Freedom Debt Relief – How good a company is it?

Do you mean Freedompoint debt relief (now CareOne?) If it is the same company I am working with them and so far is working I get a statement from them and a statement from the card companies showing their payments every month. Hope this help1

I have been working with this company for nearly two years now and have had mixed feelings about them. If you are VERY concerned about your credit report and you can keep making your highest minimum payment (by that I mean take your minimum payment amount now and keep making payments in that amount until paid off) then do that. Most people can pay off all their debts at the current minimum payment amount in 2-3 years with no delinquencies to tarnish their credit reports. If you are not bothered by delinquencies, and understand that credit does heal itself over time, then by all means they can settle for amounts significantly less than what you owe. I've settled on average for 41 percent of the current balances. My credit is now getting better as I have settled 2 of 5 accounts. Good luck if you choose them, I have much less stress thanks to them.

I am a 69 year old widow and have been with FDR over a year. I entered the program with a debt of $30,000 which they said would be reduced and paid off in 33 months. There are 3 accounts in the plan and all 3 accounts have now gone to legal because someone dropped the ball or just did nothing on the accounts. By going legal I now have to pay the law firms each month and will probably have to pay the entire amount of the debt instead of any of them being reduced. I am very upset because I was told about 2 months ago that one of the accounts could be settled because there was enough money in the account to pay it off, but it was not done. When you join the program they say they will help you with your debts, but I now feel I have not been helped at all. I have paid a certain amount to FDR each month out of the payments I made.

I agree with you all concerning Freedom debt relief. I am currently dealing with them and have asked them to cancel my contract with them. I feel that they are not doing anything as far as paying or settling any of my debt situations. I am still receiving letters from my creditors (who are suppose to be consolidated with FDR). I have been making monthly payments to them since July 2007. I asked them to send me a copy of everything stating what I have paid this far and how they have distributed this amount to each of my creditors. They have not sent this information to me, yet. So that was one red flag to me about them. The second red flag was when they would not allow me to pay by money order,etc. They only did automatic drafts from your bank account. So, I called my bank and signed a form for my bank not to allow any more automatic drafts to come out of my account from Freedom Debt Relief. I feel that they are hurting me financially more so than helping me.

This company was going to get me out of debt in 2 yrs.

In 4 months they took $1500.00 of my money and $117.00 went to my 4 accounts. This company ripped me off. While in this program my accounts were turned over to collection agencies.
Do not go with this company

It's not their program that is flawed, it's their representatives that are misinforming you.

debt settlement is a viable program for those who have the patience and information to understand and appreciate how it works. Collection accounts won't negatively affect debt settlement, however might even assist in it. Collectors buy your account for somewhere around 10 cents on the dollar (depending who the original creditor is). Therefor their generally willing to settle for less then creditors, because to them a 20% or 25% settlement is doubling their initial investment.

I've done work through Freedom debt relief in the past, their processing department is up to standards. It's likely you had a horrible representative who got you enrolled to inflate his numbers and he never really cared after that.
I personally give even clients a call every month or two just to touch base and see how everything is going. From a consumer standpoint, it reasures the client; from a business standpoint it keeps feedback coming in regarding the file, aswell as possible references, win/win if you ask me.

Sorry to hear you got shafted, hope everything works out well for you.

Thanks for the info everyone. I was sooooo close to signing with this company and I'm glad I didn't after reading all the feedback. I have about 40G in credit card debt that they said they could settle for $700.00 a month for 32 months which sounded too good to be true. Thanks

THIS COMPANT TOOK $1600 FROM ME AND MY ACCOUNT WAS TURNED OVER TO A COLLECTION AGENCY. DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY

All companies will get compaints, it's how a company deals with them that defines their customer service. People could not have understood how the program works, could have tried to change a payment date the day before the ACH was set to draw the money, etc.

Working for a settlement company myself, I'm very up front about the credit hit. It's a fairly large hit to your score, however a good settlement company will have your credit profile still in tact. The accounts will show "Account Closed by consumer" and "Account settled in full"; it's part of the negotiations.

my debt is $20,000 and they're settling it for $9,000 which includes their fees. they have stopped harrasing phone calls, gave me what to say if one does get through. they said it would take 3 years and i'm at less than that now. i am a supporter of them. they have done nothing but help not only me but my sister. all their complaints have been resolved because i took one step further than viewing the bbc. i called the attorney general's office. don't stop when you see bad. delve further and find the end result. they helped me avoid bankruptcy. freedom debt relief is my hero.

mcasper is right. i will have my file show account closed by consumer when it is all finished with. mcasper hit it all. that's exactly what freedom debt relief did for me!!

Dear JaBaker,
Many debt settlement companies have bad ratings with the BBB. This is mainly due to a companies failure to completely disclose the process of debt settlement. It does cause negative reporting to your credit, but your credit can begin healing itself sooner than if you are tapped out and paying minimum payments at outrageous compounded interest rates. debt settlement companies do charge fees that range from 15% - 18%. They have established relationships with collection departments and can have a better chance of settling your account at the lowest rate possible. Think of it this way, you CAN cut your own hair if you want to. But, do we not go to professionals for the best haircut possible? With Debt Settlement you are cutting your monthly payments usually by 50% leaving you more money to put towards paying off your debt sooner (apply to mo. payments to decrease time in program) or to help pay for daily necessities such as gasoline, etc.. Debt Settlement works for YOU not for the creditors. Although there are companies out there that claim they are "FREE", we all know nothing is free. These companies are contracted by the creditors and are paid for by the creditors. All of the employees have to get paid some how. It is all in the way you are paying for it. With the "FREE" debt management companies, you are paying interest at a reduced rate and the FULL principal balance you owe. With Settlement, the interest and fees are eliminated and the principal balances are also cut sometimes as much as 75%! But more commonly around 45-50%. Yes, you pay a fee, but you still save a ton of money in the process. Yes, you hurt your credit, but you are in this type of program for a very short time and then your credit begins to heal itself. You may also be able to fix it faster with some credit repair companies out there. But do your homework on those. If your #1 goal is to get out of debt, then Settlement is the smart choice. As far as the BBB, people report debt settlement firms, like I said earlier, because they do not know how the program works and then think that they are getting ripped off due to the lack of disclosure by the rep enrolling them in the program.

Credit Exchange Center is a reputable company with many years of servicing experience. Their debt mediators are certified and their service is excellent.

Check out a review of Freedom debt relief... looks legit.

They have 40,000+ clients, so that number of complaints is incredibly low (see some of their competitors with a ton more complaints and fewer clients).

Anyway, they look pretty good: Bills.com has done a good evaluation of them, but the link won't go up... so go their and search for the review.

They are big and look good.

People are soooo misinformed, when you llok at the number of complaints does anyone even bother to ask what the companies total client base is???

Ofcourse, having 68 complaints out of a bas eof 100 clients is pathetic, but have you thought about a client base of more than 40000?? You can't keep everyone happy, especially the mis-informed. They are in dire straits because of their faulty financial jusdgments in the first place and they would love to throw that balme on companies working to help them too!!!

Thats a crying shame.

It sounds some times too good to be true, but Freedom debt relief settled all of my debt for just under half of what i owe and now I am debt free. It wasn't perfect (i got some collection calls, and one of my accounts went to a law firm... but they settled it) but thanks to them i'm debt free and my $40,000 in debt is gone.

Thanks FDR!

I feel relieved at last that someone is representing me. I did a ton of research and decided that debt settlement was better for me, and that Freedom debt relief is the best company out there.


That's my 2cents.