Has anyone dealt with Christian Debt Consultants?

I just read these after speaking with Christian Debt Consultants. Can anyone give an update? One person said they were very happy etc. Did we confirm that the negative press above ewas based on anthother company? Kevin
email removed per forum rules---mobile

Update!

I decided to do it myself and just about an hour ago received a fax from Bank of America settling my debt at 30%. I know I could have gone lower, but I have been saving and had the money. My goal has been with all my creditors is to settle for 40%...so I got within that. So one down, 3 to go. Glad I didn't go with a Debt Settlement Company right now. Hopefully the rest of the creditors are as easy to deal with.

Excellent! Great news! A 30% settlement is awesome!!

I have been using Christian Debt Consultants for six months now. I have settled on two accounts and am saving for the remaining accounts I have. At the moment, one credit card company is "suing" me (a pretrial conference/mediation thing)
and they referred me to a low cost legal services company to help with the legal aspect. We'll see how that turns out. I have been very pleased so far as they have been right up front with me and have responded to all of my e-mails and calls right away. I am also working with Irvin and Becky. So far no complaints!!!

Also, be aware that you can also negotiate a settlement or payment arrangement at that hearing. It is a lot easier because you are dealing with the attorney face-to-face, and not only that - when you get a satisfactory arrangement it will suspend any possible judgment (you do NOT want a judgment if you can help it).

Another update......
I just settled with CHASE today. I had missed 4 payments to date. My current balance was almost $28K....originally $24K. I settled at 40% which was $10,900.

I definitely recommend to everyone......try it on your own first. Just be patient and have thick skin. Get past the first few months of harrassing and mean phone calls and they actually get less frequent and the account managers become nicer.

Now I got to save up a little more and work on two more creditors.

Good luck to you all.

how much did you owned and what was your monthly.

Christian Debt Consultants (CDC) promised they could help with our existing mounting unsecured debts by contacting our creditors and working out a suitable plan of repayment that would satisfy both parties. They claimed this would prevent legal actions against me and give me an honest, fair and Christian way of settling these issues. I turned to them so I could do the honorable, Christian thing and repay my debts that were incurred due to my employer closing its business and stealing all of our benefits and pay.

I paid CDC over $2,400.00 in a six month period for nothing more than one letter sent out to my creditors stating I was working with CDC. The harassing phone calls and letters from the creditors never let up and all of them said they had no agreement with CDC. Every once in a while a creditor would offer CDC a lump sum settlement that all parties concerned knew I could not pay. CDC's answer was always the same: "don't worry about it as it can be settled at a later date". CDC still continued to draw their fee from my bank account.

Finally a sheriff showed up at my front door serving me a warrant to appear in court from one of my creditors. I immediately contact CDC and they had me fax them the warrant and they said they would send it over to their law department. That was the last I ever heard from CDC.

The end results was I was out over $2,400.00, still ended up filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy which cost another $2,000.00 and had to close by bank account to prevent CDC from drawing even more from it. Their last draw was after the warrant was served.

I send Mr. Rick Hall (Managing Partner) a Priority letter requesting a full refund for funds they had taken from me and not earned. As following CDC normal communications guidelines, I have not heard one word from them and this has been over a several week period of time.

The very sad part about this entire ordeal is that this company conducts business as a Christian Organization and deals in "Christ Name"

I am disinclined to believe that this is a bad company.

There is only 1 complaint on Complaints Board (a copy/paste of this exact post).

There is only 1 (Resolved) complaint on the BBB.
"http://www.bbb.org/southeast-texas/business-reviews/credit-and-debt-counseling/christian-debt-consultants-llp-in-jasper-tx-90021053"

It sounds to me as if this a great company to work with and I am impressed by their record. The only complaints against them seem to be anonymous posters on this board.

If you have a legitimate complaint, file it with the BBB, the FTC, and your State Attorney General's office (where you'll have to provide your name and *prove* that you were ripped off).

i gave these guys a call and they promise the world to me and it was only going to cost 35.00 a month to manage the account. then i got my contract on they forgot to tell me about the 1800.00 up front fee and the the monthly service fee spot was blank so they can fill it in with the new price after i sign the papers. never do bussiness with christain debt consolidation..

tadams14 - did you have the money in lump sum to settle with the credit card companies? I'm not sure if I can hold off not paying a credit card company for 4 or more months.

I have not worked with the group in question but I believe in debt settlement. It reduced 50k in debt to $26k and saved my marriage quite honestly. I was denied a chapter 7 by the judge and thought I was out of luck. My wife and I worked with a guy by the name of Steve Collins at OnPar Debt Relief. It took them just over two years and we are now out of debt. My credit did not worsen and now I can rebuild with their help. God Bless them.

I just read that..man, I sound like a commercial for debt settlement.

We went this company and please I warn you do not do it. They took over $7000. and did not help us. We still had to come up with the money to settle 1 debt, they did pay off 1 small debt and this was in a years time. They wouldnt answer calls, emails or respond to faxes. We finally got frustrated after court people would come to the door with hearing and law suit papers,threats of of taking our wages. We are negotiating on our own. This is best.

I personally just settled my last card through CDC. If you don't plan on any large purchases like a car or house while you're in their program then it's a great option. You WILL get bombarded with calls from creditors, and when you tell people that your going through CDC, they will say negative things. Don't let that discourage you. It's so worth it in the end. I had $10K in CC debt and it only took me one year to pay it off through them even though I signed up for three years. Now, my credit has improved enough to get approved for a credit card to I can start to rebuild my credit wisely. It would have litterally taken me the rest of my life to pay off my debt on my own. $10K is considerably lower than your debt but I also only make a modest living. Also, since I "graduated" the program early, they knocked off the last two fee payments. I saved money monthly by paying their fee instead of my credit cards. I paid off one at 40%, one at 35% and one at 55%. I did have to pay for one in full because they sued me but that was explained to me up front as a possibility. Overall, I saved thousands and the best part is being debt free!

Run Forrest Run, as far and as fast as you can from these leaches! Consultants, consolidation...I think they are one in the same and totally screwed us! The money I wasted on them I could have put on a credit card account and not listened to their BS! Oh, I've a story to tell!!!