Lifeguard Financial - What are the debtors saying?

I went through lifeguard financial.They actually recently changed their name to safetrust.I settled all of my debt in under two years and it was over 50,000! They are a good company but they put there neck on the line and they dont charge upfront fees they pay there lawyers as you begin to make payments so if you dont finish the program you will lose your fees but if you keep up your end of the bargain and finish the program you will be out of debt.The worst part is the first couple months because creditors will call you because it has to go into collections but when it was all said and done i got a letter from all 5 creditors stating i was at a zero balance and owed them nothing and i only ended up paying back around $27,000 verses $50,000. Any company that calls you and asks you for upfront fees i would be skeptical but lifeguard now safetrust helped me i hope this was helpful i know they have over 100 offices but i dealt with one in new york the number is 1866-223-1864 ask for lisa shes the one that helped me and she was very understanding not judgemental because i was very embarrassed at my situation i wanted to pay my bills but not for 40 years so i am officially debt free so anyone that says this company is a scam i would be more than happy to show all of my paperwork and letters from my creditors.they also paid for me to be put in a credit restoration program when i was finished! my credit score is great and i have 0 balances all across the board.If you dont finish the program you will waste your money if you finish you'll be debt free!!!!!!!

the only scam is paying back over $55,000 to credit card companies for $15,000 debt!look at your statements every month and see how much comes off the balances i was paying $189 and the next month $17 came off my balance. you can do the math they want you to be in debt forever! Lifeguard thinks otherwise and so do I!

i went through lifeguard in the tarrytown branch in upstate ny they were so helpful dont let creditors have you think this is a scam the creditors want you to make minimum payments for the rest of your life!

settlement is not a scam credit cards are!!!!!!!

okay mr ramsey.whatever you say.

dont know about the rest but i went through a company that got me out of debt call this number and leave your info a compliance officer will call you back and they dont take personal INFO OVER THE PHONE SUCH AS SOCIALS!!!!! deleted they can help its not a convenience program its for people who have been paying there bills for years and the balances are still the same or you really cant make these payments its a hardship program like the cash for clunkers or hardship program to modify your mortg.this is just another hardship program to get you out of cc debt in under 3 years and the compliance officer was so helpful she even set me up with some

sorry no solicitory or personal info allowed per TOS rules.

In response to the bbb comments


Jan 15, 09

January 6, 2009

Stephen J. Cole
President and CEO
Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc.
4200 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22203-1838

Dear Mr. Cole:

I write on behalf of The Association of Settlement Companies (TASC) regarding the Better Business Bureau's policy on the rating of debt settlement companies. TASC is the predominant national association of settlement companies representing over 170 member companies. It was formed to provide operating standards for member companies and to promote effective and fair legislation affecting the industry. TASC's goals are to promote good business practice in the debt settlement industry, protect the interests of consumer debtors, and educate legislators and regulators at all levels of government with respect to the issues involved in the debt settlement industry. The mission of TASC is to encourage debt settlement companies to provide services in accordance with the highest professional and ethical standards in order to retain the confidence of the public, the credit industry and local, state, and federal government. Some of the standards we require our membership to adhere to include specific disclosure requirements that must be made when enrolling a consumer into a debt settlement program, form requirements for client agreements, fair marketing standards, record keeping requirements, authorization standards in negotiating and finalizing settlements, minimum service standards, and permission allowing TASC to monitor or "screen" the adherence to such standards. TASC proactively self regulates its membership by using a third party company to "secret shop" our members and review member websites for compliance with our standards.

A representative of TASC recently met with the Dallas, Texas BBB office to discuss the new rating system and how it works. I am concerned about how the new rating system fails to distinguish between good debt settlement companies and those deserving of poor ratings. Most notably the highest rating a debt settlement company can receive once it has been tagged with the debt settlement "type of business" category is a "C". Debt settlement companies are almost never more than 5 years old and thus will automatically receive further point deductions for "time in operation". If even a very small number of the thousands of consumers serviced files a complaint, then the combined impact of the various rating categories means that a debt settlement company will never grade more than a D or F . This results in consumers being unable to differentiate between debt settlement companies that have good business practices and those that are truly bad companies. It also appears inequitable when compared to businesses in other industries that have large volumes of complaints and yet have high A or B ratings.


read more at http://www.tascsite.org/educenter.php?id=4

Credit counseling companies work for the credit cards, all they do is lower your intrest on your creditors and combine all the accounts, but in the end you still have the principal that you must pay. It also stays on your credit report for 7-10 years, you might have just filed for bancruptcy! Debt settlement is the only way out right now but, research is a must i9n order to be with a company that has credibility and knows the facts of the different choices to get out of unsecured debt, without hurting your credit report for 7-10 years.

DO NOT GO WITH LIFEGUARD.

I worked there for a couple months this summer. THEY ARE A SCAM. They essentially take your first couple months payments and pocket them. I have never spoken in my months there with anyone who successfully completed the program. The TELEMARKETERS are DIRTBAGS who will say anything to you on the phone just to make a couple hundred bucks commission. Any positive review on this board are no doubt--NO DOUBT-- employees being compensated to post positive reviews.

DIRTBAGS.

if they are so reputable and suxh a nice bunch why do they lie about how they got your phone number and persist in repeated phone calls after they have been asked not to call? and why then is their phone number and address the same as safetrust financial and when you point that out the first deny they have any knowledge of that other company then they get ugly and hang up on you? yup gotta love free enterprise and the internet for promoting these kind of crooks

There BBB rating is now a F. That about say's it all

changing the name of the company is a red flag. wonder what was wrong with the old name they couldnt scam as many clients anymore using it? im sure once potential clients looked the company up they chose not to go with them. sounds like theychanged the name to fool and then scam more people. wow

WOW.... BBB rating drops to an F and they change their name to SafeTrust??? I hope the authorities are all over this.

as a bill collector I enjoy doign business with them. in comparison to other compaies they do an etremely good job of returning calls, nad are straight to the point on what consumers have to offer for settlements. I dont know about their fees towards the consumer and whatnot... but they are easy to work with on this end! Some companies don't even return our calls.

Me and my wife join but had to sign the contract on line only on her name was highlited for signing not my name so I did not sign my name, I called this guy by the name of "Dante" and he never gave me his last name his extension to his direct line so I'm closing my checking accounts and one that was giving to Lifeguard Finacial I tried to call on Thursday 9-24-09 but no luck maybe he will call me on Friday 9-25-09 to ask me for another checking account but I had told Dante to send the a copy of the contract by mail about a month ago and asked again last week and told me it takes 7 to 10 business days to receive but I'm still waiting for such hardship copy, I also told Dante he was not a man of his word and he promised me I should receive the copy soon! And had asked me to tell him if Fed-x or which way to send to me I have to see what happens no results I still don't believe everything he says!

changing the company name is a big red flag. looks like they couldnt scam as many people into their program using the name lifegurad due to all the complaints on the bbb and web. so they changed the name to fool and scam others. makes me sick should be against the law to do what they are doing. im so happy i chose not to go with their program i had a bad feeling about it cause they were very pushy