“Dear Steve,
In the spring of 2011 I was concerned about carrying debt into my retirement. I received an unsolicited letter about a federal program that was being offered in Maryland for persons with at least $10,000 in debt. I had about $24,000 credit card debt.
I was contacted by 4-5 companies, one of them was GHS Solutions. I had never arranged for such services before, and am naturally skeptical. I was contacted by GHS many times by phone and reminded that there was a time limit on how long this federal opportunity would be available. When I was still slow to repond passed an initial committment, I was contacted by a company manager – not a sales rep.
I signed the contract which started the withdrawals from my checking account, but did not complete any subsequent requests for paperwork. I did not sign or return the power of attorney document. GHS reminded me in several lettters to complete and return the document so that they could begin their work. I did not.
GHS has withdrawn approximately $389.00 p/month since about June 2011. At first I received a statement indicating the withdrawal and the amounts that were allocated to GHS fees and the amount accumulating to paying my outstanding debts – about $100.00 p/month. After a ferw months I realized that i would not need GHS to resolve the debt. I was able to arrange interest levels which would allow my to pay the entire debt within 3 years.
However, I dragged my feet about notifying GHS that I was withdrawing from the program and am still a GHS client and they continue to withdraw money from my account. Now that they have an on-line account management sertvices I do not receive a statement in the mail, nor by e-mail.
Today I received a 2-page letter from GHS. Paragraph 2 ends with ” Unforntunately the pratical econmic effect of the new regulations has prevented GHS from accepting any ‘new’ customers after October 27, 2010.” Paragraph 4 ends with “.. we have spent the last several months attempting to identify a partner or merger candidate..we have not succeed.” Paragraph 5 “We have recently entered into an agreement where a third-party business process services company will take over our internal operations.” The letter goes on to announce a higher monthly service fee which will be decucted “With your approval..”
1. Does this mean that GHS has “sold” my arrangements with them to a third party?
2. How could I become a GHS custormer in 2011 if they were prevented from accepting new accounts after 10/27/2010?
I assume I will need the services of a lawyer to resign from customer status, particularly to receive the full amount withdrawn by GHS from my account.
Thanks,
Carol Ann”
Dear Carol Ann,
That certainly is a confusing letter. But luckily for you, you only recently enrolled.
You will not need the services of a lawyer to withdraw. But what you will prudently need to do to prevent further withdrawals is to change your bank account number with your bank. While a simple notice should have done or do the trick, it sounds like things are in a state of flux at GHS Solutions and I’m not at all confident your notice will be properly recorded. The last thing you probably want to deal with is another errant withdrawal.
From what you’ve shared it sounds like GHS Solutions is bailing on their clients and either selling their customer base or contracting it out to a third party to service. At the same time they are asking their for more money while they appear to be providing less services.
Your funds should have been deposited with a third party escrow company like Global Client Solutions or NoteWorld. Since GHS Solutions is prevented from deducting any fees until they provide the service, all your funds should be there for you to reclaim. Please contact your escrow company.
If you can, please forward me a copy of that letter you got to click here.
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
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I am completely disgusted with GHS.Â
They lure you in with promises and then fail to deliver. I
followed their instructions to the letter and got nowhere. I
received a subpoena for court after they failed to communicate with
one of my creditors and upon calling, I was told the legal department
would respond and handle the response to the court for me. I
was very skeptical as they had not taken care of their job to that
point so I called on day 15 of the 20 I had to reply to the court and
low and behold; nothing had happened. I then took swift action as I
was scared to death and negotiated a settlement of 40% on my own and
within 5 days I was paid off on my major creditor. After
negotiating my own settlement for one of my two accounts, I then
turned my attention to my remaining debt. GHS transferred with
my consent an additional sum which they were certain was enough to
pay my remaining creditor. I was told they would be settled
within 10 days. Now here I am one full month later, 25 phone
calls, 10 disconnects (that’s what they say), and 2 hang ups by
supervisor (Jason, who is located in Costa Rica along with their call
center) with nothing. The phone reps can only assure me they
are working on it and give me grief over demanding a supervisor.Â
After speaking with a supervisor he tells me the collection agency
was let go by my creditor and a new third party was not yet
assigned. I asked why nobody else could tell me that as I spoke
with 6 people since the debt recall had taken place. Of course
Jason had no answer for my question and let me know all the reps are
very well trained. I asked Jason to own my issue since they
have the money to settle and could get rid of me forever, however
Jason refused to do so as this would make him too busy. His
exact words were, “imagine if all our clients asked me to do
this.”  What a joke! 25 calls and nobody wants
to get this settled and done; then I realized I’m coming up on
another monthly payment due. In order to avoid another payment,
I called my credit card myself to negotiate as I knew they would
certainly do whatever they could to get their money. I was
promptly transferred to another area which ended up being the new
debt collector. Here is where it gets really good! The
new debt collector (ESA Processing) is actually a larger portion of
the company which owns GHS! The debt which was to be settled
was being managed in house with GHS!!! The kicker to all of
this is the merger of GHS took place in August 2011 and here we are
in November and GHS people (again in Costa Rica) had no idea!Â
How could they even begin to help if they don’t even realize their
parent company owns the debt! So after talking with ESA, I was
ensured my account would be settled in 24 hours. I immediately
received and offer via email and I called GHS back as the ESA rep
stated I had to work through them. After 2 more phone cutoffs,
I finally get a rep and state I have an offer and I would like to
accept the settlement and have them paid within 4 days. The
offer was $189.95 more than what I had saved with GHS, which the rep
was quick to let me know about. After confirming (for the
second time as I let her know immediately upon answering) I wanted to
have her draft the money out of my account and pay the creditor; I
was placed on hold. Guess who answered? Jason, my
supervisor who hung up on me just an hour earlier. I managed to
do in 1 hour what they couldn’t do in a month. Jason informed
me I didn’t have enough money and so for the 3rd time I once again
explained what needed to happen (funny when I transferred a lump sum
of 1000.00, I had no trouble). Jason asked to record the
conversation, which is standard and I agreed. Jason agreed to
take money from my account (his math was 60.00 off to the low side so
we still wouldn’t be able to settle) and then they would settle by
November 18 (which is the day after another payment would be drafted
from me!). I let Jason know first his math was wrong and second
the account needs to be settled in 4 days (in order to have enough
time to cancel my direct draft they would take, which would leave me
fighting them for 300.00 later). Jason got an immediate
attitude and said he would take the money and process the payment.Â
When I asked how much he was going to be drafted since his math was
wrong I was given the response of, “Why don’t you tell me!”.Â
As you can imagine, I was shocked as a company was going to take
money and couldn’t / wouldn’t tell me how much. After demanding
to know how much would be taken Jason told me he could do the math
and then hung up on me! I know from experience by the
previously mentioned draft of 1000.00, 24 hours could not happen as
the promise of my money being taken in 24 hours is incorrect because
it takes 48 hours to process (apparently he didn’t know or didn’t
care as he assured me the money would be gone). So now I will
have to follow up with 3 or 4 calls tomorrow to confirm amount and
date for withdraw and when my settlement will be mailed. So to
sum this up; I’ve paid GHS over 1000.00 in fees and they’ve done
absolutely nothing! I almost went to court, I settled both
debts myself (for the same % as they promise, and I may lose a very
good job opportunity as I have this lingering debt which should be
gone as of 2 weeks ago. To say I’m very unhappy is a severe
understatement and I am now know all they desire is to get rich off
of hurting people. The underlying question is why are we
calling Costa Rica when Americans need jobs, but again we know it’s
all about the mighty dollar!Â
You mentioned ESA but do you really mean EFA?
I am completely disgusted with GHS.Â
They lure you in with promises and then fail to deliver. I
followed their instructions to the letter and got nowhere. I
received a subpoena for court after they failed to communicate with
one of my creditors and upon calling, I was told the legal department
would respond and handle the response to the court for me. I
was very skeptical as they had not taken care of their job to that
point so I called on day 15 of the 20 I had to reply to the court and
low and behold; nothing had happened. I then took swift action as I
was scared to death and negotiated a settlement of 40% on my own and
within 5 days I was paid off on my major creditor. After
negotiating my own settlement for one of my two accounts, I then
turned my attention to my remaining debt. GHS transferred with
my consent an additional sum which they were certain was enough to
pay my remaining creditor. I was told they would be settled
within 10 days. Now here I am one full month later, 25 phone
calls, 10 disconnects (that’s what they say), and 2 hang ups by
supervisor (Jason, who is located in Costa Rica along with their call
center) with nothing. The phone reps can only assure me they
are working on it and give me grief over demanding a supervisor.Â
After speaking with a supervisor he tells me the collection agency
was let go by my creditor and a new third party was not yet
assigned. I asked why nobody else could tell me that as I spoke
with 6 people since the debt recall had taken place. Of course
Jason had no answer for my question and let me know all the reps are
very well trained. I asked Jason to own my issue since they
have the money to settle and could get rid of me forever, however
Jason refused to do so as this would make him too busy. His
exact words were, “imagine if all our clients asked me to do
this.”  What a joke! 25 calls and nobody wants
to get this settled and done; then I realized I’m coming up on
another monthly payment due. In order to avoid another payment,
I called my credit card myself to negotiate as I knew they would
certainly do whatever they could to get their money. I was
promptly transferred to another area which ended up being the new
debt collector. Here is where it gets really good! The
new debt collector (ESA Processing) is actually a larger portion of
the company which owns GHS! The debt which was to be settled
was being managed in house with GHS!!! The kicker to all of
this is the merger of GHS took place in August 2011 and here we are
in November and GHS people (again in Costa Rica) had no idea!Â
How could they even begin to help if they don’t even realize their
parent company owns the debt! So after talking with ESA, I was
ensured my account would be settled in 24 hours. I immediately
received and offer via email and I called GHS back as the ESA rep
stated I had to work through them. After 2 more phone cutoffs,
I finally get a rep and state I have an offer and I would like to
accept the settlement and have them paid within 4 days. The
offer was $189.95 more than what I had saved with GHS, which the rep
was quick to let me know about. After confirming (for the
second time as I let her know immediately upon answering) I wanted to
have her draft the money out of my account and pay the creditor; I
was placed on hold. Guess who answered? Jason, my
supervisor who hung up on me just an hour earlier. I managed to
do in 1 hour what they couldn’t do in a month. Jason informed
me I didn’t have enough money and so for the 3rd time I once again
explained what needed to happen (funny when I transferred a lump sum
of 1000.00, I had no trouble). Jason asked to record the
conversation, which is standard and I agreed. Jason agreed to
take money from my account (his math was 60.00 off to the low side so
we still wouldn’t be able to settle) and then they would settle by
November 18 (which is the day after another payment would be drafted
from me!). I let Jason know first his math was wrong and second
the account needs to be settled in 4 days (in order to have enough
time to cancel my direct draft they would take, which would leave me
fighting them for 300.00 later). Jason got an immediate
attitude and said he would take the money and process the payment.Â
When I asked how much he was going to be drafted since his math was
wrong I was given the response of, “Why don’t you tell me!”.Â
As you can imagine, I was shocked as a company was going to take
money and couldn’t / wouldn’t tell me how much. After demanding
to know how much would be taken Jason told me he could do the math
and then hung up on me! I know from experience by the
previously mentioned draft of 1000.00, 24 hours could not happen as
the promise of my money being taken in 24 hours is incorrect because
it takes 48 hours to process (apparently he didn’t know or didn’t
care as he assured me the money would be gone). So now I will
have to follow up with 3 or 4 calls tomorrow to confirm amount and
date for withdraw and when my settlement will be mailed. So to
sum this up; I’ve paid GHS over 1000.00 in fees and they’ve done
absolutely nothing! I almost went to court, I settled both
debts myself (for the same % as they promise, and I may lose a very
good job opportunity as I have this lingering debt which should be
gone as of 2 weeks ago. To say I’m very unhappy is a severe
understatement and I am now know all they desire is to get rich off
of hurting people. The underlying question is why are we
calling Costa Rica when Americans need jobs, but again we know it’s
all about the mighty dollar!Â