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I really appreciate the blog you put together, I was wondering if you are still researching or have you decided to move forward?

I really appreciate the blog you put together, I was wondering if you are still researching or have you decided to move forward?

I am moving forward with Debt Stacking. We actually have some savings and were able to borrow some more money AND we have money left over every month if we stick to a budget. We want to buy a house in the next 2 to 3 years and so I need my credit to be as good as it can be.

Debt Stacking is a viable option if you are current and can make more than the minimum payment each month. I am still going to keep up the blog as all the research I have done has really sparked a deep interest in this topic.

If there is a Consumers Credit Counseling Service (CCCS)in your area, Check them out. I used thisservice years ago for a few of $15 monthly and had no regrets. Alwaysmtry to use a non profit organization to guide you. There are all over the place in these economic crisis.

In good faith, I went with Freedom Debt Relief. After 2 years, many phone calls (one in which the person who answered told me that they absolutely would not deal with a specificic creditor, there was not enough money in my account and she 'would not bother' anyone else in the company with my call". I have been taken to court, have had my wages garnished, and am absolutely in worse shape than before I went with this Godforsaken company. What I got out of my dealings with them is a negative bank balance and a lot of grief.

Based on BBB files, Freedom Debt Relief has a BBB Rating of F on a scale from A+ to F.
Reasons for this rating include:
BBB concerns with the industry in which this business operates.
Government action(s) against business.

I've done some homework on debt settlement. If you think that every client gets sued then you are really ignorant. Every company in the country would get shut down by every Attorney General. It seems that most people complain because they dropped out of a program because they were tired of getting phone calls from creditors. Why didn't they just change their phone number? From what I can tell less than 5% of accounts go into legal status. Even when they go into legal status they can still be settled. The problem is that they still usually want about 75% of their money. Nobody knows why accounts go into legal. Debt settlement is a serious but not a perfect way to pay off your debt. It is not for everyone. Just like when your doctor prescribes medicine for your ailment, there are side effects that you have to deal with.
Yes, you can do it on your own. The problem with that is you need to have the money right now or you need to save up to pay the settlements. Most people don't have the money or the time or are not savvy enough to negotiate with 5-10 creditors. If you have the money you don't need a company to help you.
Important things to consider when choosing a company:
1) TASC accredited, a company that is not a member of TASC does not have to disclose any worse case scenarios to the client. They will just sell you the benefits. Do you really think that all these Bankruptcy attorney's that are now trying to sell you debt settlement are really disclosing the worse case scenario to you? They are the guys that are trying to get you into 60 month programs. 42 months is the longest that you should be in any program.
2) A company that uses a baseline of 50% for their settlements. They should also make adjustments for aggressive creditors that don't settle for 50% in the state that you live in. Yes, creditors settle for different amounts in each state. This sounds crazy but it's true. Some accounts settle for 15% and accounts that go into legal settle for 75%. Avoid companies that say they are going to get you an average settlement of 30-45%, because if one of your accounts go into legal status then you will not have enough money in the program to take care of that account. Also, many of these companies that overpromise the settlement %, can and will "cherry pick" easy accounts to settle first and then leave you with the tough ones at the end. If that happens then you are in a really tough spot.
Cash is King

As a current client of Freedom Debt Relief, I would like to contribute my two cents worth. (and two cents is about all I've got left!)

Their customer support is - for the most part - friendly. Emails and phone calls are handled expiditiously and professionally. They do settle with your credit card companies.

But...

Take their proposals with a grain of salt. If they offer a proposal of settlement within a certain time frame, don't believe a word of it. It's merely a ballpark guess. I was sold a "bill of goods" that they would resolve my debt in 30 months. Well guess what folks, my 30 months is up and I've been told it will probably take another 9-10 months. Needless to say their word holds no merit now.

So just be wary. Do your homework. Explore all your options. Review a company's standing with the better business bureau.

Lesson learned - I will never use a credit card again.

FDR does give an estimate on how long the program will take up front, however it is only an estimate. FDR works diligently with the creditors to obtain the best settlements possible in the shortest amount of time.

most of them state that it is a estimate. i enrolled in a 2 year program but due to my own fault there was a few months were i couldnt make full payments and such. around 2 1/2 years they stopped deducting my checking but i had 1 account still hanging in there. so i wasnt still paying in but i wasnt done either. after sometime that account dissapeared into a black hole somewere and they sent my money back to me and instructed that if i recieved any correspondence about it to call them immediately and they would pick that account back up again and settle it. I of course was instructed also to put that money that was returned to me away somewere incase of that happening. im pretty sure the sol is far over now on it so im no longer concerned but they cannot garuntee a exact time frame. No one can

Freedom Debt Relief is a scam. You may as well just go ask your neighbor next door to talk to your creditors. That's all Freedom Debt Relief is. If you want to pay top dollar for professional debt negotiation services, hire a law firm or attorney that deals with those matters. At least attorneys are licensed by the bar assoc, and certainly more qualified to deal with legal issues. Yes, not making payments to your lenders is a legal issue! dahh

If you contact an attorney they will likely push you towards bankruptcy. People who contact FDR and other debt settlement companies are trying to avoid bankruptcy.

In researching whether or not to use FDR, I came across a glowing review of them on www.bills.com. But the name bills.com rang a bell, and it was because the website is owned by the same guy who owns FDR. Check the BBB and you'll see that FDR has a rating of F and the department of corporations has issued a cease and desist order to FDR. I was close to signing up with them until I read the BBB review and the behavior of posting a supposed 3rd party positive review of essentially your own company just shows that this company is not on the up and up.

FDR's BBB complaint ratio is less than that of the California Bar Association along with many top financial institutions. Frequently, BBB complaints are the result of not understanding how the FDR program works. Please contact customer service to further discuss this issue.

this search provides the this website which is a scam and set up to bash good companies. Try this type in any debt settlement company name in google and you will find a scam listing that leads back to this website with all of the same things. many have the same wording. You do the math.....

maybe you should read the law suite, it shows that the lawsuit is unjust and they will be cleared soon. Watch and see>>>>>