Federal Debt Relief Program - Has it been helpful to consumers?

PB&J--Couldn't agree with you more.

Mike--How did it go with the legal dept.??

No - don't work for them. Wish I did- then I would know what the heck is going on with my accounts. 15 months and still in limbo. Not too happy about this but will see it through.

I have been contacted by FDRS but feel very skeptical about the methods being used. The person was very convincing. It would be nice to be debt free in 18 months but I need a solid guarantee. I am a business-professional and would not want to tarnish that with $44,000 in credit card debt. Can anyone speak up for FDRS reputation and success rate?

The legal team that I spoke with was awesome. I have talked to them several times in the last two weeks and they even recognize my voice and know who I am when I call. I can't be happier with everything so far. I just hope everything works our as they say it will. I must say that I feel more comfortable now than I have during my 9 months in the program. (one of my accounts is in the court system and the other is in arbitration ). The legal team and FDRS client care have been awesome in the last couple weeks. FDRS has def. changed the way they run the customer care, because someone always answers right away or calls back within an hour. I am extremly pleased about the way everything is going. I have allready sent in the second part of my legal papers to the court, so far very easy.... Hopefully it stays this way. I will keep everyone posted- I am still a little concerned about not being able to find others that have completed this program, but I am sticking with FDRS and hope to be able to keep giving you good news.

Mike - You sound just a little bit too positive. Be careful - you may be accused of working for FDRS. It is interesting that you have phone contact with the legal department. I've been with them for over 15 months now and no phone contact has been allowed. How did you do that? I do agree that the legal department is great! They are responsive.

I just got off the phone with FDRS. I find it interesting that they cannot or will not provide me with even a single name of one of the 112 law firms they claim to work with. They gave me excuses like "I'm not in that department so I don't have that information". When told them I was sure that someone in their company did, they told me it was to much info to send, after all info for 112 firms would waste all of their time to provide. i responded that I only needed a couple of names. They told me that after I join the program, THEN they could provide the information. When I said I wanted the names first so that I could do some research, they just launched into a sales pitch again.
Dunno for sure, but all my BS alarms are going off!
I would be very wary of FDRS!

Ok, an update. The FDRS rep I was talking to tried to call me back. He left a message on my voicemail saying that researching FDRS was a waste of my time. He said all I would find on the internet (which I never said I was doing internet research) was bad comments about them, and just like thousands of people drive cars and never get into an accident, all you ever see on the internet are the accidents.
I have to say that this response makes me feel more strongly that this is a bad company to be dealing with.

And... Another point I'd like to make. FDRS claims that the CC companies are operating illegally by loaning you your own fictious money, via turning your agreement into a promisory note. Ok, this IS admittedly shady, but I might point out that technically, you are not legally required to pay income tax, and it is well known that the IRS has never been able to show any law that says you do.
However, try not paying income tax and see what happens... You lose!
The idea of "debt elimination" is an absurd fantasy, and, after all, you DID spend the money the CC card companies loaned you. You did get some good or service that had value, so essentially, eliminating the debt is the same as theft.
I think that FDRS is dead on when it comes to the issue of how the Federal Reserve works, etc. Obviously, our currency should be issued by the government, not loaned to the government with interest by a private corporation. This is the real problem to be dealt with.

And... Another point I'd like to make. FDRS claims that the CC companies are operating illegally by loaning you your own fictious money, via turning your agreement into a promisory note. Ok, this IS admittedly shady, but I might point out that technically, you are not legally required to pay income tax, and it is well known that the IRS has never been able to show any law that says you do.
However, try not paying income tax and see what happens... You lose!
The idea of "debt elimination" is an absurd fantasy, and, after all, you DID spend the money the CC card companies loaned you. You did get some good or service that had value, so essentially, eliminating the debt is the same as theft.
I think that FDRS is dead on when it comes to the issue of how the Federal Reserve works, etc. Obviously, our currency should be issued by the government, not loaned to the government with interest by a private corporation. This is the real problem to be dealt with.

This is an article I wrote to address these scammers and those who have fallen for their bait:

You are being scammed by FDRS. I know, because I was (or rather my wife got us dragged into it). The information they provide about how the banking system in the US is just plain wrong and false. Do some REAL research, take some classes in Economics and learn the truth!

Can the Federal Reserve create money? Yes. Do corporate banks create money? No. When the Federal Reserve determines to mint/print additional CASH money, the affect does, in fact get multiplied. It is a financial vehicle for stimulating the economy. But that is the ONLY time money gets "created out of thin air," so to speak. And that is a legitimate practice - you have to understand the whole process. Can banks issue promissory notes that cause the Federal Reserve to print/mint new CASH money that in turn gets multiplied? Absolutely not - no way, no how. It doesn't work that way, and there are no loopholes to allow such a scenario.

It is all lies, and it's a ruse to get uneducated people's money - they took over $1,200 from me, left my credit in shambles without doing a thing to fix it, and I STILL ended up having to work with the creditors to ultimately payoff the bad debt.

FDRS changed "home office" locations more than 5 times in less than a year and a half. They are not their own company. They are owned by a known scamming company Ozark Monetary Funds that tries to convince people to use THEIR minted silver currency for use in business and daily transactions. It's a similar ploy to what the FDRS claims regarding the Federal Reserve and "money creation".

What really clued me in? A Google ad from FDRS for a "Telemarketer" - and I quote "warm leads only!". FDRS is a telemarketing SCAM agency people. The contract you signed states only that you are paying them for "infomation services" and denies all liability and responsibility for actions taken on your accounts.

FDRS wants you to think that you are somehow being "ethical" by not paying the banks for the credit cards. Don't be a fool! I do NOT work for a bank - I'm an IT Manager for a manufacturing company. Don't get scammed people!

Want more proof? Read the documents regarding consumer rights that FDRS provides links to! It clearly states that as the consumer, if you have another entity act in your behalf (i.e. the power-of-attorney that you sign over to an FDRS agent) they MUST (I emphasize, MUST) provide YOU with copies of ANY AND ALL corespondance with your creditors. Now call up FDRS and ask them to fax or e-mail you a copy of the letters that they have sent to your creditors. They will adamently refuse, claiming that those letters are a "proprietary secret." THAT is ILLEGAL!!! and according to the VERY DOCUMENTS that they put in your hands! They don't expect you to catch that because of all the legal terminology. But don't miss it!

Further more, note that the Power Of Attorney that you signed over is granted to a specific PERSON and NOT to FDRS. In fact, it doesn't mention the FDRS on it. Why? So that if you sue them, they can deny it and make their poor little untrained telemarketing lacky (who's name is actually on that document) take the blame. That person is NOT an attorney, and they will even tell you that if you ask them.

I know many of you WANT to believe this load of crap they have fed you. But suck up your pride and be willing to admit that you messed up and got suckered. That was a pretty hard thing for me and my wife to accept. I had to do a LOT of research to put all the pieces together.

Do a search on "Debt Termination scam", "Debt Cancellation scam" and learn more for yourselves! Don't give these creeps another DIME!!!

awesome jeremy,you should register here.
you have a lot of good insight.

The idea that the government should be the only ones to issue money is a good one. Guess what. They ARE the only ones who can issue money - but they do it through the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is the Government's bank, and the only one allowed to issue currency on behalf of the government. They can't just issue money on their own; they have strict guidelines and oversight that ensures that this does not happen. And banks CANNOT issue a promissory note and "create money" that way. That is an absolutely uneducated understanding of how the banking system works. Banks are allowed to only LOAN out a % of their on-hand (or reserve) CASH (currently around 90%). But those loans ARE backed by ACTUAL cash on hand - either IN the bank's vault or held at the Federal Reserve (the bank's bank). The banks have to report their total outstanding receivables along with their cash on hand every day. If they don't meet the minimum reserve, they have to borrow a short-term loan (usually 24 hours) from the FR and pay it back with interest.

The only time the multiplying factor comes in is when the government oversight committee of the Federal Reserve TELLS the Federal Reserve to mint/print more actual CASH money. At that point, the FR can LOAN 90% of that cash to banks and keep the other 10% on-hand. Now with that cash ON-HAND at the banks, they now have a much larger reserve. As this money gets loaned out and transfers from bank to bank, it has the effect of multiplying the spending power of that original printed/minted cash money. But without NEW CASH, the multiplier effect doesn't happen because existing money is just being transfered around. It's hard to get your head around the difference and visualize how this works, but there are some good resources that explain this very clearly. This is a legitimate way to stimulate the economy.

The word "RESERVE" is key: it means that a certain amount of actual, physical CASH must be reserved ON-HAND to make sure that it's available when consumers want/need it for withdrawals and transactions. It is NOT a safety net, it is a controlling regulation to make sure banks don't loan out too much cash to where they can't accomodate consumer demands and transactions.

The problem with the US government (usually) is this: They want to SPEND more than they COLLECT in TAXES. When this happens, the government has to BORROW money - they are running a budget deficit. But they DON'T borrow it from the Federal Reserve directly. The Federal Reserve issues Government BONDS that are purchased for cash by consumers (like you and me), corporations, and foreign agencies and governments. These are INVESTORS. When you buy a Savings Bond, you expect a return, right??? That's the interest that the US government owes YOU for lending them your money. Thus, the ever increasing National Debt. The problem is NOT with the FR. The problem is that our government spends $200 on a toilet seat and has to borrow money from every Tom, Dick, and Harry on Earth to do it because they can't operate a balanced budget.

Yes, the creation of money by the FR creates inflation. But the primary cause of inflation is the value of the dollar in the world market. As the value of the dollar goes down (based on people's trust in the US market, NOT boullion), inflation occurs. But it is a chain. If the government is operating a budget deficit, they want more people to invest in bonds. So they issue bonds. But they want Americans to invest in bonds AND make more money to earn more tax revenue. So they might have the Fed inject some cash into the economy. This causes some inflation. But also, the more the US government is seen borrowing, the less trust people in the world have that the US will be able to pay it's debts. So the value of the dollar goes down even more. Now the value of the dollar is less and the government needs to spend $210 per toilet seat instead of $200. So now they need to borrow even MORE money.... viscious cycle.

Jeremy,

How long were you in the program??

Jeremy,

How long were you in the program??

He couldn't of been in the program long if he only lost $1200. I paid that in 2 months.

Who knows- I asked the legal dept. to call me to answer my questions and they did, then I asked if I could contact them via phone because I felt much more comfortable and they said no problem and gave me the number. If you have any problem contacting them, just tell client care and they will take care of it for you, the first time they sent the legal dept a message to have them call me and they called first thing the next day.

-- About sounding to positive, I have to, I'm trying to be as positive about this experience as I can, Im hoping and praying it all works out like they say.

-- You have been in the program for 15months? Have you had to go to court? What all has happened? Do you have any advice for me? I still have a ways to go. Please give me all the details so I am prepared. Thanks and good luck.

Mike, I'm not saying they don't recognize your voice. I think they know because of your phone number, caller ID. Try calling them from a different # that they don't have and see if thy recognize your voice. I called them and asked to talk to a rep to see if he had the same answers as the first guy. They were similar but he never called me back but the first guy did about an hour later saying if I had questions I could call him.

I also made an analogy that I get work done in the house then pay for their service. He said you cant compare that with legal stuff, you have to pay first. He called back a few days later and made an analogy of driving and how I don't do research about driving and how dangerous it is. I just go out there and drive. SO how can they tell me not to compare service with legal but they can compare it to driving?

They also told me not to believe everything I read on the internet. So should I believe their "million dollar" website? Even with misspellings on them? As much as I would like to get out of debt and cheaper I am also skeptical. Red flags pop up when they are so persistent in calling and not willing to give up credible information. They also tell me to hurry up and send in my contract so they can get me my "welcome package",they make it sound like its a 50inch plasma TV....... I also could not find a business license registered to them in California where they are located.

Mike, I hope this works out for you. If it does I will be kicking myself for not going with this route.