Freedom Debt Relief – How good a company is it?

Yeah I have a credit union also. It's a big asset to have them. You get some things from them that a normal bank won't give. I have terrible credit but I still got a brand new car this year. I can't complain.

I signed up with freedom about a year ago. Although it has not been the easiest thing to get through, overall I'm happy because a couple of my debts have been settled for about 50% of the balance. I still get collector calls but I was already behind when I started... plus the rep told me to expect them.

First of all in regards to the BBB and everything. Number one on the list of complaints with the BBB is anything Financial. So lets do some math. Everybody is complaining about something they probably were disclosed about when signing up. Meaning its possible that a company can sue. Well guess what. YOur trying to settle on things you have already bought. ITS A TOTAL RISK ON YOUR PART. There are no guarantees and if a company tells you there is then thats when you run.
So back to the mathon Freedom debt relief. I called for fun and they told me that they have roughly 50,000 clients enrolled. They have about 450 employees. Someone said above that they had 68 complaints. Ok so 68/50,000= .00136. Move the decimal point over 2 places and you get .1% complaints for possibly 50000 clients. Does that really seem like a big number? I dont work for them but it doesnt look to bad. But i just did a search on the BBB for Bank of America and found that they had 5538 complaints. So should we not bank there? I mean you have to know the risks. There is no get out of jail free card. Use a company that does not charge up front fees so you can save quicker in your account if you dont want to do it yourself. Just my thoughts......

I have been working with freedom debt for 10 months now and all they have done so far is pay a 1200.00 hospital bill. i have paid them 7335.00 over the months and they tell me i only have 1300.00 in my account. Where did the rest go?
So in the mean time, I have a 20,000 account that was turned over to a lawyers office and Freedom Debt has done nothing to negotiate my acccount with them. I was served a summons for this debt. When I called Freedom Debt all they told me was to make a payment arrangement because i did not have enough money in my account to work with. I had to pay an additional 500.00 to get someone to answer the summons and file it with the court. So what am I paying them for? Now I have to fight this in court myself. They totally left me out there to hang.

Freedom debt relief and all of Mr. Housser's so called businesses have been ordered to stop doing business in California for various reasons. Cali is where they are from. And that BS about how many clients they have to complaints is totally a fallacious argument. Who knows how many clients they have. I bet they don't even know themselves. Go to the BBB see why they were ordered to stop doing business. They have to do some work for people so that it looks legit while they screw the rest. It seems people will never learn and find every excuse to fool themselves. So it's up to them to decide. This one is a NO BRAINER though but hey what can you say sometimes.

Sorry Marcia for this happening to you. Stop payment ASAP and cut your losses. Ask for all of your money back. If they don't sue them. They are not licensed to do business.

I am a client and called in to question them. First of all, they answered the phone immediately, and not somebody in India, but a really nice woman named Jessica. They answered all of my questions and it looks like the last two of my accounts are close to being settled this month, which means I will be out in only 19 months. I think that they are a good company and helped me. But do what is right for your own situation and be aware that you will get some collection calls while getting through the program.

Make sure that they are a member of TASC.

I found Freedom debt relief to be lying to me. They have taken several thousand dollars from me and settled one credit card for $1400. Their fee has been either $7000 or $9000, depending on who you speak with on the phone. I have not been able to access my account over the internet as they say I can. I was promised fee refunding, because I was among the 1% who the plan didn't work for, but, I have not been sent any money or been able to contact the vice president who promised me the refund. Beware of Julie in legal.
They make promises, but never deliver. I started out with debt and great credit. Freedom Debt Relief gave me debt, several companies suing me, bank account garnishments and bad credit. They still contact me once a month when it is time to draft my bank account. BEWARE!!!!!!!

Hi, I'm a copy editor with BusinessWeek.com who get totally hosed by Freedom debt relief. I have written about it at the BusinessWeek.com blog, Recession in America. This site won't let me post the link to it, which is too bad.

You'll have to do some surfing on the Net to read about how I gave FDR $25,000 and they paid off just $6,000 of my husband's debt.

Sending money to Freedom Debt Relief or the Freedom Financial Network is like kissing it good-bye. Good luck!

You mean this article?

by: Monica Gagnier

I’ve been spending a lot of time on the road lately, and I’m struck by the number of radio ads for debt settlement services that boast they can cut a consumer’s credit-card debt by half or more.

“So scared you can’t answer your phone anymore?” they ask. “We’ll get creditors off your back.”

I know from experience that many of these outfits make promises they can’t keep. Shortly after my husband and I bought a house in Beacon, N.Y., in December 2005, I began looking for ways to cut his debt, which he had let creep up over the years.

Like millions of Americans, my husband received credit cards in the mail during the 1990s. For some folks, these 0% offers were too good to pass up.

Unfortunately, if you lost your job or got sick and you were late with a payment, the interest rates could skyrocket from 0% to 30% virtually overnight. That was in the agreement that came with the pre-approved card, but most people never bothered to read the fine print.

Compounding matters for debtors was a concept known as “universal default.” If you missed a payment on one card, other creditors would automatically raise their rates even if you had been paying them on time.

My husband fell behind on his credit-card payments when he quit his job as the manager of a restaurant to pursue his dream of working in the golf industry. As a result of this career shift, his income fell by two-thirds.

I did a lot of research on the Web and discovered an outfit in San Mateo, Calif. called Freedom debt relief that I thought would be able to help us.

At the time, the debt consolidator’s Web site contained a quote from The Wall Street Journal praising the firm, which was founded by two former Stanford University MBAs, Andrew Houser and Brad Stroh. As someone who used to cover business schools for BusinessWeek, this tale of MBA enterprise impressed me.

When my husband and I signed up for the Freedom Debt Relief program in February 2006, I told Samantha Sherman, the company's vice-president of customer relations, that I would be writing about our efforts to get out of debt. I was confident that the story would have a happy ending. After all, Freedom Debt Relief advertised that it had more than $1 billion under management.

The first thing Freedom Debt Relief had us do was write letters to the credit-card companies asking them to close my husband's accounts. The debt consolidator provided us with a form letter we could use that explained my husband intended to make good on his obligations.

Instead of sending payments to the banks, we allowed Freedom Debt Relief to withdraw between $1,000 and $1,500 a month from our joint checking account. This money was deposited in an escrow account, ostensibly to pay creditors.

At the time, Freedom Debt Relief told us that if we stuck with their three-year program, they would reduce my husband's debt from about $85,000 to half of that.

While were in the program, many of these creditors called us several times a day to tell us Freedom Debt Relief was not negotiating in good faith and hadn't returned their calls.

Several of my husband's debts were transferred from creditors such as JPMorgan Chase, American Express, and Citibank to debt collection agencies, which started harassing me at work. I knew that these debts were going to end up in court if Freedom Debt Relief dragged its feet in negotiating settlements.

At one point, to avoid a judgment against my husband, Freedom Debt Relief offered to lend us $12,000 through its mortgage arm, Alivio Mortgage, at 9% interest. When I asked Sherman why this particular bank had filed suit against my husband rather than settling with Freedom Debt Relief, she told me that the bank thought we "were hiding assets." I believed her and signed the promissory note to Alivio.

For months, I pestered Sherman to provide me with monthly statements outlining where our money was going and how much debt Freedom Debt Relief had been able to eliminate. We never received a single statement until we terminated the program in November 2007.

When all was said and done, we paid the debt consolidator more than $25,000, of which roughly half, $13,700, went to fees. Freedom Debt Relief paid out $6,000 to creditors and managed to reduce my husband's debt by $4,000, an amount on which we had to pay taxes. You'll notice the math doesn't quite add up. There were also loan payments to Alivio Mortgage.

Why did we drop out? The better question is: Why did we ever go in? I'm embarrassed that as a longtime financial writer, I signed up to be fleeced and persuaded my husband to go along with the program. Yes, this whole thing was my idea.

At the time, it seemed that we needed a middleman to negotiate with the credit-card companies and try to make payment arrangements that wouldn't further increase our debt because of late fees and 30% interest rates.

When I was doing my research, I didn't know about this site, where real people talk about their experiences with debt settlement companies. Today, there are lots of unfavorable comments about Freedom Debt Relief and other debt consolidators here and elsewhere on the Web.

After we made the decision to terminate the program, I began a letter-writing campaign. I sent e-mails and snail mail to the consumer affairs departments of both California, where Freedom Debt Relief is based, and New York, where we live. I wrote to the New York State Banking Commissioner and the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency. Each recommended that I write to another state or federal agency.

I didn't have any hope that we would get any of our money back, but I wanted to prevent others from losing their hard-earned cash.

I almost fell off my chair one day in March of this year, when I received an e-mail from Chuck Finney, the Deputy District Attorney of San Mateo County, Calif. Finney and I have exchanged many e-mails and talked on the phone several times as he attempted to persuade Freedom Debt Relief to disgorge funds to me and my husband and 130 other clients.

After these talks stalled, Finney and his boss, District Attorney James P. Fox, filed a civil suit on Oct. 30 against Freedom Debt Relief in San Mateo County Superior Court. They allege that the debt consolidator "engaged in unlawful business practices and made false or misleading statements to consumers."

Among the allegations is that Freedom Debt Relief violated California's financial code by offering me and others loans through Alivio Mortgage. To do this, the company is required to be licensed by the state's Department of Corporations. It is not.

Since my husband and I terminated our agreement with Freedom Debt Relief, I wrote to several of their managers, explaining how unhappy I was and asking them to either refund our money or send it to my husband's creditors, as originally promised. I never received a response.

Even though Freedom Debt Relief reneged on its promises, I've made good on my vow to write about our saga.

Things could be worse. I'm reading a biography of novelist Charles Dickens, whose father went to debtors' prison more than once. That was what happened to people who couldn't pay their bills in 19th century England.

Yes, my husband shouldn't have gotten into debt in the first place, and in retrospect, given all the investigative articles about for-profit debt settlement firms, I should have looked for one that was nonprofit. There's no question we made some big mistakes.

But charging fees of 50% to help overextended consumers settle their debts is criminal, in my book. I'm glad the state of California agrees with me.

If you are a client of Freedom Debt Relief, Alivio Mortgage, or a sister company called Freedom Financial Network and believe you have been mistreated, please call the San Mateo DA's consumer and environmental unit at(650)363-4651.

For a long time, I didn't tell any of my friends about this dark chapter in my financial history. But as I started making confessions, I heard similar tales of woe.

One friend lost her job and used her credit cards to finance a small business that collapsed after a key customer filed bankruptcy. She now owes $225,000 to credit-card companies and is being harassed day and night. She's now attending Debtors Anonymous meetings several times a week.

Sorry this happened to you. But can you believe that with all the negative people are still signing up with them?

another option you may want to look at is freedomfromcreditors.com. They have a solution that allows you to keep control of things while they hold your hand and some of my associates who used them achieved far better results than typical settlement. Their credit was hammer though... Now, they are working on repair which freedomfromcreditors is assisting them with. They understand the laws that protect you and use these to put creditors in a position of strong negotiation possibility. They also protect against lawsuits and provide solutions to them. I've been very impressed.

Debt company sued for misleading customers
By Michelle Durand

Many customers of Freedom debt relief actually incurred greater debt through late fees and collection lawsuits because the San Mateo-based financial services company purposely misled consumers to get their business, according to San Mateo County prosecutors.

The Consumer and Environmental Unit of the District Attorney’s Office joined with the California Department of Corporation to sue Freedom Debt Relief, LLC, Freedom Financial network, LLC and company owners Andrew Housser and Brad Stroh. The lawsuit filed Oct. 30 in San Mateo County Superior Court claims the defendants engaged in unlawful business practices, including making false or misleading statements to consumers via the Internet and telephone to induce them to buy debt reduction services. The suit also claims the company violated the state financial code by operating without a business license from the Department of Corporation.

The business, located at 1875 S. Grant St. in San Mateo, advertised having approximately $1 billion in debt under management throughout the United States. The company advertised being able to negotiate a 40 percent to 60 percent reduction in debt to unsecured creditors but, according to prosecutors, instead made some customers’ situations worse.

“Instead of their debts being settled or reduced, many of the defendants’ customers suffered increased debt because of late fees imposed by creditors, referral to collection agencies or collection lawsuits. Some customers ended up in bankruptcy,” according to the suit.

Prosecutors want an injunction ordering the company to follow the law, pay restitution and pay civil penalties between $2,500 and $10,000 for each violation.

The company’s goal, according to its Web site, is to eliminate rather than simply lower debt. The plan for those who qualify, the site explains, is a “debt reduction program” which involves “affordable monthly savings obligations” to get consumers out of debt “in as little as 2 to 3 years.”

The founders have been profiled by numerous news organizations and were finalists for the 2006 Ernst & Young Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Consumers who believe they have been victimized should file a complaint with the District Attorney’s Consumer and Environmental Unit at (650) 363-4651.


Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.

Debt company sued for misleading customers
By Michelle Durand

Many customers of Freedom debt relief actually incurred greater debt through late fees and collection lawsuits because the San Mateo-based financial services company purposely misled consumers to get their business, according to San Mateo County prosecutors.

The Consumer and Environmental Unit of the District Attorney’s Office joined with the California Department of Corporation to sue Freedom Debt Relief, LLC, Freedom Financial network, LLC and company owners Andrew Housser and Brad Stroh. The lawsuit filed Oct. 30 in San Mateo County Superior Court claims the defendants engaged in unlawful business practices, including making false or misleading statements to consumers via the Internet and telephone to induce them to buy debt reduction services. The suit also claims the company violated the state financial code by operating without a business license from the Department of Corporation.

The business, located at 1875 S. Grant St. in San Mateo, advertised having approximately $1 billion in debt under management throughout the United States. The company advertised being able to negotiate a 40 percent to 60 percent reduction in debt to unsecured creditors but, according to prosecutors, instead made some customers’ situations worse.

“Instead of their debts being settled or reduced, many of the defendants’ customers suffered increased debt because of late fees imposed by creditors, referral to collection agencies or collection lawsuits. Some customers ended up in bankruptcy,” according to the suit.

Prosecutors want an injunction ordering the company to follow the law, pay restitution and pay civil penalties between $2,500 and $10,000 for each violation.

The company’s goal, according to its Web site, is to eliminate rather than simply lower debt. The plan for those who qualify, the site explains, is a “debt reduction program” which involves “affordable monthly savings obligations” to get consumers out of debt “in as little as 2 to 3 years.”

The founders have been profiled by numerous news organizations and were finalists for the 2006 Ernst & Young Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Consumers who believe they have been victimized should file a complaint with the District Attorney’s Consumer and Environmental Unit at (650) 363-4651.


Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.

I don't know about the whiny woman who had them help her and give her a loan, but they did what they promised and got me debt free.

I think it's a partnership program. I pay my monthly cost, I call them when there is an issue and they settled all of my debts and dealt with the bad stuff.

Honestly, they were great and I expected the worst.

I logged on and saw this.

I felt obliged to say that they have been nothing but good to me. It's my debt, and I take responsibility for that.

They helped me budget. They helped me save. Now they have settled thrree of my eight accounts and I think I will be debt free in about a year and a half.

They have been nothing but good to me.

Freedom is the best debt resolution company.