate you may not be too popular with some people.
I know there are some good to great companies out there and many more striving to get there but a consumer will still have a difficult time finding them. This is why the AACC was created, to find the companies that are willing to be transparent with the consumers so their issues do not get lost in all the NOISE that goes on the internet.
I think Steve’s site will give consumers a good rounded unbiased vie, Unless you have ripped people off, then Steve WILL NOT hold back (and I am glad he does).
Right now all consumers should know that:
1. You do NOT need and attorney to settle your debts
2. Consumers should NEVER pay ANY up-front fees of any kind
3. he FTC ruling known as TSR has banned all up-front fees.
4. legitimate company will give you a good faith estimate in writing
5. A good company will properly qualify you to see if you are a good fit on many levels including, financially and emotionally.
6. Debt settlement IS NOT an easy process
7. Consumers need to know the risks as well as the rewards
You should look for experience in picking a company. I know there are plenty of “Johnny come lately” type of people out there but as a consumer I can tell you I don’t want to be someone’s guinea pig.
Sincerely,
Alex Viecco
New Era Dbt Solutions
By the way why don’t we all use our real names? I do. Transparency 😉
If you took the time to read my posts you would see exactly how I operated my business…I made more than enough money prior to debt settlement to be able to afford to give our clients exactly wht they paid for!! We gave full refunds, we mandated @ least 1 debt settled in the 1st 9 months even if it meant reducing our fee to 2%, we gave away free scholarships to people who could not afford the service. My compliance dept double verified every single client prior to enrollment to ensure that the program fit their needs…The ones who needed BK we told them you are a BK canidate. The fact that you & the rest of the clowns on this site can’t possibly believe that there were good companies collecting fees upfront proves that none of you are objective & all of your jibberish should be completely disregarded because all off you are profitting from this site by spreading half truths & using fear mongering tactics to fill your greedy little pockets…Like I posted earlier we mystery shopped & recorded New Era Debt, my assitant asked very specific questions & what do you know “VILOATIONS GALORE!!” This site should be called getouofdebtguylosers&liars !!
FORTY
I think the point you are missing is this isn’t about you. It’s about protecting kids like Truwizkid that paid an advanced fee debt settlement company for services and they did not settle his debt and will not respond to him. In fact as of today, his advanced fee company has 424 BBB complaints, 98 unanswered. He’s probably not going to get his money back for debt they never settled.
You are more than welcome to internalize this any way you want but what did you do to help protect the industry from abusive companies like that? Not policing your industry left it ripe for abuse. It seems you are upset by the outcome but you did not participate in a solution before the situation got bad. You voluntarily closed your company and you are pissed about that. But what did you do to prevent that from happening? It seems you actually did nothing.
Okay, well congratulations on admitting you recorded the call with New Era. Last I checked California is a two party state and you just broke the law. You’ve got to be smarter than that?
If you have issues with New Era I suggest you raise them directly with New Era or you are free to post comments here about them to publicly address any concern you may have.
Raise your specific concerns you may have about them and let them answer them. Isn’t that what you would have preferred someone do with you? If they knew who you are?
You know who I am. You read my stories and the facts I present in them. You have not raised and specific issue of a fact that is not correct. I have not blocked you on the site and have allowed you to state your opinion and have engaged in a dialogue with you on these issues.
But you hide in anonymity. You refuse to say who you are or to tell us the name of your company. You make accusations but have not provided the facts others have asked for. You call names and make false statements about me and others. So who is the one being open, transparent and honest here?
WRATH
We can go around & around with this, my point is this…NOT ALL COMPANIES OPERATED AS ALL OF YOU CLAIM!!.Every single person on this site has thrown accusations around about what typ of business man I “PROBABLY AM” & “MY COMPANY SCAMMED ALL OF OUR CLIENTS” and you don’t even know who the hell I am!! Which hammers home another point!! This site has 1 intention to slander anyone or any company that will lead to more hits generated on this site & it’s direct affiliates. If we don’t do it your way, we are evil, horrible people???!!!! You don’t even know how “WE” did business!! & hell no I am not going to reveal my company & subject it to this biased ridicule!! I had people that I had to fire because I found out that they completed a docusign for a client or faked the compliance call or misled clients. No business is perfect, but my entire staff knew that I monitored calls & that I had my compliance dept contact the client prior to enrollment & re-verified incoming & outgoing expenses to try & ensure that we only enrolled clients who would succeed…FOURTY FIVE PERCENT of the deals we closed were given hardship discounts down to as low as 2%…& we also gave scholarships to people who could not afford the service (we did it for free). Yes it was a very lucrative business, that’s why I got involved…I was already highly successful before I ever got into debt settlement & we made more than enough money to give “OUR CLIENTS” what they paid for!! Every single person on this site acts like it’s “completely impossible” for there to have been an honest business man with ethics in debt settlement!! To all readers, beware of people who trust no-one & make blind ignorant statements with broad brushes!! They trust no-one because they don’t trust themselves!! All of their “ADVICE” generates revenue for them & their affiliates. BTW we recorded & mystery shopped New Era Debt this morning, my assistant asked specific questions & what do you know, can someone spell “VIOLATIONS!!” multiple violations!! Becareful what you wish for!!
spoken like a true journalist!!! The Truth need to unravel The Truth and tell us who you really are?????
The Truth, I can bet money, if your family was ever in a sticky situation with their creditors, you will be so glad they came across this site. Why, because this site points out facts about the different debt settlement companies and how they operate. You keep pointing out Steve Rhode uses fear tactics to generate hits, what kind of tactics do you have you staff uses when a consumer calls in to discuss how to pay off their debt? Since you have already, admitted they you are just a debt settlement company, how is that serving the consumer righteously when you have no other options to offer the consumer and with 122 employees, I can imagine the pressure being put on them to convert any client into a sale a for you. You are so pist off because you can’t operate the same but let me ask you this, how many leads did you have to buy each day and how many contacts was made that was converted into sales with clients either not fit for the program or wasn’t offered or aware there was different options out there and your sales script will put fear tactics on debt management program or bk so they will think debt settlement is a quicker route. You as an owner dont care about that? all you care about is how many deals sold each day and I bet you have a nice big TV screen to display you sells ticker huh? If I operated a debt settlement company like you did I be rich too. Obviously you do not care for the consumer because if you had extra capital to live off for years like you had stated earlier, than why not convert your operations in a performance model like some of the other folks who are doing it already and having great success at it?
Please note I did not make claims you did not have sufficient reserves. I can’t comment about your situation in particular since you refuse to revel who you or your company is.
From your comment it seems that you did have sufficient reserves but elected to not continue and terminated your staff because you did not enjoy the new rules or could not see a way to operate within them.
You say you are a businessman and not the debt settlement police and you don’t believe in regulation or big government. So if you didn’t take an active role to keep your industry clean, who was going to do that to prevent new regulations designed to protect consumers from the bad actors that hurt the entire industry?
What I’m suggesting is that regulation was needed because the industry had a chance to police their own and didn’t. It had a chance to get behind protections and didn’t. And it seems you consciously wanted to play no role in that since you did not want to be the debt settlement police. If you did not take an active role to curb abuses so protection by regulation was not necessary, who would then?
The consequences of regulation suck for some. They did in my day, they do in yours. Being angry at me doesn’t change any of that and simply robs you of time, energy, and focus for you to move forward and use the energy to invent better solutions for consumers in trouble.
Thats your supporting evidence? Epic Fail.
Twice, separately, you stated that Congress didn’t pass last years Debt Relief Legislation because “Congress said it was “unconstitutional.” I asked you to show evidence of your claim- quotes, videos, press releases, etc (& where you found them). You cannot.
That is why I stopped engaging your idiotic rants. Produce evidence. You know so much- back it up.
My point exactly jack asses…this entire site & all of your biased opinions are so you can corner the market like socialism…Every single 1 of you that has commented on my posts have your fat little fingers wrapped all over this! I run honest businesses, I don’t feed off of fear mongering scare tactics to monopolize an industry!! I’ve moved on, I would not be surprised an iota to see your vaunted New Era Debt be carried away in handcuffs 5 years from now. You guys are soooo awesome!
ftc.gov !!!!!
If it will make you happy Steve I will retract my statement. Just so you know I have sufficient funds & reserves to operate without any new revenue for years!! That has absolutley nothing to do with this issue!! You just said that you don’t know how we operated, but then you immediately insinuated that we squandered our money away & had no reserves for transition! I simply chose not to expose myself & my family to the level of risk that “any company regardless of nonprofit or otherwise”, regardless of how compliant you try to be is now facing. We are still servicing existing clients & so offense, but I have no desire to reveal myself to you so I can subjected to the insanity of government control & regulation. I do not believe in big government & regulation!! I’m a business man not the debt settlement police so I spent my energies training our staff to properly educate our clients. Half of the reserves that my settlement business had I gave back to employees in severance pay. I am fortunate that I have other successful business ventures, but make no mistake thousands of people are now un-employed. All you do is profit from all of this acting like some kind of Saint! Then have the nerve to point your greedy little fingers at me!!!
this Truth guy is pist off because he had to let go 122 of his employees and can’t make millions from front loading his clients. i have no sympathy for this goon. if ur a company that only offers debt settlement, that means u left the consumers thinking that is their only hope. I wonder what company you own. New Era has around for decades and as soon as the law change they comply and went with it, and guess what it hurted them the most because they always based their fees on services performed and this ruling made it harder where a simple monthly fee is not even allowed, but do we hear them screaming unjustice or unfair? If anyone needs debt settlement, NEW ERA DEBT SOLUTIONS is the place to GO!!!!!
Yeah! Steve really helped you out didn’t he? He created this site for 1 reason & only 1 reason, to spread half truths using fear tactics to generate hits that he is making a ton of money on! There’s not 1 iota of true useful advice from him as it relates to truly helping people out of debt! Just a bunch of jibberish that is filling his pockets!! My response was as acurate & truthful as it could’ve been. I would be more than glad to have 1 of my prior employee mitigators help you free of charge. If you want Steve’s help, all I can say is I wish you the best.
Where are they all?
TASC admitted to guessing 33%- Data collected showed less than 10%. Youve offered no evidence of your claim. Rip away.
You know absoltely nothing about how I ran my business!! 1 call a month are you kidding me!! I had 122 employees who were all hard working people who had familes to support that are now unemployed!! We informed our clients exactly what happens when they fall behind with their creditors!! Which by the way happens regardless of whether or not they entered debt settlement! I fired every sales person who even thought about misleading their clients!! I was rich way before I ever started debt settlement & we provided an excellent service!! I had scholarship programs for people with extreme hardships (we settled their debt for free!) No fees whatsoever!!.We had a mandate that the client settle @ least 1 debt in the 1st 9 months even if it meant reducing our fees down to 2%!!.We got a ton of referals not because we were doing as you say, but because people received exactly what they expected. I sleep very well @ night because we did it the right way!! That’s why I am soo pissed off @ jerk offs like you who make rediculous blanket claims against an entire industry!! Seriously, not everyone operated like you claim!! Our customer service was 2nd to none!! People are getting collection calls & getting sued that aren’t in debt settlement so what are you talking about!! Every claim you guys make about debt settlement is already happening to clients who have never been in debt settlement!! If we couldn’t settle a debt, the client received a full refund. None of our clients paid for a service they didn’t receive!! Were their companies doing as you say? Hell yes there were, but not every single company JACKASS!!
The Truth,
The FTC does not investigate individual complaints. So your statement I am under investigation from your complaint is simply not the truth.
The FTC serves as a federal repository for individual consumer complaints. Even though the FTC does not resolve individual complaints, it does use the aggregated information to determine where federal action might be taken. So a retraction to your statement that I am under investigation would be warranted.
If you have been a long time reader of this site you will have certainly seen where I have written positive articles on certain debt settlement companies.
I have been critical of advanced fee debt settlement because so many people were harmed by it. I have no idea if your company had any complaints or if you operated without any issues. But again, your disgust should be directed at the companies that harmed consumers, did not provide services and refused refunds. That is what led to regulation.
Companies have had to restructure under the new rules and some companies had to lay staff off because they did not have sufficient reserves to carry them across a transition period. Many were spending money as quickly as it came in and failed to build reasonable operating cushions. Income from new sales was used to fund day-to-day operations instead of being escrowed and withdrawn as services were actually rendered. If they had done that then funds would have been on reserve and the conversion period would not have been an issue.
What skeleton do I have to hide? I’ve only had one issue that I openly talked about. So what am I hiding?
If you have an issue with something specifically that I’ve written and feel it is a “half-truth”, I’m happy to discuss a specific individual item and let’s deal with it.
So if you want to be open, truthful, and transparent and discuss issues in the light, then be open about who you are and what your company is. Slinging wild and untrue attacks behind a moniker is not the way to be open, transparent and truthful. I stand in the open, you stand in the shadows.
For the record, I am not against debt settlement and some debt settlement companies will gladly attest to that. I was only against the abuse in the advanced fee debt settlement world. The FTC chose to deal with that with a broad brush and I had nothing to do with the creation of their rules. They were developed over a two year period with input from a number of resources, including the debt settlement trade associations.
Would you have preferred the Schummer bill that would have prevented advanced fees and regulated the amount you could have charged on the backend instead?
Regulation paints with a broad brush and good guys get caught up as well. That’s the way most regulation works and always has in the debt relief world.
So let me ask you, what did you do to help stop the bad actors so regulation was not necessary? What companies did you hold accountable?
Allen,
I answered your comment over on the original comment.
Steve
What do you have to say to thousands of people who believed in debt settlement companies to help them settle debts but ended up being sued or lost tons of barely earned money to these folks who did nothing. I know everything about how the debt settlement work so dont try to tell me its hard work LOL…. please. making 1 phone call a month to your current client to tell make sure they dont panic and continue paying is not consider hard work and that line of customer service shouldn’t exist. I don’t see performance model debt settlement complaining why they dont get paid right away? why are you crying, what about the consumers that are crying because you guys cant stop collection calls or court summons? How do you sleep at night when you tell someone that you are there for them to help them ease their pain by showing them the way out of debt and when they get a summon to go to court you have to tell them sorry, but we can’t help you anymore its too late. Time to change your model or cut your loses. Oh by the way, cut down your overhead so you wouldnt have to squeeze every dime out of the consumer to make up the loses.
Asking Steve for help!
I have a HSBC credit card charged off on my credit report…
After sending letters, complaints cert mail, rrr, my pending issue was New Case now Adjudicated?
I just need to have someone hear me out, I have copies of everything and most importantly, I paid Freedom Financial Managment Everything they requested!
Maybe a website, link, person, info, book,…whatever it takes for me to Intelligently prevail!
Thank you So much for Your advice Steve. Great website as well sir!
Respectfully,
allen s.
Asking Steve for help!
I have a HSBC credit card charged off on my credit report…
After sending letters, complaints cert mail, rrr, my pending issue was New Case now Adjudicated?
I just need to have someone hear me out, I have copies of everything and most importantly, I paid Freedom Financial Managment Everything they requested!
Maybe a website, link, person, info, book,…whatever it takes for me to Intelligently prevail!
Thank you So much for Your advice Steve. Great website as well sir!
Respectfully,
allen s.
Allen,
I answered your comment over on the original comment.
Steve
Yeah! Steve really helped you out didn’t he? He created this site for 1 reason & only 1 reason, to spread half truths using fear tactics to generate hits that he is making a ton of money on! There’s not 1 iota of true useful advice from him as it relates to truly helping people out of debt! Just a bunch of jibberish that is filling his pockets!! My response was as acurate & truthful as it could’ve been. I would be more than glad to have 1 of my prior employee mitigators help you free of charge. If you want Steve’s help, all I can say is I wish you the best.
The Truth, I can bet money, if your family was ever in a sticky situation with their creditors, you will be so glad they came across this site. Why, because this site points out facts about the different debt settlement companies and how they operate. You keep pointing out Steve Rhode uses fear tactics to generate hits, what kind of tactics do you have you staff uses when a consumer calls in to discuss how to pay off their debt? Since you have already, admitted they you are just a debt settlement company, how is that serving the consumer righteously when you have no other options to offer the consumer and with 122 employees, I can imagine the pressure being put on them to convert any client into a sale a for you. You are so pist off because you can’t operate the same but let me ask you this, how many leads did you have to buy each day and how many contacts was made that was converted into sales with clients either not fit for the program or wasn’t offered or aware there was different options out there and your sales script will put fear tactics on debt management program or bk so they will think debt settlement is a quicker route. You as an owner dont care about that? all you care about is how many deals sold each day and I bet you have a nice big TV screen to display you sells ticker huh? If I operated a debt settlement company like you did I be rich too. Obviously you do not care for the consumer because if you had extra capital to live off for years like you had stated earlier, than why not convert your operations in a performance model like some of the other folks who are doing it already and having great success at it?
If you took the time to read my posts you would see exactly how I operated my business…I made more than enough money prior to debt settlement to be able to afford to give our clients exactly wht they paid for!! We gave full refunds, we mandated @ least 1 debt settled in the 1st 9 months even if it meant reducing our fee to 2%, we gave away free scholarships to people who could not afford the service. My compliance dept double verified every single client prior to enrollment to ensure that the program fit their needs…The ones who needed BK we told them you are a BK canidate. The fact that you & the rest of the clowns on this site can’t possibly believe that there were good companies collecting fees upfront proves that none of you are objective & all of your jibberish should be completely disregarded because all off you are profitting from this site by spreading half truths & using fear mongering tactics to fill your greedy little pockets…Like I posted earlier we mystery shopped & recorded New Era Debt, my assitant asked very specific questions & what do you know “VILOATIONS GALORE!!” This site should be called getouofdebtguylosers&liars !!
If you have so much $, why dont you simply use it to finance 6 months worth of operations?
Still waiting for the supporting evidence that Congress didnt pass the debt relief bill because, as you say, it was “unconstitutional”.
Trust me Sean you now have much more to worry about than me providing supporting evidence!! To be honest, I am having much more fun mystery shopping all of your sales people so I can expose you clowns for who you are!! You better give your sales staff a crash course in TSR training because they failed miserably today!!
Come down to my office & mystery shop my non existent sales people yourself. I have nothing to hide. You, on the other hand, obviously do.
The state of Arizona permits creditors to garnish wages & levy bank accounts once the creditors obtain a judgement & court orders that allow them to do this…It sounds like you are currently insolvent & unemployed so there isn’t anything available for the creditors to take from you…You successfully paid off 1 of your debts, unfortunately it sounds like the company that you enrolled with did not fully disclose to you that these things normally happen when you fall behind regardless of whether or not you are in debt settlement…I’m not familiar with FFMGT, so I can’t comment on their practices…I can tell you that if they settled 1 of your accounts that they can most likely settle your other accounts as well even if they are in litigation…The pitfall that a lot of debt settlement companies fell into was not fully disclosing what normally happens when you fall behind with your creditors…So what ends up happening is exactly what’s happening to you now…You feel mislead & scammed, you cancelled your plan leaving you in a worse position…These programs normally take 3 to 4 years to complete, they are not 6 months or a year programs & because you probably couldn’t afford a 24 month program it left you open to litigation…The bottom line is even though there is ongoing litigation these creditors will most likely still be willing to accept a reduced settlement offer to clear out their books…They are now non-performing accounts that are de-valued because you are no longer making payments on them…Typically these account are sold to collection companies for pennies on the dollar…Most collection companies are willing to accept between 20% to 50% on these accounts because they paid less than half of that for the account & once they accept your payment they right off the rest as a loss & receive a tax credit for the deficiency…Not all accounts can be settled which you should have been informed of, but most can be sucessfully negotiated…You don’t have much recourse against FFMGT if you enrolled prior to 10/27/2010…If you have already been paying them I would try to re-contact them & see what the time frame would be for you to get these other accounts settled…Again even though they are in litigation they can still be settled the same way depending on the creditor…You were probably looking for a different response than what I just gave you, I wish I could help you more…These debts can most likely be settled, but unfortunately it sounds like you don’t have the funds to do so or any confidence in FFMGT to do it for you over time…Please let me know if I can help in any other way or if I didn’t address what your concern is.
*Truth,
I am in Phoenix, Az. my friend,
Right after I recieved a settlement paper from Bof A, saying that that card (1of2) was settled, a pending lawsuit was filed against in in June of 2010 saying New Case.
I filed a complaint with the BBB on 12.21.2010 that went unanswered. I then sent a cert. letter, reuquesting my termination and a refund, giving FFMGT 2 weeks to reply with my requests or I would file complaints with 8 contacts, (mentioned in my comment).
That went unanswered, so I mailed out all of the complaints, but during that time in January, I noticed that the pending case went to Adjudicated?
I also see that Orchard has Charged off and closed the account…
I just don’t know what to do now or who to turn to?
I’m stuck, but I want to help myself with the right knowledge!
I just want to get myself out of this mess, with-out falling into more!
Thank you so much regardless!
allen s.
I’d be glad to help. What state do you reside in? Have they placed a judgement against you?
LOL!! For once I agree with you Steve!! I am mad @ you & people like you! You mention bad actors, not every debt settlement company that collected fees upfront operated using bad sales practices! But yet you have constantly bashed anyone who operated under that model! & unless I am totally incorrect, when an FTC complaint is made they do investigate it don’t they? What’s the matter Steve are you afraid of someone bad mouthing you like you have so eagerly done against our industry. When you constantly attack peoples livelyhood I think it’s fair to think that there may be a back lash somewhere along the line. I had to lay off 122 people because as hard as I tried to come up with a model under the new ruling that would allow the company to remain viable, I simply couldn’t afford to pay my employees in this environment. & to be frank, I am so sick & tired of hearing you on your high horses when all of you have your own skeletons that you are trying to hide! You make your money by spreading half truths & using fear tactics to generate hits on your site!! Thank you for showing me how it’s done! Maybe I will make a little money doing the same thing to you! It sucks when people attack your livelyhood doesn’t it? We provided a good service & I can’t control those who didn’t, but to lump us all together is the true scam! I have nothing but free time to spend on doing to you exactly what you help advocate doing to us!
While Everyone is arguing and bickering,…I don’t know who to believe anymore!
I am a real customer, with real problems, needing real help!
I am dealing with a charge off, Freedom Financial Management!
Any honest, legitimate, help or direction would be wonderful!
truwizkid@hotmail.com
While Everyone is arguing and bickering,…I don’t know who to believe anymore!
I am a real customer, with real problems, needing real help!
I am dealing with a charge off, Freedom Financial Management!
Any honest, legitimate, help or direction would be wonderful!
truwizkid@hotmail.com
I’d be glad to help. What state do you reside in? Have they placed a judgement against you?
*Truth,
I am in Phoenix, Az. my friend,
Right after I recieved a settlement paper from Bof A, saying that that card (1of2) was settled, a pending lawsuit was filed against in in June of 2010 saying New Case.
I filed a complaint with the BBB on 12.21.2010 that went unanswered. I then sent a cert. letter, reuquesting my termination and a refund, giving FFMGT 2 weeks to reply with my requests or I would file complaints with 8 contacts, (mentioned in my comment).
That went unanswered, so I mailed out all of the complaints, but during that time in January, I noticed that the pending case went to Adjudicated?
I also see that Orchard has Charged off and closed the account…
I just don’t know what to do now or who to turn to?
I’m stuck, but I want to help myself with the right knowledge!
I just want to get myself out of this mess, with-out falling into more!
Thank you so much regardless!
allen s.
The state of Arizona permits creditors to garnish wages & levy bank accounts once the creditors obtain a judgement & court orders that allow them to do this…It sounds like you are currently insolvent & unemployed so there isn’t anything available for the creditors to take from you…You successfully paid off 1 of your debts, unfortunately it sounds like the company that you enrolled with did not fully disclose to you that these things normally happen when you fall behind regardless of whether or not you are in debt settlement…I’m not familiar with FFMGT, so I can’t comment on their practices…I can tell you that if they settled 1 of your accounts that they can most likely settle your other accounts as well even if they are in litigation…The pitfall that a lot of debt settlement companies fell into was not fully disclosing what normally happens when you fall behind with your creditors…So what ends up happening is exactly what’s happening to you now…You feel mislead & scammed, you cancelled your plan leaving you in a worse position…These programs normally take 3 to 4 years to complete, they are not 6 months or a year programs & because you probably couldn’t afford a 24 month program it left you open to litigation…The bottom line is even though there is ongoing litigation these creditors will most likely still be willing to accept a reduced settlement offer to clear out their books…They are now non-performing accounts that are de-valued because you are no longer making payments on them…Typically these account are sold to collection companies for pennies on the dollar…Most collection companies are willing to accept between 20% to 50% on these accounts because they paid less than half of that for the account & once they accept your payment they right off the rest as a loss & receive a tax credit for the deficiency…Not all accounts can be settled which you should have been informed of, but most can be sucessfully negotiated…You don’t have much recourse against FFMGT if you enrolled prior to 10/27/2010…If you have already been paying them I would try to re-contact them & see what the time frame would be for you to get these other accounts settled…Again even though they are in litigation they can still be settled the same way depending on the creditor…You were probably looking for a different response than what I just gave you, I wish I could help you more…These debts can most likely be settled, but unfortunately it sounds like you don’t have the funds to do so or any confidence in FFMGT to do it for you over time…Please let me know if I can help in any other way or if I didn’t address what your concern is.
Truwizkid, and all others here on this thread,
I want to try to clear things up. Like in any industry there are bad players and good players, the only problem with our industry is that the VAST majority of people in this industry are or have become part of the bad players, so much so that the FTC had to step in. What I truly like about Steve’s site is that he tells it as it is. I am sure he make enemies sometimes but when you are consumer advocate you may not be too popular with some people.
I know there are some good to great companies out there and many more striving to get there but a consumer will still have a difficult time finding them. This is why the AACC was created, to find the companies that are willing to be transparent with the consumers so their issues do not get lost in all the NOISE that goes on the internet.
I think Steve’s site will give consumers a good rounded unbiased vie, Unless you have ripped people off, then Steve WILL NOT hold back (and I am glad he does).
Right now all consumers should know that:
1. You do NOT need and attorney to settle your debts
2. Consumers should NEVER pay ANY up-front fees of any kind
3. he FTC ruling known as TSR has banned all up-front fees.
4. legitimate company will give you a good faith estimate in writing
5. A good company will properly qualify you to see if you are a good fit on many levels including, financially and emotionally.
6. Debt settlement IS NOT an easy process
7. Consumers need to know the risks as well as the rewards
You should look for experience in picking a company. I know there are plenty of “Johnny come lately” type of people out there but as a consumer I can tell you I don’t want to be someone’s guinea pig.
Sincerely,
Alex Viecco
New Era Dbt Solutions
By the way why don’t we all use our real names? I do. Transparency 😉
Then you read what we found out about New Era Debt today when we mystery shopped you!! Everyone on this site seems to somehow be affiliated with New Era Debt…My assistant asked very specific questions allowing your sales person to hang themsleves with TSR VIOLATION AFTER VIOLATION!! Find a new job Alex your company is going down hard!
First of all I would like to appologize to other great debt settlement companies for not listing them and just mentioned one when there are more out there. These folks came together and to share and be opened about how they can improve the debt settlement industries – https://getoutofdebt.org//23618/the-rally-in-raleigh-november-2010-aftermath . BTW are you on this list Mr. The Truth or you went hiding behind attorneys to see if there is a loophole to continue your operation?
■Damon Day, DamonDay.com
■Scott Johnson, U.S. Debt Resolve
■Andy Faria, Northeast Settlement Group
■Alex Viecco, New Era Debt Solutions
■Angelo Anzalone, Active Debt Solutions
■Jordon Olsen, SilverLeaf
■Sean Ryan, Active Debt Solutions
■Ashley Eichelberger, SilverLeaf
■Jason Byrum, SilverLeaf
■Dan Smith, New Era Debt Solutions
■Mike Croxson, CareOne
■Robert Zangrilli, Franklin Debt Relief
■Michael Reilly, Emerge America
■Steve Anello, Emerge America
■Rod Ebrahimi, ReadyForZero.com
■Anisa Sharif, Personal Credit Solution
■Diane Chen, CESI Debt Solutions, CEO
■Ignacio Thayer, ReadyforZero.com
■Chris Schornak, Debt Solutions Network
I don’t look for loopholes, I have multiple businesses & could shut them all down now & retire happliy ever after!! But that’s not who I am!! I enjoy creating jobs & putting people to work!! Again you proved my point, you guys blindly bash companies on this site so you can drive consumers to your affiliates!! It’s very clear that the ONLY reason you put this little list together was because we mystery shopped New Era Debt today & found them practicing some of the very same sales practices that you so eagerly denounce, they just don’t charge “UPFRONT!” Thanks for the list though, we will be reporting what the other companies sales practices are for you throughout next week!! We already checked out Mr SELF RITEOUS Sean Ryan’s cronies! I will add later word for word what 1 of his sales people are telling these poor people that you act like you are trying to protect!! Like I said becareful what you wish for!!
SELF RIGHTEOUS
your welcome, BTW that list was public information on this site feel free to watch the video too. If you can stop people from sharing information and making reviews than you can get TMZ shutdown too right? How luxury cars do you own?
Oops.. I meant how many luxury cars do you own?
Mr Spellcheck Guy Joe debt needs some help!! TMZ & this site!! Excellent analogy!!
We dont have any sales people. You’ve just proven yourself a liar.
We will flying in the week after next & we will be more than glad to drop in on you so you can teach how to run a business with no employees!! LOL
Mr. Truth,
My name is on that list above, will you be ‘mystery shopping’ me? I dare you to, in fact I give you my permission to record it and post it in its entirety, wherever you would like. You’ll probably learn something.
I’ve been watching this post, and at first I felt bad for you. Now I don’t believe you. I don’t believe that you ever ran a debt settlement company, I don’t believe that you had 100+ employees, and I don’t believe that you are independently wealthy. My guess is that you were nothing more than a low level pion sales guy at some debt settlement company that wasn’t smart enough to read the writing on the wall. Otherwise you would be man enough to give your name and the company you “own”.
My name on the list is not what prompted this comment. The fact that you have taken potshots at both Active Debt and New Era as somehow substandard companies is what has prompted my comment. I consider both Sean and Alex to be personal friends of mine, but beyond that I know for a fact they both operate companies that I could refer people to without a doubt that they will receive results.
I wish I could say the same for you Truth, but that’s impossible because you’re too much of a wimp to even give you’re own name.
Andy Faria
Northeast Settlement Group
LOL!! Thank you Andy! I knew that all of you on this site are in cohoots with each other!! “PERSONAL FRIENDS” did you hear that folks??!! I attacked your friends so that makes me a phony??!! Eureka @ last!! Don’t be scared & confused!! You are praying & hoping that I’m just a low level pion who doesn’t have the resources to expose you clowns. I am 5’10 & a 175 lbs so your wimp claim has some truth to it, but I’m afraid I have more than enough resources to adequately protect myself!! Your name on the list is exactly what prompted your response!! Andy I could care less what you believe!! What you believe has will not stop what happens next!! Because you jackasses don’t charge upfront makes all of you Saints!! What a joke!! You will know exactly who I am soon enough!!
Mr Truth,
Just stop, you’ve exposed yourself enough. I couldn’t care less about your threats, I have nothing to hide. I wish we could debate this on a sensible level, but you passed that point at about 5pm yesterday with your nonsense. I’m forced to take this down to ‘the street level’.
You’re not a phony because you attacked my friends, you’re a phony because you can’t back up the claims you’re making. You’re not a wimp because you’re smaller than me, you’re a wimp because you lack the balls to even post your name or the company you allegedly represent.
If I was a gambling man (and I am) I would bet the farm that you’re nothing more than an unemployed former sales rep from the debt settlement underworld. And I’ll let that ride…
Good luck with ‘lucrative career’. I look forward to “soon enough”.
Andy Faria
Northeast Settlement Group
Andy, you already know me or know of me!! I promise you on everything that I am that I will personally pay you a visit!! You gamble?? I am soooo sorry to hear that because you just lost another bet!! You are a no good loser that has very little!! That’s why you are now feeding off of my business models leftovers!! As a matter of fact all of you have proven that you are praying on & feeding off of all of our leftovers!! Buyer Beware!! Bottom feeders feeding off of bottom feeders!! Anyone who bets the farm without adequate info is a loser just by definition!! People do you really want this clown gambling your futures away??!!
Hey Truth,
I’m at 320 W. Main St in Norton MA. You’re welcome to come visit me anytime. We’ll do lunch…
.. and don’t worry, I’ll buy. I know times are tough for you right now.
Andy Faria
Northeast Settlement Group
Thank you, we are almost neighbors 🙂 Can I pick the place?? I have a few favorites. I am dissapointed in you Andy, you give us a bad name 🙁 Again folks go see Andy & his thugs for 25% debt settlement!! LOL “They charge you later!!” Hilarious!!
No you can’t pick the place, you have to walk into my office like a man … we’ll see. Don’t worry I can be a nice guy.
Until then I’ve come to the end of my journey in bizzarro-land with ‘the truth’. I prefer to speak with real people that can put their real name to their words. I wish you the best of luck.
I am going to relinquish the right to the last word and let you have it now .. go ahead, hit reply and let er rip.
I DARE YOU TOO!! LOL!! Why in the world wouldn’t we call?? You may not charge “FRONTLOADED FEES” but you still provide debt settlement right??? There’s only 1 difference between the model that I operated under & what model you operate under, which is how the fees are collected. We never promoted any of the bad practices that you guys have SLANDERED our model with!! It’s just a business model!! It doesn’t mean that we don’t provide just as good a service as a “NON FRONTLOADED COMPANY” Have you ever provided you service for free if the client couldn’t afford the service & didn’t want BK?? $495 per act like Steve said when the average act debt is around $2,000 is 25% f****** percent people!! We did programs for 2% if that’s all the client could afford….You “DON’T BELIEVE ME” because we charged “UPFRONT” & did it ethically!! Steve suggested charging what equates to 25%!! That’s really looking out for the consumer!! Look, business is business, I’m not gonna bash what I believe in, but you guys on your high horses charging even more than we did & acting like godsends is ludicrous!!
If that is true, how about posting some audio recordings of the mystery shops?
How about asking Steve “How consumer friendly it is to charge $495 to settle an average debt of $2,000??” We don’t charge you up front!! No we are nice guys!! We charge you an extra 15% for charging you later for the exact same service!! We charge you 25% they charge you an average of 10% what a great deal!! Sign me up Mr Question!!
Regardless, posting the calls is very easy to do and it might change how people take you, which right now from looking at the comments, no one is giving you any repect. Posting the calls is very easy to do. Do you need instructions how to do it? I bet Steve would even show you how to post the calls for everyone to hear. We all want to hear them and posting the calls is your path to earning some respect on this site.
I agree- Post the calls you supposedly made to me. Pants…. On fire
You know so much? Where you keep saying 25%… It’s of the SAVINGS at settlement. Not the total debt, regardless of whether YOU settled any. We actually EARN our money.
FYI, this is the link to the comment you mentioned.
I get that but filing a complaint is not the same thing as “under investigation.” Saying the FTC is investigating me is not true. You filed a complaint against me, period. Still not sure what in the world for though.
And while I appreciate your zeal, you may want to consider that I report on the bad actors, not engage in their bad acts. If so many consumers had not been harmed there would have been no need for new legislation. It is the impact of the legislation that seems to by your keystone of contention.
For the life of me I can’t figure out why the trade groups didn’t embrace the UDMSA when it was brought to them a few years ago. If they had worked with regulators there never would have been a need for the FTC TSR.
Being mad at me is like being mad a Ronald McDonald for a bad Happy Meal. It might make you feel better but it is misplaced energy.
*Truth,
I need help!
I could really use your advice!
If you use the search bar in this site, you will find that I posted a comment about my experience for a “Freedom Fidelity Management article on 2.9.11.
I haven’t recieved a response yet by anyone, but if you have the time, perhaps you can help me help myself.
You are the best regardless!
-allen s.
truwizkid@hotmail.com
Correction I am pulling up quotes from multiple congressman who made it clear why they would vote against this legislation…It never even made it to a vote! I hope I didn’t mispell anything!
Because I reported you myself!! There is an entire out of business industry that has nothing better to do now than to bring down some of the same rath that you so vigorously support! Except this time we will see just how righteous you are!!
“The Truth” finally comes out!! You work for a company that “HAS NEVER CHARGED UPFRONT FOR OUR SERVICE” Really?? Please enlighten us on the name of your wonderful company that you work for! Baseless idiotic statements?? Just for you I will pull the video of exactly what the FTC said about this matter & I will also show you quotes from multiple House of Representatives & Senators saying that the reason they did not vote for the legislation in question was because they deemed it “UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!” & they did want to set that type of precedent as law!! Did I spell that right?!! 10% success rate?!! I just left ftc.gov & they said 33% which I admit is way too low mainly because there were inproper sales practices not informing consumers of what to expect. Their quote was “Over 60% failure is unacceptable” They didn’t say 90% failure!! But I will be more than glad to shut you up!! I have never scammed anyone in my life!! I have been a successful business man for over 30 years!! Way before debt settlement!! Every single 1 of your claims will soon be ripped to shreads!!
I thought you were about the truth. So why did you post on Twitter I was under FTC investigation?
My reply is simple. It is based on the fact that you are a disgruntled scam artist.
Do I work for free? Yes, I suppose by your definition I do. I work for a debt settlement company that has NEVER charged upfront for our service. We have always made a % of how much we saved the client at settlement.
Do sports agents work for free?
You continue to make comments regarding “banks ripping off consumers”. While I agree that this mess is theirs, the fact is that TASC & USOBA when pressed at the hearings before both Congress & The FTC would not give success information. What The FTC did conclude from information running the front loaded fee program that you love so much, is that it actually was successful less than 10% of the time, while the success based model settled all debts for over 70% of their clients.
Where was that legislation deemed “unconstitutional”? Please show me… any proof & i’ll stop. I guarantee you you can not come up with any evidence that supports that claim. If you can’t, please shut up, accept the fact that you have no argument & go away. Without that evidence supporting yet another of your baseless, idiotic statements, I will continue to pick on the fact that you continue to misspell “relief”- Your field of expertise.
The irony is that as a nonprofit (2000-2003) we settled lots of debt successfully. We charged a flat rate per account, $495. The consumer had to have funds on hand and the average settlement period was two weeks. If the creditor did not settle we returned the fee.
My experience was that success was based on proper qualification of consumers that could settle within a couple of months. Is there something that prevents you from taking the same approach? Why wait six months when you can earn your fee in two or less?
Look at the performance numbers of New Era Debt Solutions. They’ve been settling debt for over a decade on a contingency basis.
There is a way to do it successfully on an other than advanced fee model.
Who said I was an attorney?!!
There you go with your self riteousness again!! The fact that that was all you could come up with as a response speaks volumes!! Answer this question, Do you work for free?!! Or do you just sit back criticizing (did I spell that correctly?!!) while the banks continue to rape consumers!! How come none of you have mentioned that there are thousands of people who succesfully completed “FRONT LOADED” programs and now have the monkey off of their backs?!! Or are you going to tell me how to spell again?!! It got aweful quiet on this post now that someone is finally exposing “The Truth” of what is really going on on this site!!
We did put the client 1st, but it takes revenue to pay our employees who do customer service & who do the negotiating…You expect our employees to wait 6 months to maybe get paid?!!
Any business has to make a proffit to help the consumer!! Do you work for free for 6 months waiting to maybe get paid?!!
Why don’t you risk $200 to $300k to run a reputable debt settlement company to maybe get paid in 6 months?!!
What do you have to say to the hundreds of thousands of honest hard working people that are now in the unemployment lines because their companies were forced to shut down, not because they aren’t providing an excellent service, but because they simply cant’ meet their payroll waiting 6 months to get paid?!!
Relief is “I” before “E”
The last time I checked people hire businesses & attorneys all of the time without any gaurentees!! There are no guarentees in life, most debt settlement companies do give refunds if they can’t settle a debt so what are you talking about??
Consumers enroll because they can’t repay their debt so who are to say that they shouldn’t have the option to hire a reputable debt settlement company to represent them in a situation that debt settlement gives them a viable solution?? Pizza Hut served a bad Pizza so let’s shut them all down by making them wait 6 months to get paid!!
Why don’t you go 6 months without getting paid & better yet ask your employees to go 6 months without getting paid?? Hey better yet, let’s all work for free??
Your claim that 95% of all legislation doesn’t pass is true, but you failed to mention that THIS PARTICULAR LEGISLATION didn’t pass because it was deemed as “UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!” So what did they do? I will be gald to tell you that VP Joe Biden & his cronies @ the FTC ran to the aid of the legal loan sharking practices of our banking industry!! Biden is a former senator from Deleware (which is where almost all of the banks operate in!!) Thanks to Bidens legislation the banks were allowed to legally rip off hard working americans!!) It is public knowledge that Biden is bought & paid for by the banking industry!! Why do you think it was Biden who helped make the FTC announcement in the 1st place?? Whose payroll are you on?!! Like I have already mentioned the banking industry has created 1,000 times more abuses to consumers than the worst debt settlement company ever thought about!! Great job to all of you for helping the banks rape the american people even more!! Why don’t you show everyone how it’s done by working for 6 months for free like you claim a debt settlement company should do?!! Seriously, who can afford to work for free?!! You idiots helped to successfully run an entire industry out of business adding hundreds of thousands of people to the unemployment lines while the banks make more billions leaving the consumers with very little hope of any tyupe of releif!! Keep up the good work!!
Not being able to run a “proffitable business” will soon make debt settlement obsolete!! No one works for free!! Do you wait 6 months to get paid?!! Do you have any clue how much it costs to provide good customer service in debt settlement?!! & you want us to wait 6 months to maybe get paid?!! Are you that much of an idiot?!! Do your employees wait 6 months to get paid?!! I agree 100% that companies with bad practices should not be allowed to operate, but to make it impossible for an entire industry to survive is unamerican!! Unless your Steve Rhode making money off of all of this, but it’s ok for you to support your family!! You are SOOOO RIGHTEOUS aren’t you?!! We are digging into Mr Steve Rhode & his cronies!! We will see just how righteous Mr. Rhodes & his loan sharking advocates are in the end won’t we?!!
Running an entire industry out of business is idiotic!! Right here on this sight it shows that LHDR has a minimum performance standard which clearly states if they don’t reduce the debt as agreed the client is refunded their money!! They are 1 of many companies who offer this! They do so because the reputable companies won’t include debts that they know they can’t settle! Bad ones did, but not reputble comanies! I couldn’t find not 1 mention of a success story of a client who completed the program & walked away debt free happy as a clam!! There are countless people who have succeeded in so called front loaded plans!! It’s ok for every other industry to charge for their service up front, but not debt settlement?!! How do you expect them to pay for their over head, pay their employees!! Who waits 6 months to a year to get paid? You guys are so full of it!!
All of this up in arms bleeding liberal attacks against debt settlement did was add hundreds of thousands to the unemployment lines because the entire industry had to let go hard working honest americans who have families to support & feed!
I agree 100% that there were bad companies operating, there were also companies providing a much needed service…We couldn’t operate proffitably under the new ruling! No company should be forced to lose money to provide a service!! There are bad McDonalds out there so lets shut them all down!!
The claim that debt settlement “hasn’t changed, just the sales practices” is ludicrous! If there are no sales there’s no debt settlement! No business person in his right mind would not risk the rath of the FTC & wait a year to get paid!! UPFRONT FEES!! No one works for free!! Why don’t you work for 6 months without getting paid if that’s the only ethical way to run a business?!!
Why is there no other industry who has to wait 6 months to year to get paid meanwhile spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay their employees to maybe get paid if the client doesn’t default? If they default then we are working for free right? Do you work for free? It’s all a moot point now because the industry will soon be obsolete, but guess what?!! consumers still have debt that they can not pay!! Let’s run all for profitt businesses out of business because they charge up front!! Let’s help the banks rape the American people!! Good job to all of you on this site for creating more unemployment, more people into debt default without a viable solution, for making billions more for the crooks we call banks!!
The banking industry has created 1,000 times the abuses of even the worst debt settlement companies ever thought about creating!!
Since you seem to know so much about business, show me a buisiness man that is willing to risk putting up $200 to $300k to start a debt settlement company when he has to wait 6 months to a year to get paid!! Give me a break!!
All of your views regarding debt settlement if it’s really broken down are completely against the US Constitution. What happened to free enterprise? All of you are proffiting on all of this while misleading people who truly need help!!
Get on your high horse against the banking industry that has proven from their very begining has created the worst financial disasters in history @ the same time sucking the life blood out of our society with their “legal loan sharking practices!!” GREAT JOB GUYS!! YOUR AWESOME!!
Do us all a favor & work for free for 6 months to show us how to run a proffitable company!! Also ask your employees to work for free for 6 months because it’s the right the thing to do!!
Reply to Bulb below, Tell that to my 122 now unemployed hard honest working employees! We provided an excellent service & deserved to get paid for it just like any company in this great country of ours! NO-ONE is thriving! Trust me I can do the math! The cost of providing good debt settlement service is high my friend! I did it the right way & jerk offs like you help the banks make billions more leaving american families eating raemon noodles! BULB FOR PRESIDENT!
I try to affiliate myself with common sense.
The act of settling a debt from either the consumers POV or someone from industry actually settling an account has not changed a lick.
The FTC rule making affected the “selling” of the service, not the service itself.
Non profits are not the only thing that will survive. They are actually having a tough go of it right now too.
There are several companies offering debt settlement that will survive and thrive while operating under the new rules.
Please provide a quote and source (preferably with link) to the FTC admitting that either; only non profits will survive or; no business model can run under the new ruling.
The triggering events you refer to and my ability/inability to get a clue:
Being sued and getting garnished happens without debt settlement. We both agree on this.
Having these things occur while fees had been being paid for a service that was not yet delivered, where those fees, having not been charged up front, could have been used to settle at least one debt, thereby preventing at least one lawsuit was a problem. That problem has been fixed with those companies complying and operating with a performance fee.
I am well aware of banks charging usury type interest, fee generating, selling products to consumers they are ill equipped to manage all in the name of profit. It is a topic I care deeply about and not from a payroll perspective.
Truthy – the rules changed. They are not going to change back.
I take it you have no affiliation with debt settlement so your OPINION that debt settlement hasn’t changed has no validity…The ruling dramatically impacted the debt settlement industry & the clients who benefit from it!
The so called non-proffit companies are the only companies that will survive…There is not a business model on the planet that can run under the new ruling! The FTC admitted to that!
As far as your BULLSHIT comment, if you had any sense you would recognize that all I was simpling pointing out was that people are getting sued, having their wages garnished, sheriff showing up @ their house without debt settlement!! Debt settlement doesn’t trigger those events, people falling behind because they can’t afford their payments trigger those events!! Are you clueless enough to deny that?
Get on your High Horse about the banks abuse if you want to truly help people from bad practices! Oh you may be on their payroll?!!
Thanks for the passionate comment Truth.
I agree with most of it.
I don’t see Steve or others commenting on this site as down on debt settlement when done according to rules that are set for companies to provide the service and when offered to a person whose financial situation suggest they will be a success with the process.
The problems in the debt industry, and more specifically debt settlement, is that commission motivated sales people and marketing companies over ran the industry with promises and claims that could not be delivered. They enrolled people who never had a shot at success.
One of the biggest tools used (and still is today)was/is “We can cut your payment in half” similar to what you repeated in your comment.
You comment that debt settlement saves people who cannot pay their bills anyway. What that has translated into in reality are people selling the service who feel self justified when the consumer files bankruptcy anyway, or when they are garnished – that was going to happen anyway, or when the sheriff shows up to serve papers – that was inevitable anyway.
Bullshit on that truthy-my-friend.
People don’t need to pay up front so that high commissioned scams can cash in on inevitability. The amended rules by the FTC recognized that.
People enrolling in debt settlement today can settle debt and get relief just like you outline in your post. Companies providing the service can get paid just as well as before for helping people to do it. The only thing that has changed is the timing. Customers settle their first debt quicker and the company gets paid later. If the consumer did not complete the plan, they also did not pay for something they did not receive. I just don’t see the big deal here. Its a win-win. The people affected by the FTC rule are mostly sales shops and sales people. Actual settlement service providers on the back end still do the same stuff. Customers will still do the same stuff. The middle man sales process got the shaft. So what! The vast majority did a crappy job anyway.
My point:
Debt Settlement has not changed at all. It can still help tons of people that are a good fit to take that path. Its now a bit safer to do so.
On the contrary, the reality is that a reputable debt settlement companies settles debts for clients each & every day! Most people who enroll do so because they could not continue to make the high interest rate payments that take 30 years to pay off!
Many clients who enroll have already fallen behind & have no chance of getting current because they simply don’t have the income! They are already being sued in a lot of cases. Most all of your bad practices that you are so eager to point out are going to happent to these poor people because they can’t pay their debt regardless of whether or not they enter a debt settlement program.
At least the program gives the client representation of an organization that specializes in reducing the debt that the client has no chance of repaying.
The bottom line is that millions of people are being overwhelmed with rising interest rates & minimum payments forcing them into to default & they need help! Credit counseling is a crock, reducing their interest rates does absolutely nothing if the consumer can’t afford the payment. Debt settlement payments cuts the clients payments by half or more giving the client immediate relief freeing up income so they can buy groceries & other neccesities that could not afford otherwise!
Most of these folks absolutely cringe @ the thought of Bankruptcy & a lot of them wouldn’t qualify for chapter 7 anyway.
You people are so quick to jump on the debt settlement industry, but what do you say to the hard working people that are over their head & either don’t qualify for BK or can’t afford CC payments & their only viable option is debt settlement?
If they aren’t able to pay thier bills & are behind, how in the world does debt settlement hurt them any worse than they already are?!! They are not paying their bills so they will be sued right? They can’t pay their bills so their wages may get garnished right? They can’t pay their bills so their credit is being seriously negatively impacted right?
Find a for proffit company or industry that works for free for the months that it takes the client to save the settlement funds! That is absolutely ludicrous! The clients that you speak of would be in the same boat regardless if they enrolled in a debt settlement program or not!
They are enrolling because they know they can’t keep making their current payments or they wouldn’t be seeking help period! So to all of you people on your high horse against debt settlement what is your answer for these people who every other option gives them a worse end result???!!!
Just like any industry there are good a bad companies! All of the consumer advocacy groups with their arms in the air because they claim they have been taken advantage of by debt settlement don’t bother to mention that those same people would’ve fallen behind thus leaving them vulnerable to law suits wage garnishments ect…So even if they didn’t enroll they would be holding the same bag because they weren’t paying their bills before enrolling or knew that they would soon fall behind because the payments were higher than their income!
The bottom line is that there are reputable debt settlement companies providing a much needed service each & every day! All anyone talks about is the success rate! Let me tell you something, there is a reason that the success rate isn’t much higher! They don’t make thier payments into the program just like they couldn’t make their payments to their creditors!
If they make their program payments their debt is paid off for less than half of what they owe & their payments are half of what they are paying now! That gives them & their families a better quality of life! On top of that they can now set money aside for retirement that they would not be able to do any other way!
Talk to the people that have successfuly completed debt settlement programs & ask them what their life is like now that they got the monkey off of their back! No one bothers to mention the success stories, they only mention the people who act victimized because they cancelled the program early! Complete the program & there aren’t any victims period!! BTW they are in a sinking boat if they don’t! If they can afford their bills the program is not for them!! Please tell me how cutting their payment in half so they can feed their families is a bad thing?!!
The FTC’S response is, “we know it’s tough, but you need to find a way to repay your debt!” Very easy to say, but people simply can’t repay their debt!
Did anyone notice that is was VP Joe Biden who stood proudly @ the FTC press conference acting he just “saved the american people from ruin!!” It’s public knowledge that VP Biden is bought & paid for by the credit card industry! After all he is a former Senator from Deleware which is where almost every single credit card company does business in because he helped pass legislation that allowed the banks to legally loan shark hard working citizens!!!! Just look at the credit card companies practices!! All made possible by VP Bidens home state!!!
At least debt settlement provides a viable option for debt reduction, al you people do is criticize providing no solutions for people who can’t afford CC payments & don’t qualify for BK!
If I had to guess, Truth recently lost a sizable sales commission due to a prospect having read some reality on this site.
Now they need to vent a bit….
Bulb
95% of all congressional legislation does not pass. The FTC was granted special powers in the US to regulate trade & commerce. They certainly can tell companies how fees may be collected.
Who is challenging the FTC rules?
Since the site does not control the ads, how would I be liable for an advertising violation? I guess you will next be reporting every newspaper website in America.
For more information on ads, click here.
I’ve never said that debt settlement should be eliminated as an option. I’ve only spoken out against practices which harm consumers.
That is idiotic. There may be a company who does, but they would have to charge up front in order to do so- Therefore, they are already breaking the law.
What company is giving refunds of fees they havent yet collected? Enlighten us.
Debt Settlement companies gives refunds for any debt that they can not reduce by @ least 60%! Everyone on this site are liars giving false info!
People need debt settlement to get out of debt period! Debt Settlement is here to stay regardless of what know it all Steve seems to think…This is America, the FTC regulation is regarding debt settlemnt is unconstitutional & is currently being challenged & will be overturned…Why do you think congress didn’t pass the law?..The FTC made a regulation because the law was unconstitutional!..No-one including the American government can tell a company how they collect fees…IF they do it will have to be for all industries not just the debt releif industry.
BTW Steve you have been reported to the FTC for advertising violations…We will see who gets fined!
People need debt settlement to get out of debt period! Debt Settlement is here to stay regardless of what know it all Steve seems to think…This is America, the FTC regulation is regarding debt settlemnt is unconstitutional & is currently being challenged & will be overturned…Why do you think congress didn’t pass the law?..The FTC made a regulation because the law was unconstitutional!..No-one including the American government can tell a company how they collect fees…IF they do it will have to be for all industries not just the debt releif industry.
BTW Steve you have been reported to the FTC for advertising violations…We will see who gets fined!
Since the site does not control the ads, how would I be liable for an advertising violation? I guess you will next be reporting every newspaper website in America.
For more information on ads, click here.
I’ve never said that debt settlement should be eliminated as an option. I’ve only spoken out against practices which harm consumers.
Not being able to run a “proffitable business” will soon make debt settlement obsolete!! No one works for free!! Do you wait 6 months to get paid?!! Do you have any clue how much it costs to provide good customer service in debt settlement?!! & you want us to wait 6 months to maybe get paid?!! Are you that much of an idiot?!! Do your employees wait 6 months to get paid?!! I agree 100% that companies with bad practices should not be allowed to operate, but to make it impossible for an entire industry to survive is unamerican!! Unless your Steve Rhode making money off of all of this, but it’s ok for you to support your family!! You are SOOOO RIGHTEOUS aren’t you?!! We are digging into Mr Steve Rhode & his cronies!! We will see just how righteous Mr. Rhodes & his loan sharking advocates are in the end won’t we?!!
The irony is that as a nonprofit (2000-2003) we settled lots of debt successfully. We charged a flat rate per account, $495. The consumer had to have funds on hand and the average settlement period was two weeks. If the creditor did not settle we returned the fee.
My experience was that success was based on proper qualification of consumers that could settle within a couple of months. Is there something that prevents you from taking the same approach? Why wait six months when you can earn your fee in two or less?
Look at the performance numbers of New Era Debt Solutions. They’ve been settling debt for over a decade on a contingency basis.
There is a way to do it successfully on an other than advanced fee model.
this Truth guy is pist off because he had to let go 122 of his employees and can’t make millions from front loading his clients. i have no sympathy for this goon. if ur a company that only offers debt settlement, that means u left the consumers thinking that is their only hope. I wonder what company you own. New Era has around for decades and as soon as the law change they comply and went with it, and guess what it hurted them the most because they always based their fees on services performed and this ruling made it harder where a simple monthly fee is not even allowed, but do we hear them screaming unjustice or unfair? If anyone needs debt settlement, NEW ERA DEBT SOLUTIONS is the place to GO!!!!!
My point exactly jack asses…this entire site & all of your biased opinions are so you can corner the market like socialism…Every single 1 of you that has commented on my posts have your fat little fingers wrapped all over this! I run honest businesses, I don’t feed off of fear mongering scare tactics to monopolize an industry!! I’ve moved on, I would not be surprised an iota to see your vaunted New Era Debt be carried away in handcuffs 5 years from now. You guys are soooo awesome!
95% of all congressional legislation does not pass. The FTC was granted special powers in the US to regulate trade & commerce. They certainly can tell companies how fees may be collected.
Who is challenging the FTC rules?
Your claim that 95% of all legislation doesn’t pass is true, but you failed to mention that THIS PARTICULAR LEGISLATION didn’t pass because it was deemed as “UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!” So what did they do? I will be gald to tell you that VP Joe Biden & his cronies @ the FTC ran to the aid of the legal loan sharking practices of our banking industry!! Biden is a former senator from Deleware (which is where almost all of the banks operate in!!) Thanks to Bidens legislation the banks were allowed to legally rip off hard working americans!!) It is public knowledge that Biden is bought & paid for by the banking industry!! Why do you think it was Biden who helped make the FTC announcement in the 1st place?? Whose payroll are you on?!! Like I have already mentioned the banking industry has created 1,000 times more abuses to consumers than the worst debt settlement company ever thought about!! Great job to all of you for helping the banks rape the american people even more!! Why don’t you show everyone how it’s done by working for 6 months for free like you claim a debt settlement company should do?!! Seriously, who can afford to work for free?!! You idiots helped to successfully run an entire industry out of business adding hundreds of thousands of people to the unemployment lines while the banks make more billions leaving the consumers with very little hope of any tyupe of releif!! Keep up the good work!!
Relief is “I” before “E”
There you go with your self riteousness again!! The fact that that was all you could come up with as a response speaks volumes!! Answer this question, Do you work for free?!! Or do you just sit back criticizing (did I spell that correctly?!!) while the banks continue to rape consumers!! How come none of you have mentioned that there are thousands of people who succesfully completed “FRONT LOADED” programs and now have the monkey off of their backs?!! Or are you going to tell me how to spell again?!! It got aweful quiet on this post now that someone is finally exposing “The Truth” of what is really going on on this site!!
My reply is simple. It is based on the fact that you are a disgruntled scam artist.
Do I work for free? Yes, I suppose by your definition I do. I work for a debt settlement company that has NEVER charged upfront for our service. We have always made a % of how much we saved the client at settlement.
Do sports agents work for free?
You continue to make comments regarding “banks ripping off consumers”. While I agree that this mess is theirs, the fact is that TASC & USOBA when pressed at the hearings before both Congress & The FTC would not give success information. What The FTC did conclude from information running the front loaded fee program that you love so much, is that it actually was successful less than 10% of the time, while the success based model settled all debts for over 70% of their clients.
Where was that legislation deemed “unconstitutional”? Please show me… any proof & i’ll stop. I guarantee you you can not come up with any evidence that supports that claim. If you can’t, please shut up, accept the fact that you have no argument & go away. Without that evidence supporting yet another of your baseless, idiotic statements, I will continue to pick on the fact that you continue to misspell “relief”- Your field of expertise.
“The Truth” finally comes out!! You work for a company that “HAS NEVER CHARGED UPFRONT FOR OUR SERVICE” Really?? Please enlighten us on the name of your wonderful company that you work for! Baseless idiotic statements?? Just for you I will pull the video of exactly what the FTC said about this matter & I will also show you quotes from multiple House of Representatives & Senators saying that the reason they did not vote for the legislation in question was because they deemed it “UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!” & they did want to set that type of precedent as law!! Did I spell that right?!! 10% success rate?!! I just left ftc.gov & they said 33% which I admit is way too low mainly because there were inproper sales practices not informing consumers of what to expect. Their quote was “Over 60% failure is unacceptable” They didn’t say 90% failure!! But I will be more than glad to shut you up!! I have never scammed anyone in my life!! I have been a successful business man for over 30 years!! Way before debt settlement!! Every single 1 of your claims will soon be ripped to shreads!!
Correction I am pulling up quotes from multiple congressman who made it clear why they would vote against this legislation…It never even made it to a vote! I hope I didn’t mispell anything!
Where are they all?
TASC admitted to guessing 33%- Data collected showed less than 10%. Youve offered no evidence of your claim. Rip away.
ftc.gov !!!!!
Thats your supporting evidence? Epic Fail.
Twice, separately, you stated that Congress didn’t pass last years Debt Relief Legislation because “Congress said it was “unconstitutional.” I asked you to show evidence of your claim- quotes, videos, press releases, etc (& where you found them). You cannot.
That is why I stopped engaging your idiotic rants. Produce evidence. You know so much- back it up.
If I had to guess, Truth recently lost a sizable sales commission due to a prospect having read some reality on this site.
Now they need to vent a bit….
Bulb
On the contrary, the reality is that a reputable debt settlement companies settles debts for clients each & every day! Most people who enroll do so because they could not continue to make the high interest rate payments that take 30 years to pay off!
Many clients who enroll have already fallen behind & have no chance of getting current because they simply don’t have the income! They are already being sued in a lot of cases. Most all of your bad practices that you are so eager to point out are going to happent to these poor people because they can’t pay their debt regardless of whether or not they enter a debt settlement program.
At least the program gives the client representation of an organization that specializes in reducing the debt that the client has no chance of repaying.
The bottom line is that millions of people are being overwhelmed with rising interest rates & minimum payments forcing them into to default & they need help! Credit counseling is a crock, reducing their interest rates does absolutely nothing if the consumer can’t afford the payment. Debt settlement payments cuts the clients payments by half or more giving the client immediate relief freeing up income so they can buy groceries & other neccesities that could not afford otherwise!
Most of these folks absolutely cringe @ the thought of Bankruptcy & a lot of them wouldn’t qualify for chapter 7 anyway.
You people are so quick to jump on the debt settlement industry, but what do you say to the hard working people that are over their head & either don’t qualify for BK or can’t afford CC payments & their only viable option is debt settlement?
If they aren’t able to pay thier bills & are behind, how in the world does debt settlement hurt them any worse than they already are?!! They are not paying their bills so they will be sued right? They can’t pay their bills so their wages may get garnished right? They can’t pay their bills so their credit is being seriously negatively impacted right?
Find a for proffit company or industry that works for free for the months that it takes the client to save the settlement funds! That is absolutely ludicrous! The clients that you speak of would be in the same boat regardless if they enrolled in a debt settlement program or not!
They are enrolling because they know they can’t keep making their current payments or they wouldn’t be seeking help period! So to all of you people on your high horse against debt settlement what is your answer for these people who every other option gives them a worse end result???!!!
Just like any industry there are good a bad companies! All of the consumer advocacy groups with their arms in the air because they claim they have been taken advantage of by debt settlement don’t bother to mention that those same people would’ve fallen behind thus leaving them vulnerable to law suits wage garnishments ect…So even if they didn’t enroll they would be holding the same bag because they weren’t paying their bills before enrolling or knew that they would soon fall behind because the payments were higher than their income!
The bottom line is that there are reputable debt settlement companies providing a much needed service each & every day! All anyone talks about is the success rate! Let me tell you something, there is a reason that the success rate isn’t much higher! They don’t make thier payments into the program just like they couldn’t make their payments to their creditors!
If they make their program payments their debt is paid off for less than half of what they owe & their payments are half of what they are paying now! That gives them & their families a better quality of life! On top of that they can now set money aside for retirement that they would not be able to do any other way!
Talk to the people that have successfuly completed debt settlement programs & ask them what their life is like now that they got the monkey off of their back! No one bothers to mention the success stories, they only mention the people who act victimized because they cancelled the program early! Complete the program & there aren’t any victims period!! BTW they are in a sinking boat if they don’t! If they can afford their bills the program is not for them!! Please tell me how cutting their payment in half so they can feed their families is a bad thing?!!
The FTC’S response is, “we know it’s tough, but you need to find a way to repay your debt!” Very easy to say, but people simply can’t repay their debt!
Did anyone notice that is was VP Joe Biden who stood proudly @ the FTC press conference acting he just “saved the american people from ruin!!” It’s public knowledge that VP Biden is bought & paid for by the credit card industry! After all he is a former Senator from Deleware which is where almost every single credit card company does business in because he helped pass legislation that allowed the banks to legally loan shark hard working citizens!!!! Just look at the credit card companies practices!! All made possible by VP Bidens home state!!!
At least debt settlement provides a viable option for debt reduction, al you people do is criticize providing no solutions for people who can’t afford CC payments & don’t qualify for BK!
Thanks for the passionate comment Truth.
I agree with most of it.
I don’t see Steve or others commenting on this site as down on debt settlement when done according to rules that are set for companies to provide the service and when offered to a person whose financial situation suggest they will be a success with the process.
The problems in the debt industry, and more specifically debt settlement, is that commission motivated sales people and marketing companies over ran the industry with promises and claims that could not be delivered. They enrolled people who never had a shot at success.
One of the biggest tools used (and still is today)was/is “We can cut your payment in half” similar to what you repeated in your comment.
You comment that debt settlement saves people who cannot pay their bills anyway. What that has translated into in reality are people selling the service who feel self justified when the consumer files bankruptcy anyway, or when they are garnished – that was going to happen anyway, or when the sheriff shows up to serve papers – that was inevitable anyway.
Bullshit on that truthy-my-friend.
People don’t need to pay up front so that high commissioned scams can cash in on inevitability. The amended rules by the FTC recognized that.
People enrolling in debt settlement today can settle debt and get relief just like you outline in your post. Companies providing the service can get paid just as well as before for helping people to do it. The only thing that has changed is the timing. Customers settle their first debt quicker and the company gets paid later. If the consumer did not complete the plan, they also did not pay for something they did not receive. I just don’t see the big deal here. Its a win-win. The people affected by the FTC rule are mostly sales shops and sales people. Actual settlement service providers on the back end still do the same stuff. Customers will still do the same stuff. The middle man sales process got the shaft. So what! The vast majority did a crappy job anyway.
My point:
Debt Settlement has not changed at all. It can still help tons of people that are a good fit to take that path. Its now a bit safer to do so.
I take it you have no affiliation with debt settlement so your OPINION that debt settlement hasn’t changed has no validity…The ruling dramatically impacted the debt settlement industry & the clients who benefit from it!
The so called non-proffit companies are the only companies that will survive…There is not a business model on the planet that can run under the new ruling! The FTC admitted to that!
As far as your BULLSHIT comment, if you had any sense you would recognize that all I was simpling pointing out was that people are getting sued, having their wages garnished, sheriff showing up @ their house without debt settlement!! Debt settlement doesn’t trigger those events, people falling behind because they can’t afford their payments trigger those events!! Are you clueless enough to deny that?
Get on your High Horse about the banks abuse if you want to truly help people from bad practices! Oh you may be on their payroll?!!
I try to affiliate myself with common sense.
The act of settling a debt from either the consumers POV or someone from industry actually settling an account has not changed a lick.
The FTC rule making affected the “selling” of the service, not the service itself.
Non profits are not the only thing that will survive. They are actually having a tough go of it right now too.
There are several companies offering debt settlement that will survive and thrive while operating under the new rules.
Please provide a quote and source (preferably with link) to the FTC admitting that either; only non profits will survive or; no business model can run under the new ruling.
The triggering events you refer to and my ability/inability to get a clue:
Being sued and getting garnished happens without debt settlement. We both agree on this.
Having these things occur while fees had been being paid for a service that was not yet delivered, where those fees, having not been charged up front, could have been used to settle at least one debt, thereby preventing at least one lawsuit was a problem. That problem has been fixed with those companies complying and operating with a performance fee.
I am well aware of banks charging usury type interest, fee generating, selling products to consumers they are ill equipped to manage all in the name of profit. It is a topic I care deeply about and not from a payroll perspective.
Truthy – the rules changed. They are not going to change back.
Reply to Bulb below, Tell that to my 122 now unemployed hard honest working employees! We provided an excellent service & deserved to get paid for it just like any company in this great country of ours! NO-ONE is thriving! Trust me I can do the math! The cost of providing good debt settlement service is high my friend! I did it the right way & jerk offs like you help the banks make billions more leaving american families eating raemon noodles! BULB FOR PRESIDENT!
No, an attorney would use proper punctuation and put a question mark at the end of a sentence. He is just one more scammy “debt-settler” looking to protect his quick and slimy buck.
No, an attorney would use proper punctuation and put a question mark at the end of a sentence. He is just one more scammy “debt-settler” looking to protect his quick and slimy buck.
Who said I was an attorney?!!
I thought you were about the truth. So why did you post on Twitter I was under FTC investigation?
Because I reported you myself!! There is an entire out of business industry that has nothing better to do now than to bring down some of the same rath that you so vigorously support! Except this time we will see just how righteous you are!!
*Truth,
I need help!
I could really use your advice!
If you use the search bar in this site, you will find that I posted a comment about my experience for a “Freedom Fidelity Management article on 2.9.11.
I haven’t recieved a response yet by anyone, but if you have the time, perhaps you can help me help myself.
You are the best regardless!
-allen s.
truwizkid@hotmail.com
FYI, this is the link to the comment you mentioned.
I get that but filing a complaint is not the same thing as “under investigation.” Saying the FTC is investigating me is not true. You filed a complaint against me, period. Still not sure what in the world for though.And while I appreciate your zeal, you may want to consider that I report on the bad actors, not engage in their bad acts. If so many consumers had not been harmed there would have been no need for new legislation. It is the impact of the legislation that seems to by your keystone of contention.For the life of me I can’t figure out why the trade groups didn’t embrace the UDMSA when it was brought to them a few years ago. If they had worked with regulators there never would have been a need for the FTC TSR. Being mad at me is like being mad a Ronald McDonald for a bad Happy Meal. It might make you feel better but it is misplaced energy.
LOL!! For once I agree with you Steve!! I am mad @ you & people like you! You mention bad actors, not every debt settlement company that collected fees upfront operated using bad sales practices! But yet you have constantly bashed anyone who operated under that model! & unless I am totally incorrect, when an FTC complaint is made they do investigate it don’t they? What’s the matter Steve are you afraid of someone bad mouthing you like you have so eagerly done against our industry. When you constantly attack peoples livelyhood I think it’s fair to think that there may be a back lash somewhere along the line. I had to lay off 122 people because as hard as I tried to come up with a model under the new ruling that would allow the company to remain viable, I simply couldn’t afford to pay my employees in this environment. & to be frank, I am so sick & tired of hearing you on your high horses when all of you have your own skeletons that you are trying to hide! You make your money by spreading half truths & using fear tactics to generate hits on your site!! Thank you for showing me how it’s done! Maybe I will make a little money doing the same thing to you! It sucks when people attack your livelyhood doesn’t it? We provided a good service & I can’t control those who didn’t, but to lump us all together is the true scam! I have nothing but free time to spend on doing to you exactly what you help advocate doing to us!
The Truth,
The FTC does not investigate individual complaints. So your statement I am under investigation from your complaint is simply not the truth.
The FTC serves as a federal repository for individual consumer complaints. Even though the FTC does not resolve individual complaints, it does use the aggregated information to determine where federal action might be taken. So a retraction to your statement that I am under investigation would be warranted.
If you have been a long time reader of this site you will have certainly seen where I have written positive articles on certain debt settlement companies.
I have been critical of advanced fee debt settlement because so many people were harmed by it. I have no idea if your company had any complaints or if you operated without any issues. But again, your disgust should be directed at the companies that harmed consumers, did not provide services and refused refunds. That is what led to regulation.
Companies have had to restructure under the new rules and some companies had to lay staff off because they did not have sufficient reserves to carry them across a transition period. Many were spending money as quickly as it came in and failed to build reasonable operating cushions. Income from new sales was used to fund day-to-day operations instead of being escrowed and withdrawn as services were actually rendered. If they had done that then funds would have been on reserve and the conversion period would not have been an issue.
What skeleton do I have to hide? I’ve only had one issue that I openly talked about. So what am I hiding?
If you have an issue with something specifically that I’ve written and feel it is a “half-truth”, I’m happy to discuss a specific individual item and let’s deal with it.
So if you want to be open, truthful, and transparent and discuss issues in the light, then be open about who you are and what your company is. Slinging wild and untrue attacks behind a moniker is not the way to be open, transparent and truthful. I stand in the open, you stand in the shadows.
For the record, I am not against debt settlement and some debt settlement companies will gladly attest to that. I was only against the abuse in the advanced fee debt settlement world. The FTC chose to deal with that with a broad brush and I had nothing to do with the creation of their rules. They were developed over a two year period with input from a number of resources, including the debt settlement trade associations.
Would you have preferred the Schummer bill that would have prevented advanced fees and regulated the amount you could have charged on the backend instead?
Regulation paints with a broad brush and good guys get caught up as well. That’s the way most regulation works and always has in the debt relief world.
So let me ask you, what did you do to help stop the bad actors so regulation was not necessary? What companies did you hold accountable?
If it will make you happy Steve I will retract my statement. Just so you know I have sufficient funds & reserves to operate without any new revenue for years!! That has absolutley nothing to do with this issue!! You just said that you don’t know how we operated, but then you immediately insinuated that we squandered our money away & had no reserves for transition! I simply chose not to expose myself & my family to the level of risk that “any company regardless of nonprofit or otherwise”, regardless of how compliant you try to be is now facing. We are still servicing existing clients & so offense, but I have no desire to reveal myself to you so I can subjected to the insanity of government control & regulation. I do not believe in big government & regulation!! I’m a business man not the debt settlement police so I spent my energies training our staff to properly educate our clients. Half of the reserves that my settlement business had I gave back to employees in severance pay. I am fortunate that I have other successful business ventures, but make no mistake thousands of people are now un-employed. All you do is profit from all of this acting like some kind of Saint! Then have the nerve to point your greedy little fingers at me!!!
Please note I did not make claims you did not have sufficient reserves. I can’t comment about your situation in particular since you refuse to revel who you or your company is.
From your comment it seems that you did have sufficient reserves but elected to not continue and terminated your staff because you did not enjoy the new rules or could not see a way to operate within them.
You say you are a businessman and not the debt settlement police and you don’t believe in regulation or big government. So if you didn’t take an active role to keep your industry clean, who was going to do that to prevent new regulations designed to protect consumers from the bad actors that hurt the entire industry?
What I’m suggesting is that regulation was needed because the industry had a chance to police their own and didn’t. It had a chance to get behind protections and didn’t. And it seems you consciously wanted to play no role in that since you did not want to be the debt settlement police. If you did not take an active role to curb abuses so protection by regulation was not necessary, who would then?
The consequences of regulation suck for some. They did in my day, they do in yours. Being angry at me doesn’t change any of that and simply robs you of time, energy, and focus for you to move forward and use the energy to invent better solutions for consumers in trouble.
spoken like a true journalist!!! The Truth need to unravel The Truth and tell us who you really are?????
We can go around & around with this, my point is this…NOT ALL COMPANIES OPERATED AS ALL OF YOU CLAIM!!.Every single person on this site has thrown accusations around about what typ of business man I “PROBABLY AM” & “MY COMPANY SCAMMED ALL OF OUR CLIENTS” and you don’t even know who the hell I am!! Which hammers home another point!! This site has 1 intention to slander anyone or any company that will lead to more hits generated on this site & it’s direct affiliates. If we don’t do it your way, we are evil, horrible people???!!!! You don’t even know how “WE” did business!! & hell no I am not going to reveal my company & subject it to this biased ridicule!! I had people that I had to fire because I found out that they completed a docusign for a client or faked the compliance call or misled clients. No business is perfect, but my entire staff knew that I monitored calls & that I had my compliance dept contact the client prior to enrollment & re-verified incoming & outgoing expenses to try & ensure that we only enrolled clients who would succeed…FOURTY FIVE PERCENT of the deals we closed were given hardship discounts down to as low as 2%…& we also gave scholarships to people who could not afford the service (we did it for free). Yes it was a very lucrative business, that’s why I got involved…I was already highly successful before I ever got into debt settlement & we made more than enough money to give “OUR CLIENTS” what they paid for!! Every single person on this site acts like it’s “completely impossible” for there to have been an honest business man with ethics in debt settlement!! To all readers, beware of people who trust no-one & make blind ignorant statements with broad brushes!! They trust no-one because they don’t trust themselves!! All of their “ADVICE” generates revenue for them & their affiliates. BTW we recorded & mystery shopped New Era Debt this morning, my assistant asked specific questions & what do you know, can someone spell “VIOLATIONS!!” multiple violations!! Becareful what you wish for!!
I think the point you are missing is this isn’t about you. It’s about protecting kids like Truwizkid that paid an advanced fee debt settlement company for services and they did not settle his debt and will not respond to him. In fact as of today, his advanced fee company has 424 BBB complaints, 98 unanswered. He’s probably not going to get his money back for debt they never settled.
You are more than welcome to internalize this any way you want but what did you do to help protect the industry from abusive companies like that? Not policing your industry left it ripe for abuse. It seems you are upset by the outcome but you did not participate in a solution before the situation got bad. You voluntarily closed your company and you are pissed about that. But what did you do to prevent that from happening? It seems you actually did nothing.
Okay, well congratulations on admitting you recorded the call with New Era. Last I checked California is a two party state and you just broke the law. You’ve got to be smarter than that?
If you have issues with New Era I suggest you raise them directly with New Era or you are free to post comments here about them to publicly address any concern you may have.
Raise your specific concerns you may have about them and let them answer them. Isn’t that what you would have preferred someone do with you? If they knew who you are?
You know who I am. You read my stories and the facts I present in them. You have not raised and specific issue of a fact that is not correct. I have not blocked you on the site and have allowed you to state your opinion and have engaged in a dialogue with you on these issues.
But you hide in anonymity. You refuse to say who you are or to tell us the name of your company. You make accusations but have not provided the facts others have asked for. You call names and make false statements about me and others. So who is the one being open, transparent and honest here?
Oh it’s about me alright!! It’s also about a lot of unemployed people who you so self riteously bashed by spreading fear about “ALL FRONTLOADED DEBT SETTLEMENT”! Truewizkid got shafted by the credit card companies way before he enrolled into debt settlement…Consumers need to research who they enrol with…Government control is not the answer! Education, not regulation!! Again the banks are responsible for this mess not debt settlement!! If you spent as much time demanding regulation for the banking industry maybe some of these people would’ve never needed debt settlement!! The banks & clowns like you should be ran out of this country on rail!! Your views would be better served in communist China!! Block me all you want, I am holding a meeting Monday morning & a conference call Monday afternoon to discuss people like you & sites like this as well as your affiliates that you promote so much!! I can assure you that your site is getting ready to get bombarded with hundreds of pissed off people that will point out exactly what is that you are doing on this site!! New Era Debt & others like it will soon be standing in the unemployment line because they are so far from being compliant under the new TSR, they are hanging themselves!! Have fun trying to answer & combat “The Truth” that you will soon be bombarded with on all of your media outlets!! I love this free country of ours!! Two can play this game!! Or in this case HUNDREDS! I hope there aren’t any employees of New Era Debt on this site! Better find another job because yours won’t be around much longer!
What did you do to protect and police your own industry from harming consumers like truwizkid so regulation was not necessary?
I simply conducted my business the best way I could!! Which was to police my employees & affiliates. There are bad people in this world & in every industry including yours. Like I said before, I believe in Education not Regulation!! We did everything we could with what we had control over. Which was to educate our clients & conduct ethical business. I admitted that we had people who misled clients & I fired them immediately which made my staff fearful of losing their job if they participated in bad practices. I can’t control what other people do, but I can conduct my businesses with integrity which is what I have done since I started my 1st business over 25 years ago!! I also have the right to despise bleeding heart liberals like you who feel regulation is the answer to everything!! Help REGULATE THE BANKS if you truly want to help people out of financial hardship!! They created this mess not front loaded fee model debt settlement!! Seriously while you are ripping a dieing industry millions of people are being shafted by the banks whose profits you helped protect! I will continue to expand my businesses creating good paying jobs for honest hard working people! I create jobs to help the economy which creates taxes which creates more jobs & so on & so on! That’s what I do! You promote socialism, I create jobs inspite of idiots like you who make it harder than ever to run an honest business!
If you want to protect the industry you have to proactively police it to stop bad actors who will draw attention and lead to regulation. It doesn’t matter if you do lots of stuff right when so many others didn’t.
Directed reader to view your comments in this recent post.
FORTY
WRATH
thank you very much!! I need clowns like you to correct my spelling. Do you wanna job? I will hire to proof read my posts.
sounds like TARD1 is upset that you’ve uncover their way of collecting fees first and hopefully settling later. Its funny how these folks don’t get it. If they put the consumer first than theres no issue. Now that they know there are 2 ways to sell debt settlement and if they had to choose one for themselves to get out of debt, which model will they pick? Upfront Fees Model or Performance Model?
… You must be one of the attorneys
WHO IS THIS TARD!
NEVER PAY UP FRONT FEES! If you ONLY pay a fee once the service is provided, you CANNOT BE SCAMMED- The provider MUST PERFORM!
Companies charging consumers up front with no guarantees for any service is THE BIGGEST BLIGHT on what IS a valuable service for many households. The up front fees are charged in order to pay large marketing commissions to front end telephone marketing companies who drive huge amounts of consumers into these so-called legal agreements. Each is different but the common thread is there are no guarantees that the consumer will attain any benefit for their fee and once paid, the consumer will receive no refund.
The sooner these companies are gone the better.
NEVER PAY UP FRONT FEES! If you ONLY pay a fee once the service is provided, you CANNOT BE SCAMMED- The provider MUST PERFORM!
Companies charging consumers up front with no guarantees for any service is THE BIGGEST BLIGHT on what IS a valuable service for many households. The up front fees are charged in order to pay large marketing commissions to front end telephone marketing companies who drive huge amounts of consumers into these so-called legal agreements. Each is different but the common thread is there are no guarantees that the consumer will attain any benefit for their fee and once paid, the consumer will receive no refund.
The sooner these companies are gone the better.
WHO IS THIS TARD!
… You must be one of the attorneys
sounds like TARD1 is upset that you’ve uncover their way of collecting fees first and hopefully settling later. Its funny how these folks don’t get it. If they put the consumer first than theres no issue. Now that they know there are 2 ways to sell debt settlement and if they had to choose one for themselves to get out of debt, which model will they pick? Upfront Fees Model or Performance Model?
We did put the client 1st, but it takes revenue to pay our employees who do customer service & who do the negotiating…You expect our employees to wait 6 months to maybe get paid?!!
Any business has to make a proffit to help the consumer!! Do you work for free for 6 months waiting to maybe get paid?!!
Why don’t you risk $200 to $300k to run a reputable debt settlement company to maybe get paid in 6 months?!!
What do you have to say to the hundreds of thousands of honest hard working people that are now in the unemployment lines because their companies were forced to shut down, not because they aren’t providing an excellent service, but because they simply cant’ meet their payroll waiting 6 months to get paid?!!
What do you have to say to thousands of people who believed in debt settlement companies to help them settle debts but ended up being sued or lost tons of barely earned money to these folks who did nothing. I know everything about how the debt settlement work so dont try to tell me its hard work LOL…. please. making 1 phone call a month to your current client to tell make sure they dont panic and continue paying is not consider hard work and that line of customer service shouldn’t exist. I don’t see performance model debt settlement complaining why they dont get paid right away? why are you crying, what about the consumers that are crying because you guys cant stop collection calls or court summons? How do you sleep at night when you tell someone that you are there for them to help them ease their pain by showing them the way out of debt and when they get a summon to go to court you have to tell them sorry, but we can’t help you anymore its too late. Time to change your model or cut your loses. Oh by the way, cut down your overhead so you wouldnt have to squeeze every dime out of the consumer to make up the loses.
You know absoltely nothing about how I ran my business!! 1 call a month are you kidding me!! I had 122 employees who were all hard working people who had familes to support that are now unemployed!! We informed our clients exactly what happens when they fall behind with their creditors!! Which by the way happens regardless of whether or not they entered debt settlement! I fired every sales person who even thought about misleading their clients!! I was rich way before I ever started debt settlement & we provided an excellent service!! I had scholarship programs for people with extreme hardships (we settled their debt for free!) No fees whatsoever!!.We had a mandate that the client settle @ least 1 debt in the 1st 9 months even if it meant reducing our fees down to 2%!!.We got a ton of referals not because we were doing as you say, but because people received exactly what they expected. I sleep very well @ night because we did it the right way!! That’s why I am soo pissed off @ jerk offs like you who make rediculous blanket claims against an entire industry!! Seriously, not everyone operated like you claim!! Our customer service was 2nd to none!! People are getting collection calls & getting sued that aren’t in debt settlement so what are you talking about!! Every claim you guys make about debt settlement is already happening to clients who have never been in debt settlement!! If we couldn’t settle a debt, the client received a full refund. None of our clients paid for a service they didn’t receive!! Were their companies doing as you say? Hell yes there were, but not every single company JACKASS!!
Debt Settlement companies gives refunds for any debt that they can not reduce by @ least 60%! Everyone on this site are liars giving false info!
That is idiotic. There may be a company who does, but they would have to charge up front in order to do so- Therefore, they are already breaking the law.
What company is giving refunds of fees they havent yet collected? Enlighten us.
Running an entire industry out of business is idiotic!! Right here on this sight it shows that LHDR has a minimum performance standard which clearly states if they don’t reduce the debt as agreed the client is refunded their money!! They are 1 of many companies who offer this! They do so because the reputable companies won’t include debts that they know they can’t settle! Bad ones did, but not reputble comanies! I couldn’t find not 1 mention of a success story of a client who completed the program & walked away debt free happy as a clam!! There are countless people who have succeeded in so called front loaded plans!! It’s ok for every other industry to charge for their service up front, but not debt settlement?!! How do you expect them to pay for their over head, pay their employees!! Who waits 6 months to a year to get paid? You guys are so full of it!!
All of this up in arms bleeding liberal attacks against debt settlement did was add hundreds of thousands to the unemployment lines because the entire industry had to let go hard working honest americans who have families to support & feed!
I agree 100% that there were bad companies operating, there were also companies providing a much needed service…We couldn’t operate proffitably under the new ruling! No company should be forced to lose money to provide a service!! There are bad McDonalds out there so lets shut them all down!!
The claim that debt settlement “hasn’t changed, just the sales practices” is ludicrous! If there are no sales there’s no debt settlement! No business person in his right mind would not risk the rath of the FTC & wait a year to get paid!! UPFRONT FEES!! No one works for free!! Why don’t you work for 6 months without getting paid if that’s the only ethical way to run a business?!!
Why is there no other industry who has to wait 6 months to year to get paid meanwhile spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay their employees to maybe get paid if the client doesn’t default? If they default then we are working for free right? Do you work for free? It’s all a moot point now because the industry will soon be obsolete, but guess what?!! consumers still have debt that they can not pay!! Let’s run all for profitt businesses out of business because they charge up front!! Let’s help the banks rape the American people!! Good job to all of you on this site for creating more unemployment, more people into debt default without a viable solution, for making billions more for the crooks we call banks!!
The banking industry has created 1,000 times the abuses of even the worst debt settlement companies ever thought about creating!!
Since you seem to know so much about business, show me a buisiness man that is willing to risk putting up $200 to $300k to start a debt settlement company when he has to wait 6 months to a year to get paid!! Give me a break!!
All of your views regarding debt settlement if it’s really broken down are completely against the US Constitution. What happened to free enterprise? All of you are proffiting on all of this while misleading people who truly need help!!
Get on your high horse against the banking industry that has proven from their very begining has created the worst financial disasters in history @ the same time sucking the life blood out of our society with their “legal loan sharking practices!!” GREAT JOB GUYS!! YOUR AWESOME!!
Do us all a favor & work for free for 6 months to show us how to run a proffitable company!! Also ask your employees to work for free for 6 months because it’s the right the thing to do!!
Let’s talk about the difference between a bank and a front loaded fee debt settlement company. The bank gives you the product (the money) now, and then charges an arm and a leg for it later. The debt settler charges an arm and a leg now for the promise that they might provide a service at some point in the distant future if the consumer can endure a) the collection phone calls, b) the damage to the credit rating, c) the law suits, and d) the potential wage garnishments all attributable to the debt settlement process (i.e. don’t pay your bills any more.) They have to endure this while putting up with generally unhelpful customer service reps that can’t do anything for them even though the consumer has already paid a ton of money.
You mentioned working for 6 months without getting paid. What work was being done? Counting the money? Because the consumer didn’t get the benefit of any of that “work.” You made them pay fees for 6+ months without giving them any service.
Again you have no clue how we conducted business…A B C & D are happening right now to people who have never been in or ever heard of debt settlement…Please be clear to the readers, you bash front loaded debt settlement because it fills you & other people on this sites pockets! It’s that simple. There is no one on the planet stupid enough to think that ALL FRONT LOADED DEBT SETTLEMENT COMPANIES do you guys claim!! There were thousands of companies operating under that model & not all did as you say! That’s what pisses me off!! You’re not interested in helping people, just in making money which what you accuse our industry of!! The banks are legal loan sharks period!! Without their bad practices there would’ve never been debt settlement abuses now would there? I speak about the true cause of this mess, you idiots rant & rave about a dieing industry that has no bearing on the real issue!! Debt Settlement did not create debt…Debt Settlement did not arbitrarily (if I didn’t spell it right, BITE ME!) raise interest rates & minimum payments forcing people into default!! I am not a crusader, but if I was I wouldn’t waste my energies on companies trying to clean up the mess, I would spend it on the banks who created it!!
Im confused. How would fixing the banking mess help you back into your 150 man front loaded call center?
How could you possibly be confused???!!! Fixing the banking mess will help everyone!!! Then we wouldn’t need debt settlement!! I am still running businesses, just not debt settlement after the TSR ruling!! You should worry more about how to properly train your sales staff so they don’t practice in the very things that you idiots are so eager to denounce!! We called in today Mr Active Debt Solutions & when my assistant is done putting everything together we will be more than glad to share it with the world!! You are no better than the worst of the “BAD ACTORS” that gave our industry a bad name!! You just don’t charge “UPFRONT”!! Becareful what you wish for!! You may have helped run us out, but now it’s our turn to return the favor!!…I have several hundred people that I will be having conversations & correspondence with over the next week that will expose all of you clowns to be exactly what you denounce!! You just don’t charge upfront!! I bowed out before the ruling kicked in, but you chose to expose yourself the solcialist reguation then happily viloated almost everything except “YOU DON’T CHARGE UP FRONT!!” WHAT A JOKE!!
Your argument has me confused as well. At least when a consumer signs up for a bank product they get something (credit/money/a loan), however expensive that product may be. When a consumer signs up for front loaded fee debt settlement, 10 – 34% of them *may* get something in the distant future, and the rest just get screwed out of their money and get nothing but misery. The banking situation is not ideal, but debt settlement was a complete disaster until the TSR.
Then do something about what caused debt settlement to thrive!! Don’t support socialism regulation that now has even more people unemployed!! I create jobs you help destroy what our country was founded on!! FREEDOM!! The banking industry is not ideal??!! REALLY!! They leagally rape people every day!! You idiots are confused because I don’t support bad debt settlemet, but i do support free enterprise, not government control. Educate not regulate. Am I clear or are you still confused??!!
Now I think you’re confused. When a consumer goes to a bank for an expensive product, it’s like going to a high priced prostitute. It’s not ideal, but the consumer gets what they wanted (money/a loan/credit/etc.) When a consumer gets tricked by misleading advertising to sign up with a front loaded fee debt settlement company, significantly more than half are getting zero service for their money. That’s rape. The 10% to 34% that got some debt settled still got raped, but at least they got a reach around. The banks may be greedy, but they aren’t the bad guys. You seem to confuse greed, free enterprise, socialism and rape and your arguments just don’t make sense.
You must be a debt collector!! We recruited people from the collection industry to be our debt mitigators & you sound exactly like a low life debt collector…If you’re not, you should be because you spew the same venem they do!! Every day banks lure people in with rates as low as 0% that the consumer could afford to re-pay…They had no clue that their payments would triple 1 year later not because they were late, but just because! Then after they are rate “RAPED!!” & they are now “SLAVES” & pay these insane payments for 6 years & they lose their job & call into get releif (I can spell it like I like to) the bank says “I’m sorry to hear that, but “PAY WHAT YOU OWE” driving the client into the open arms of the debt settlement industry!! Do I make sense now??!!
thanks for sharing that you recruit low life debt collectors? so once they are on yourside working for you, than they are no longer considered low-life? is the people that collects trash all day low-life too? a job is a job as long as you do it with integrity. you come on here to vent your fustration for what? maybe you should vent the fustration on the companies that made this industry look bad with bunch of loose cowboys, raping and pilaging distress consumers. if you truly care the consumers you wouldn’t have so much anger towards this site or the people on here participating in it. and all the name calling, is it necessary?
We received NO inquiries today. We do not have a sales staff. If there was an inquiry, I would have received the call. When your complaint is filed be prepared for a lawsuit for slander- Youre a liar and a jerk. Go away.
Seriously???? The difference between front loaded debt settlement & a bank??? Really???? You guys are so focussed on your jibberish that it has left you dumbfound to good debate!! LOL!! The banks drove consumers into debt settlement because of all of the reasons I have previously mentioned!! Ask the consumers how they felt when they had 4.99% & were never a minute late in their life, then 1 year later they get whacked with 22% or 29.99% interest tripling their payments. They want to re-pay it, but simply can’t & all you care about is “FRONT LOADED DEBT SETTLEMENT??!!” Please??!!
The last time I checked people hire businesses & attorneys all of the time without any gaurentees!! There are no guarentees in life, most debt settlement companies do give refunds if they can’t settle a debt so what are you talking about??
Consumers enroll because they can’t repay their debt so who are to say that they shouldn’t have the option to hire a reputable debt settlement company to represent them in a situation that debt settlement gives them a viable solution?? Pizza Hut served a bad Pizza so let’s shut them all down by making them wait 6 months to get paid!!
Why don’t you go 6 months without getting paid & better yet ask your employees to go 6 months without getting paid?? Hey better yet, let’s all work for free??
Attorneys also work on contingency