just curious, you are beign scammed. What are they charging you for their "debt management"? What are their fees? How much interest are they taking? Can you even answer these questions?
Don't be fooled by their pretty websites either. Ed knows his stuff in web development, he got his start at iBill, he was their internet guy there, until they fired him. He knows how to put up forms for you to enter your personal information, he does it in his sleep.
You want to know what else is fishy? Allegro only corresponds with you over the phone. Why? Why can't they disclose any information (their terms, their contract, their fees) PUBLICLY? WHY? WHY? WHY?
I'll tell you why: because there's NO ACCOUNTABILITY once they get you on the phone! This is exactly what happened to me with Hess Kennedy.
My Story:
I enrolled with HK (Hess Kennedy) in the summer of 2005. My debt was one creidt card to the tune of ~$4500. I went with the first decent looking website I found on the internet (CCCOA), and filled out my info. I was contacted by phone that day by a guy who asked me how much debt I had and told me I could pay it off for $120. He also told me the ONLY FEES would be the first month's payment I made...
He (can't remeber his name now) always contacted me from a CT phone number. I called him on a few occaisions whenever a new debt collector would call me. He would always assure me that, "Hess Kennedy chews up debt collectors, and spits them out! You tell them you're with Hess Kennedy, an international law firm!"
Well I did that for about a year and a half. All the while the calls from the debt collector kept coming, and I kept ignoring.
After having paid HK for two years, I called to find out the status of my account/settlement/whatever. Now in the mean time, I was notified that my "account executor" had changed, to a Sierra F. (I'll be curtious and not post her last name). So I called her, she reviewed my records and said that I had plenty of money in escro, and that she was going to settle my account within the next couple of weeks.
I was very glad to hear that. Well, that same week, a debt collector contacted me, saying they would settle my debt for 33% of what I owed! So I called Sierra back, thinking she would appreciate the offer...
Sierra yelled at me. Told me she never said she was going to settle my account, that I STILL hadn't paid all the FEES to HK. blah blah blah. It was the ugliest phone conversation I ever had.
A few weeks later, I got a letter. My "executor" was once again switched to an Alexandra. lol. Funny, alexandra sounded exactly like sierra on the phone.
By this time, I emailed alexandra, sierra, and every other HK email address I could get. I asked them to show me the account where my money was. I asked them to furnish me a copy of my contract. I asked them to only reply to me by email since there was no accountability of their employees once they got on the phone.
Their reply was always, "Please call (XXX)XXX-XXXX, and we will gladly assist you."
If any of this rings a bell with any of you, perhaps similar things are happening, going on right now with you and the company you chose to deal with. Stop paying them immediately! They are doing NOTHING for you! Please, please, please, I beg you to do the smart thing, do what your gut is telling you, BREAK ALL TIES WITH THESE SCAMMERS!
You know why they always have a lawyer attached to their scam? Because they feed on your feelings toward the debt collectors. Oh yea, the debt collectors are bad, they're violating your rights, blah blah blah. You know what? It only pisses debt collectors off most of the time!
Why bother with a lwayer? Their disclaimers on their websites say plain as day, not to take what's on their site as "legal advice" or "legal cousel". Why? Becasue they're doing NOTHING for you!
Their layers sometimes send out the smoke and mirror letters (at best), to your creditors/collectors with the same consumer rights crap. Big whoop! You don't need some scammer of a lawyer to tell you that! That information is freely available! Yes, you have rights! Yes, you can negotiate directly with your creditors/collectors!
You're better off going to see a fincancial advisor, pay a small consultation fee and have them help you with a budget. That $100 or so would probably go a lot further, and you won't be pissing your creditors off in the process!
And yes, it pisses creditors off. They pissed Chase off so bad, Chase sued them, and won!
Your creditors are just as likely to sue you, keep calling you, etc. They do NOTHING for you!
just curious, you say they negotiated your capitol one down from 195 to 126? You couldv'e done that yourself! You didn't need a "lawyer" to do that for you. So again, how much is allegro charging you to do something you can do yourself?
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