Lifeguard Financial - What are the debtors saying?

Indeed it is a very unfortuate situation when a debt settlement company steals money from those who are in need of financial relief. I am a C.E.O. and owner of an ethical debt settlement company. So here is my advise! When seeking a third party to handle your debts please do the following. 1) Check the number of complaints on the B.B.B. 2) Verify that they are members of the U.S.O.B.A. or T.A.S.C. 3) Check if they are members of the I.A.P.D.A. and 4) Find out if they offer a money back guarantee. Here at Manageable Debt Solutions, Inc. we comply with all of the above. Our money back guarantee ensures that if we don't save you money we don't make any. So please do your research because we are one of the five companies that actually offer such a guarantee out of thousands of debt settlement companies. Also, when checking a B.B.B. rating only pay attention to the number of complaints. The reason for this is because the B.B.B. automaticaly rates all debt settlement companies with low rating due to the practices like those above. The true way to rank a B.B.B. listing is by the number of complaints. Also, debt settlement isn't for everyone so make sure your debt settlement company properly qualifies you. Otherwise, you may be put in a worse position than where you started. With MDS we explain everything simply and upfront. No hidden information or charges. So try us out and give on of our Debt Specialists a call. To get our number just google our name and visit our website. If you'd like feel free to ask for me personaly. If I am available I will be more than glad to assist you with your financial hardship. If not I can assure one of my agents will be more than glad to help you out. I wish you and your family the best of luck with your financial situation and hope you choose the right company. Best regards, Ricky Lopez.

I have been dealing with this company for a few weeks now and they keep getting me sign up and I think I have all the answers to the parts that are good and the parts that are bad. Basically they are a debt settlement company and that is what they do is settle debt. What that means is they charge you a 12.95 documentation processing fee and a $49.00 fee each month, the more you settle the more benificial it will be obviously, they claim they can settle your debt for 55% of what you owe. Well in order to make a settlement you have to owe the money and not be currently paid on in order to reach a settlement so that means the money you send to them doesn't go to the creditor it goes in an account to be paid to the creditor for a settlement of debt so while you pay them your bill does not get paid, so your credit score will drop and when you finally reach the payoff point the lawyers will settle your debt and then your credit score will go back up. All cards are frozen, if you bank with an institution that you want to settle a debt with then you will need to close your checking/savings with that bank as that will negatively impact your ability to settle. basically if your credit is already shot then you have nothing to lose but if your in good standing, can still pay your bills and you like the option of being able to open a credit account with 0% for 12 months for opening then this program really isn't for you because what good credit you have will be ruined for the length of the contract, once it is paid off the report will say paid as agreed and your score will go back up, supposedley. I'm still skeptical and have not made a discission yet, If I go with the program then I will save my self approximatly 13,000 in interest but I will have the worst credit score of my life. Don't know what to do. Currently I have a 2.99% and a 3.99% for the life of the loan which are good rates but I here that banks are going to retract their agreement and they can increase my rate regardless if I pay on time every month and so on so if they shoot it up on me then by all means I will wish I settled while the economy sucks and I can get a bail out on the money I owe, I mean we gave it to the banks and they blew it now I have to pay for it, I'd love to stick it back to them for once.

Recently many consumers are receiving telephone calls at home telling them that they have qualified for the ¨National Debt Stress Relief Program¨, this is a tactic or ¨angle¨ by many debt settlement companies to hook more clients into their business. These companies call unsuspecting consumers up and tell them that due to their ¨declining credit score¨ and unsecured debt balance they now qualify for said program.

Bologna, do not get caugth in this ¨SCAM¨. It is true they have your credit score, approximate unsecured debt balance, telephone number and physical address, but this is all they have; no more. They trick you into volunteering more information based on the information they have; they must be buying consumer lists from someone, who that is I have no idea. Do not give up your Social Security Number for anything in the world.

These people fail to mention the words ¨Debt Settlement¨, they want to come across as a non-profit agency which they are not, they tell consumers they simply charge a monthly maintenance fee and that it is part of their monthly installment set aside as savings; pure GARBAGE!

Consumers are told there is an average of .45 cents savings per account, meaning the client would end up paying back .55 cents per dollar back to their creditors; GARBAGE. What consumers do not know is that they settle these accounts for close to .40 cents on the dollar and keep the rest to themselves; meaning in fact they are keeping or making a commission for their effort. On their first phone call they tell you there are no up-front fees, but they fail to explain the aforementioned tactic.

Consumers beware, these people hide behind BBB affiliations and several Debt Settlement entity affiliations. Remember, most of these are simply affiliations which these companies pay for.

I would greatly worry if someone called me out of the blue saying they are a ¨consumer Advocate Group¨ working in direct conjunction with a major credit bureau, if so ask them for the telephone number to the person in charge at the credit bureau and verify with that entity what the person on the telephone is telling you is true.

Once again, consumer beware!

Can you guess what company I'm talking about here?

Every client I have ever signed up at LGF knew exactly what they were going to pay and exactly what we would make.your definition of garbage greatly worries me as I have several clients who have completed their program and all their accounts were settled at no more than .55 on the dollar and yes we told them before they signed up that we would make 15% of their debt amount by settling for .40 if we didn't we would be out of business as would any company that does not make a profit. Let us review..... I call a person whose credit file shows 30k in debt and a fico of 575 I tell them I can offer them a program that will reduce the amount they owe and will hurt their credit score during the process. I tell them that if they are not having trouble meeting their monthly minimum payments they DO NOT qualify. If they wish to see this in writing I send them a contract to review. MANY of my clients have brought their contract to their lawyer or financial advisor and then called me back ready to enroll. I give them my personal number to reach me if they ever have a problem while enrolled. I give them my email address (a corporate email address not personal one) I assist with any questions and make sure they understand debt settlement is NOT the same a credit counseling!!!!!!!!! in the contract which is written in VERY clear english that any 7th grader could understand it states "client agrees to make 1 monthly payment of $507 for 36 months ALL FEES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS AGREEMENT HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THE PAYMENT TERMS IN THIS PARAGRAPH!" So I fail to understand how any former employee could possibly assume this is a scam. My email appears in a post in this forum and I have yet to get an email 2 months later from anyone about this message board and let me understand commission = scam so 40% of Americas honest workforce is scamming people because they are paid by commission including every real estate broker, stock broker, & auto sales person. WHAT NONSENSE! LGF is IAPDA registered as well as a member of USOBA If you have visited our corporate office which is EXTREMELY professional you would find we take up 8 floors (no boiler room) and the only lawsuit as mentioned earlier was brought by a person/lawyer who has been found guilty of fair debt collection practices act violations.

I was contacted by someone representing Lifeguard Financial, lgf101.com. When I tried to Google Lifeguard Financial the first site that popped up, I clicked on and that site in the banner stated that they were not lgf101 and gave a phone number to call them about any questions. Now I'm questioning how legitemate this company that contacted me really is.

The way the program works when you sign up with Lifeguard Financial is that they send a "Cease and Desist" letter to your creditors. Once they receive the letter your creditor closes the account and by law they can not continue calling you. They are required to call Lifeguard Financial from that point forward. You can have Lifeguard Financial sue your creditor if they continue calling you. Simply record the date, time, and name of the person at the bank who called you and report it in writing to Lifeguard Financial.

Also you may ask Lifeguard Financial to send you a DAAN module (for a $25 deposit). This module is plugged in to your phone line and once a creditor calls you press a button and they will get a recording with legalese stating that they are breaking the law by contacting you directly.

Life guard is a great company to work for ive been there 4months and ive helped alot of people out making sure i read over the whole application from top to bottom making sure each client understands fees and any thing else.I have also spoken to clients that have ben in program for over a year and they were happy.Im sure that eveyone is not goin to be happy with program but do your homework before you sighn with our company or any company.

i must point out that the creditors CAN still contact you even with those letters. you are the creditor. now if they harrass you then they can be sued for harrassment if you can prove it. The settlement co can keep resending them letters and for the most part they will stop calling but you will still get a few random ones.

Lifeguards website has been down for days now and a employee there told me that they have been sold. What will happen to my money???

I live in Knoxville, TN and I saw an ad on Craigs List looking for telemarketing reps for a company called Safeguard Financial. They admit in the ad that they used to be known as Lifeguard Financial. I've been trying to fina a job for a month, and I am so tired of Googling a companies name and find yet another scam operation. For those of you that are trying to find them, go to craigslist and the select Knoxville,TN then select sales jobs - there they are as of today.

Hope this helps any of you...

I signed With lifeguard 18 months ago for a 36 months program. At first i was Skeptical because the creditors kept on calling I was on The verge of terminating my contract but I looked over it and it was stated that it takes 60-90 days for the calls to stop. I allowed that time and in effect after 2 months and a half my creditors stopped calling me. Im half-way into the program and my credit score has gone up. I beleive it is a good program you just gotta give them time to work with the creditors

I worked for the company for exactly two weeks. Within this time frame, their Better Business Bureau Rating (BBB) dropped from A- to C+ then further down to Not Rated(NR). When a company's rating declines this quickly to (NR) this means that the bureau is overwhelmed with consumer complaints and most likely litigation with the state district attorney. Please don't believe anything individuals working for this company tell you. However, I must say those scumbags have quite a racket they are running- completely unregulated business with involvement with the (TASC). The second I figured out there angle in full on my tenth day, I walked out of the office never to return. It has been over two month since then and I have yet to receive my paycheck which I am entitled to under law. Most likely they have no intentions to pay me or improve your credit score and get you completely debt free in less than 5 years. I hope the information I have provided you with helps you. This information is completely accurate in full. Cheers.

No. of CmplType of Response 11Making a full refund, as the consumer requested 1Making a partial refund 45Agreeing to perform according to their contract 0Refusing to make an adjustment 0Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement 0Unanswered 0Unassigned 57 Total

im a little confused/concerned to the comment that thier credit score is going up half way through the program. considering that you still have debt that is unpaid and more and more time is goin bye usually your score does not go up until after all your accounts are paid. usually about a year after finishing the program your score will start to improve i have never heard of your score improving while in the program.

When a company's bbb goes from a to c and now to nr. To now be under a new name altogether I say RUN DO NOT WALK away from them

I am so happy my unusable credit score of 450 is now a still unusable 475 YIPPY