I agree. Hire a lawyer. The creditors hire theirs right away. It's becoming standard practice to immediately go legal. You go late, the sharks come after you fast. Plus they don't negotiate with debt settlement companies anymore. That's like going to a nail salon for an appendectomy.

Bigtim,

I dropped Mezey a couple months ago and would like to know how to get my money back. Can you give me a number to contact for information regarding "UDSA of 1995 of the Uniform Commerical Code". I did a search on this text and didn't find anything. I'm just sick for putting my trust in these crooks.

Thanks for the information.

debt settlement is a ripoff! I find it unfortunate but necessary out of concern for the public's best interest to inform you of numerous fraudulent and deceptive sales practices and illegalities being conducted and perpetrated by Debt Settlement America (DSA) and the owner of this company, Chris Kesterson. DSA is a debt settlement company, however, they often violate the Deceptive Trade Practices Act § 17.46,

“(b) (3) causing confusion or misunderstanding as to the source, sponsorship, approval, or certification by, another; (5) representing that good or services have sponsorship approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities which they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval status, affiliation, or connection which he does not; (24) failing to disclose information concerning goods or services which was known at the time of the transaction if such failure to disclose such information was intended to induce the consumer into a transaction into which the consumer would not have entered had the information been disclosed.”

By confusing consumers not only in Texas but nationwide to the fact that they are a debt settlement company and not a debt consolidation company. In addition, they proclaim all their employees are bonded and this is a blatant untruth. Furthermore, they state their debt negotiators are all certified, again, this is patently false. Often consumers are given advice regarding their credit scores when entering their debt settlement program and that advice again is false and misleading when DSA salesperson(s) tell consumers their credit score will be minimally impacted.

Credit solutions is no good. I went to incharge.com and credit solutions came up instead so i called these people and told them that my husband and i was in debt and they said they could help so i gave them all my information that they ask for and they never paid anything on them no we got turned over to collection agencies and they said they never got paid

CSA is claiming to help people get out of debt by settling amounts owed to creditors at a percentage of the amount at the time one enters into an agreement with them. In return, they collect a service fee 15% of the total debt. However, I now realized that they have taken my money and failed to fulfill the obligations of the contract. The BBB has 400 complaints against this company over the last 3 years, most in the last year and it would appear that due to high volume, these complaints are not being addressed before more and more people are getting scammed by this company.

CSA tells customers to stop paying the current bills, while they make an offer to settle the entire sum owed at a smaller amount. In my experience - Only one debt of the 7 initial accounts was settled, and for 60% of the initial amount, not 40% as advertised. This account was never requested by me to be settled, it appears that CSA has some benefit in settling this account with Providian.

The other debts I have requested to settle have not been settled, despite multiple requests. As a result, Discover took me to court and I have become delinquent on numerous accounts. As before my credit was just overextended, and I had been paying accounts on time, I now have multiple delinquencies and my credit is ruined.

When trying to reach CSA, 75% of calls are dropped or do not go thru. The ones that do, I am told that someone will get back to me, however no return calls are made. They have essentially taken 5000 dollars and stopped doing any of the services that they should under the contract.

When I finally established contact with a person, I asked that they put down in writing their promises and they ignored the request and have not refunded the fee. It is simply an issue of the company charging money and not fulfilling any obligations, instead ruining the person's credit for good. This is the biggest scam and BBB is too backlogged to stop this company from ruining more lives.

Credit Solutions talks a good line until they get your info, then everything goes the opposite way. They will not return clients calls, do not respond to emails, do not contact creditors. Their 1st rule: "Let Credit Solutions do the talking for you", is a laugh. Clients are told to fax creditor letters to them so that they can respond or help the client respond, that too is a joke.They claim to be members of the Dallas Better Business Bureau but as of June 1, 2006, they were not. There have been 126 complaints filed with the Bureau in less that the three years that Credit Solutions has been in business. Settling these complaints is like pulling teeth. And most often does not happen.

They claim to settle their clients accounts at 60% savings in 12-36 months. that the client is then debt free. It does not happen. Nor do they have monthly follow-ups or credit counseling as they state.

They give tricks and loopholes for clients so that the creditors cannot reach them. There are two printed in the handbook. I called and finally got one of their reps when a very pushy creditor continued to call me. I received a very blunt answer when I told the employee my problem: "We do not contact the creditors, they have to call us."

They claim to have "working relationships with the credit card companies. I received a letter from Advanta stating that is not true. Credit Solutions is not regulated by the FTC. This was after I called Credit Solutions and was told yes they do work with Advanta. They have to have a checking account number from the clients so that they can take their fee out monthly.

I cancelled the one at my bank and faxed a ternination letter to Credit Solutions on June 2, 2006. It did not take them long to call me because they could not get their money. I told the employee my problems with them and that I wanted the money returned because they had done absolutely nothing to earn it. I was told that he needed to talk with his boss and that he would get back to me. That was one month ago.

I urge anyone who has had dealings with this company to put it on this web site. They need to be stopped. Their false advertising needs to be stopped.

i just dropped mezey,iwent to a real lawyer who told me unless you have at least 40% of your debt in your trust account companies wont settle,they will then take you to court,if you have more than one credit debt somebody is not going to get paid,mezey will send you paper work to file but never will you see a lawyer to protect you from a judgement,so beware of any promises made,they cant be kept,mezey will take their fees and leave you still in debt

First of all number one... A summons was already placed before you came to mezey and associates. You idiots put yourself in so much debt you want to place the blame on the company. If you had retained a lawyer you would have paid a lot more. Plus you feel because you retain mezey and associates that we are suppose to make the balance you owe poof into thin air... When we do negotiate and get a good settlement from a summons.. You losers don't have a dime to pay the settlement and make us look stupid and the negotiating of a summons was waste of time.. We should be sueing you for making us look stupid. You ruined our reputation by being and utter complete looser for not paying your bill for one and two for believing that we can make your balance go away and you never have to pay your bill. Pay your damn bill.

Credit Solutions promised to call once per month to update me...they never called once. They promised to get payoffs of credit card debts for 40-60% of balances, but, they pushed the fact that most are getting it done for 40% They didn't tell me that the balances rise exponentially at the same time CS is counseling me to wait longer before CS engages in negotiations.

At the same time they are collecting money monthly from my account. The longer they wait, the higher the cc balances, and the more money CS puts in their pocket....; great for CS and a rip off to me. After finally getting through to someone after 9 months, that someone (you never talk to anyone twice!) made me do a "hurry up" settlement with one creditor which was 60% of the original debt. This is when I stopped payment ($35 bank charge). The bank tells me that the only way I can take away the power of attorney that CS demanded is to close the account! CS obviously did not offer to apply any of the money they had collected from me towards this settlement.

I contacted an attorney at that point and he advised me to "pull the plug" on them. The contracted CS promise was that half the monthly money would go towards their service fees and half would go towards the debt payoffs.... Yeah,...right!.... I feel so stupid! Now their accounting department does not return my calls....Meanwhile, the 5 or so other credit card companies have turned my accounts over to collection agents who are getting judgements against me here in Florida.... Fortunately, I have no wages or assets they can attach, but I pity the poor folks who do, because these judgements will have teeth in them, while all the cash they have that might be available to the debt collectors is in the pockets of CS! The Scam is that CS can only prey on people who do not have any way out of the debt spiral; those who are unlikely to have funds interesting to accomplished attorneys (the ones who always win are expensive)

Well,... I can do it....So this is what I have in store for them: I am talking to a well known fraud attorney and personal friend in Austin, Texas in that State's Capitol, as well as my attorney here in Florida. The attorneys are talking to each other. A class action suit is being researched. The Attorney Generals of the US, the State of Texas, and the State of Florida are being informed via formal complaints next week. A formal complaint will be made on a personal level to a high level fiqure in the Federal Trade Commission.

And finally, CS can expect some unannounced "visitors" to their office who are experts in "debt consolidation" matters..... 'Ever seen the Texas government roadside signs that warn, "Don't Mess With Texas"? Well,....they might be changing them to: "Don't Mess With Marty"...... Stay tuned.

Also, I have managed to collect several names of employees who have contacted me from CS over the last year. A follow up message in this forum will include those names if permitted . All those who made unkept promises need to take responsibility for damages to me as well in my book.

I have read what others here have writen about Credit Solutions and sadly I too think it is true. Sadly for me I did not get out early like others. I wish I would have found this page a long long time ago

I have been with them for over a year and have payed them thousands of dollars. I have settled only one of my five accounts at a decent amount. It was settled at about 50%. I settled another but it was nearly 90% and it was only because I pushed them to settle the account for me. I am now starting to pay off another account which they say I am settling for around 60% but it is really about 80% of what I owed when I started at credit solutions.

I still have two outstanding accounts and one is large and growing all the time. I had the chance to settle it at 50%, but they wanted it all in one payment and within like a week so I could not do it. Now that account is at 80% in two payments which I cant pay either. The settlement person told me that she knew this would happen and that she said I should have payed it at 50%.

I think they think I have tons of cash hiden in the mattress or something because they call with these "great deals" and think I should be happy to put out 4 months income in one day.

Another issue I have that has been reported here is that you talk to someone different every time and they are all calling you even though you wanted to settle one account and hold off on the one they want to settle. Its not possible to settle them all at once, but they dont understand that. I will probably only settle one account for 50% or less, the rest will be around 80% or higher. They promised at first 40 to 60% but they sure are not coming through. They also said it could be payed off over 4 years, but a little over a year now and Im getting threats to go to court already. I feel lied to and have no ideal how to get out of this.

Someone stated that some states dont allow this kind of operation? Which ones, I hope I live in one so I can sue them. I would love to get my money back that they have not earned.

Also someone here is a former employee of them. Is it true that the major credit cards do not let you settle over longer periods of time, but want it all in a few payments? That is what I get told all the time.

I feel ripped off and would love suggestions from anyone here on how to deal with this (in a legal manor of course). Will the creditors still deal with me after going so long without paying them? Thanks.

Credit Solutions Of America and it's affiliates are all rip offs. I wanted to add my warning about anyone thinking of doing business with or going to work with this company- BEWARE! The have 3 locations in the Dallas area with a new addition called lending.com.

If you are looking for a place with one of the highest rates of attrition, meetings where you can hear every cuss word under the sun, be threatened weekly about your job and wonder who the manager would like to sleep with next- then be my guest.They highly encourage you to spend most of your life there too- because you are told that it is the best job in the world! Why is it the best job?? Money, money, money! Watch out- after the client gets fed up with not being able to reach the departments that are to be working on their accounts and find out that there are several credit card companies that do not work with settlement companies or that the client's state does not even participate in debt settlement- they cancel!

Credit Solutions promised to eliminate our debt, by reducing balances to 40%, and letting our balances "age" in the meantime while building up a balance to pay of the protion of debt that would remain.

This is a direct quote from one of their emails: "At the beginning of your program we contact your creditors. After they have been contacted, we allow your account to age. This aging period consist of non-payment to the creditor. This shifts the leverage from the creditor to you, the client. During this aging period, you are to save as much as possible whenever possible, as this will help you get out of debt sooner."

They AGED our accounts into collections and arbitration!!
My wife spent an average 4-5 hours a week on the phone trying to prod them along to resolve our debt. after 3 months and only one settlement for the original balance of the debt, we finally severed ties with them after paying almost $2000 in fees.

Do not use this company, contact a local credit counseling agency and let them help. At least they were honest!

John
East Peoria, Illinois
U.S.A.

My friend referred me to Mezey & Associates and couldn't be happier. We can finally sleep at night! It's been only 8 months now and we had our first card settled for less then half of what we owed. So, I'm real glad we decided to take the plunge.

We spent a lot of time researching all the options and procrastinated for a year, before we had little choice. Most ads have all kinds of promises but looking further were not really all that legit. A lawyer on the other hand has to comply with higher standards. One company suggested we use our remaining balance to pay their initial fees upfront and keep that card out of their program. That didn't sound ethical to me so I never called them back.

So, I'd suggest anyone with a debt problem seek an attorneys advice first and last.

to mezay employee,if we paid our debts you wouldnt be in business,which is by the way a profit maker at 15%,your company saids that if you go to court i would be represented,will if i send my payment to you you take your fee im going to get a judgement because i didnt pay my credit cards i paid you,that makes us a loser alright,one all ways ,after 120 days that its takes to pay part of your fee,youstart putting my money in a trust account,that inly you have access to,please tell me why that is ,you even chanded your web site takind accoun log in away,please answer this loser these questions,if you nothing to hide.anyone is gets into credit card debt isnt aloser they will be if they trust mezey

Please keep in mind that this is an open forum. So some of these posts may be competitors, or are disgruntled ex-employees pretending to be clients, not necessarily who they say they are. Many of these posts are from the same originating server, even though they use different names, so are actually bogus, or deliberately sending multiple messages under the pretense they are different people. The few complaints are all from the same handful of forum members. Most of the similar complaints are from the same originating server.

Also, many companies have 100's to 1,000's of complaints, and they are the ones that get the attention of the regulatory agencies. Companies with a handful of complaints with 1,000's of clients are actually rare, and should be commended.

So, realize in an open forum what your reading may not be legitimate.

I'm real pleased with Mezey too. I can only encourage others to hang in there and not to listen to the few negative clients who blame everyone else for the problems they created for themselves. Hang in there and see it through and they will dig you out of the hole you got yourself in.