My name is [redacted], and I worked for a debt settlement company in California known as [redacted] in 2010 and 2011. I was hired as a sales consultant, but was later moved into the negotiations department after most of our sales force was laid off as a resulting slowdown in our business due to the after effects of new government ... Read More »

“Hey Steve, I currently work in the Debt Relief Industry for a Company who provides Debt Management, Debt Settlement, and Bankruptcy. As of right now our Company provides an Attorney Model Debt Settlement program. We charge 15% of the enrolled debt which is spread out evenly over the entire payment plan. We also conduct a face to face consultation with ... Read More »

In an article that appeared this morning on CNN, Evan Zullow from the FTC is quoted as saying: Evan Zullow, an attorney in the FTC’s division of financial practices, said he’s aware that companies are looking for loopholes. The FTC, he said, is closely monitoring the industry to make “sure that what they’re doing actually meets the exception.” Simply hiring ... Read More »

Thanks to a tipster (send in your tips here), here is the latest email that is being sent around promoting an attorney model to deal with the FTC TSR rules. It is not clear from the mailer if this is simply an advertisement to help debt settlement companies comply with the new rules or providing a solution they think will ... Read More »

An interesting email went out yesterday introducing yet another entrant into the arena, a law firm, to sell debt relief services for/with. The subject line of the email read “A Legal Alternative to the Advance Fee Ban.” When I inquired with the law firm representative for clarification and additional information for this story I was advised to “cease and desist” ... Read More »

I had a refreshing and frank conversation with U.S. Debt Resolve President Scott Johnson the other day. We talked about pending regulation of debt settlement companies, deceptive marketing, debt settlement companies which are not consumer focused and what the future looks like for the debt settlement industry. Scott talks openly about how regulation of the debt settlement industry is needed ... Read More »

May 12, 2009 It appears that the latest version of the Debt Settlement Consumer Protection Act kills the attorney model people are running to adopt in order to avoid the regulation. While the new bill increases the performance fee earned after a successful settlement to 10% it define a debt settlement service as: “(i) offering to provide advice or service, ... Read More »

Debt settlement companies right now are “running” to find lawyers to front their operations or to be the service providers of debt settlement services because the debt settlement industry feels attorneys are going to be exempt from the new consumer protection law. Let’s see specifically what the Debt Settlement Consumer Protection Act says about this. (B) EXCEPTION.—The term ‘debt settlement ... Read More »