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oscar0915

I wish I could ask Langhorne for a $380 refund for March, April and May 2008 since they did absolutely nothing for me during this time except BLAME me for not paying off some pdl's.

BE AWARE - Langhorne will ask you to pay off some PDL's even though you do not have enough funds in your Langhorne account to do so. They wanted me to pay off my cash now 2 1/2 months after I entered their program even though they knew I did not have enough money in my Langhorne account to do so. When you tell them you do not have enough money, they sarcastically come back at you and say if you choose not to pay off this PDL by such and such date, the amount you owe to the pdl will dramatically increase because I FAILED to pay them...what a joke...after 3 months on board with Langhorne, I paid Langhorne $1,968 in their fees and only had $52 in my account leftover (and also had to deal with a $310 wage garnishment) but they want you to come up with $300 or $400 anyway to pay off pdl's. Do you see what I am saying....Langhorne does NOT CARE about you. They did not care about the wage garnishment and they wanted me to pay off some pdl's even though I did not have enough funds to do so.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:31 am Subject:

Oscar. . .you are preachin' to the choir on that one. I don't feel that they are any better than the PDLs themselves. They take, take, take, and what have you gotten back? Perhaps I am coming down on them a tad hard but my experience with them, as little as it was, was not a good one. ANYONE can do this themselves. Yes it does take hard work, and at times you feel you could just go to the nearest bridge and take a leap but the encouragement I got from this board was what kept me going. Once I got my hutzpah back (aka self esteem) there was no stopping me. AND it cost me nothing other than what I was obligated to pay, or less. Keep up the good work and come here often for help with whatever is ailing you at the moment.

Guest · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:06 am Subject:

Sohow can they garnish your wages without a court judgement? That scares the hell out of me!

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:11 am Subject:

I don't think they actually "garnished" his wages. I think what they did was to invoke his voluntary wage assignment, which Langhorne apparently neglected to tell him that he needed to revoke. The second "garnishment", after he had revoked the voluntary wage assignment, should not have been processed by his payroll department.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:12 am Subject:

That's exactly why it is important to cover ALL your bases with these guys. You can't leave anything to chance. Just because you ask them not to debit your account, not to put any wage assignment into play, not to call you, not to call your friends and family, etc. it doesn't mean they will honor that request. They have a mind of their own and they do whatever strikes their fancy for the day. Do anything and everything you can to protect your money!

oscar0915

Exactly what happened...thank you for clarifying.

Guest · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:28 pm Subject:

I was told that Langhorne automatically sends revocations of wage assignments when it notifies creditors it's representing someone. Assuming they did that in Oscar's case, is it there fault my cash now broke the law and sent something to his boss anyway? If AG's that have police power can't make lenders obey the law, it seems pretty unrealistic to expect settlement companies to do so.

Seems to me that someone looking into using a settlement company to handle pdl's should use the info available on this board and elsewhere to educate themselves understand that pdl's are, at best, barely legal and at worst (which is most of them) a criminal indictment looking for a place to happen. Then if they want to use Langhorne, PDL Assistance or the lastest one, Oakview Law (i.e., the guy that owns this board and benefits most when moderators and hall-of-famers trash his competition) at least they do it with their eyes open.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:50 pm Subject:

Personally I don't feel that anyone on this board "trashes" settlement companies. They (we) might give our honest opinion of the situation as a result of personal experience but it is just that, an honest, personal opinion. People can do what they feel is best with the information they receive on this board. They can use it or they can disregard it. That is their choice. And yes, I think people are being educated from use of this board and I am finding that they are coming on here with a plan of action ready when they do post. As for anyone benefiting from what is said on this board, meaning financially, I totally disagree with that statement. Most people do benefit from the advice they get and that is exactly what this board was designed for. If you read through the posts, more often than not, posters are encouraged to settle their PDLs on their own, without benefit of outside sources. And finally, if you don't go into anything in life with your eyes wide open, you are in for a rude awakening once you reach your desitnation. Have a great weekend.

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:08 am Subject:

I must add my little tid bit in on this one too. I agree with llw. I certainly didn't trash PDL Assistance even though there were a lot of things they did that appeared shady to me. I'm sure that those companies help some people, but the problem is, they don't care who you are or where you're from. It's like the same rules apply to all. If they know so much about PDL's.. why didn't they tell me from the get go, "All the one's you have are illegal in your state, so we can settle for what you owe in principle, which turns out to be about $100." Instead of overinflating what I owed. Technically if you belived what the PDL companies were saying initially, I owed around $800. PDL Assistance said I owed them $1200. (????) Where did the extra $400 come from?
The beauty of it is, because of the fact that I grew more suspucious of them because they seemed to have a serious problem manning their phones... I did a google search on them and ended up here!

Now, I realize that they could be helpful because they deal with the PDL's for you, but this particular one told me I would have to call them all myself and tell them that they needed to call PDL Assistance. What then, am I paying them for? Why would they not contact the companies for me? They lied to me, flat out, to get me to sign up, they didn't send my $150 welcome packet out when when they said they would. Which by the way, the welcome packet contained less infomation than I found here on this site. So i paid $150 for an email.
I am not trashing the company I am stating facts. They're phones rang busy or I got telephone company (you know the tone) error messages for almost 3 straight days when I called there. How would you expect the PDL companies to even consider calling them when even their customers can't get through? lol.

I posted this so people know as many facts as possible. Not to hurt anyone's feelings. I ended up setting my pdls and not paying another dime to them. In fact, I got a refund from one. With PDL Assistance, I would have paid them about $1000 to pay back illegal companies whom I'd already paid what I owed.
Smile

Jen

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:57 am Subject:

Jen, I agree with your additional statements. When I called Langhorne I was told that even though I had already paid back what I owed, I would still need to "overpay" the PDLs by a dollar amount close to $200, each. I asked why and was told that was just the way the PDLs worked. A "thank you" for leaving me alone and going away. Plus the fees that I would need to pay to Langhorne to receive the "privilege" of the PDLs going away, were way too high for me to comprehend. As I have said a million times over, I realize that people are in business to earn money but the people they are dealing with are already struggling, scared, fractic and the list of adjectives could go on and on. The are seeking a way out, not a way to add more debt on top of what they already can't handle. Thank God this board exists. If I didn't find it when I did I really don't know where I would be today and what shape I would be in. I could venture a guess that I would be taking a 2 week vacation at R wing of Strong Memorial Hospital, weaving boondoggle and talking with Elvis. These people were my lifeline. I have learned SO much from this board and I have learned a valuable lesson, that I can and do whatever I put my mind to no matter how grim it seems at the moment. I am now totally PDL and I intend to keep it that for a good long time.

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 9:27 am Subject:

Can I get a big AMEN, Sister!!! Absolutely on the spot! PDL's are preditors. I've seen people post (I'm assuming employees of PDL companies) and say "You knew they were illegal when you took out the loan" Uh, no, we didn't. They courted us! They sent the emails, they posted their business on the internet for all to see. It is not our responsibility as consumers to know which companies are legal and illegal. It is however the companies responsibility to know what laws they must follow if they are going to do business outside of their home base state.

Sorry for the rant. But after all the reading I've done, and the personal experiance I've had myself, I think not very highly of the PDL consolidation companies. If they are going to offer a service and label it as "personally fitting your needs" then they need to do their homework. How in the world, is paying $1000 better than getting a refund?? LOL.

I think this site is fantastic! The fact that people can post both sides of the story is what makes it great. Some people have had success, others, like myself and llw, have had a bad experience. It prooves, these companies are not for everyone. Big thanks, again, to everyone who's made this forum possible.
Community Hug

Jen

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:10 pm Subject:

I've never dealt with PDL's, and thus I've also never dealt with PDL consolidation companies, but after reading a lot of posts on this forum that are similar to the ones above, I'm starting to wonder about something.

I did a lot of research on Consumer credit counseling Services when I was trying to figure out a way to pay all of my credit card debt. The CCCS companies charge a small monthly fee to the consumer, but they receive most of their funding from the credit card companies (through some kind of pool that the credit card companies donate to). So even though the credit card companies are willing to work with CCCS to lower your interest rates, your minimum monthly payments aren't much lower than what you were already paying. They receive most of their funding from the credit card companies and they play by the rules that the credit card companies set.

What I'm now wondering is whether these consolidation companies that deal with PDLs also receive funding from the PDLs. Therefore, they are not really willing to go outside the rules that the PDL companies have set. Or maybe it's just that in order to keep the PDL companies willing to work with them, they have to abide within certain boundaries. Whatever the reason, it seems to me from the posts that I've read, that the PDL consolidation companies are not necessarily looking out for the consumer's best interests.

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 6:15 pm Subject:

Interesting theory. Any other thougts?

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 6:20 pm Subject:

We live in a world where money of any kind from any country rules almost everything and with that....any thing goes.

People of all nations get off the "Credit Grid" Exclamation

Pay cash

It is the only way.

oscar0915

I agree with alias 158. Langhorne admits they have excellent working relationships with certain payday loan companies and give them preferred status...yep "preferred status" in their mind means overpayment! Langhorne definitely has something going on with many of the pdl companies.

I wish I could sue Langhorne for NOT telling me that these loans are illegal in my state of Indiiana.

Langhorne is not stupid...they collect 95% of their payment in the first 4 - 5 months before they have you pay off on the loans. I'm sure they know there is a semi-high failure rate on their customers part after they receive their fees. I get so angry they wanted me to payoff 3 loans even though I did not have nearly enough money in my Langhorne savings account. It's like they did this purposely knowing I could not pay off these loans early and then told me I failed the program after they received 95% of their payment.

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:34 pm Subject:

Bingo Oscar. I am sorry for what you have had to deal with. Please know that you will get through this. Just follow the advice you get from this board and you too will be PDL free in the not so distant future. I honestly feel that they are no better than the PDLs themselves and that scares me. As more and more people become aware of this situation I am afraid that they are "morphing" to something that will not identify them as being part of the PDL world.

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