Good evening,
I'd like to tell about my experience both positive and negative in the 15 months I was part of the Freedom Debt program. In the end I had 3 accounts which had gone legal over a 6month period. In the end I cancelled the program in the middle of June as I was to be served with a summons from Cap One. I filed Chapter 13 and wish i had done it a year and a half ago.
Positive experiences with Freedom:
1. They always answered calls quickly and recapped every call at the end.
2. They appear to be a good choice if you only have a few 5 or less 3000 or less settlements. They settled a total of 5 of my 14 accounts during the 15 months and was in the middle of a 6th.
The positives aside here are the problem area.
1. The first four months were mostly their main fee which I understood and was fine with. There is then about 2 or 2.5 years of a monthly fee in my case around 190.00. Most of the settlements were drawn out over 5 or more payments. This left very little money each month for new settlements and made me have to keep increasing the monthly withdrawal amount.
2. They were not always consistant with the dates they withdrew the money for settlements. They claimed to do them earlier to get them paid off quicker but in reality this did no such thing.
3. Towards the end when it was getting rough and 3 accounts went legal they transferred to advanced collection but essentially this changed nothing other then me having to be transferred each time I called to talk about it. On at least 1 occasion a settlement was made without enough funds to even start the plan. This made my account negative at the time a fee was charged for this happening.
4. Though customer service was very quick and efficient, when problems arrose I literally got 3 different stories from 3 different reps.
5. I did not receive timely emails or communications after the first settlement or two regarding the account being settled or settlement being completed. Customer service called me once or twice in the first 4 months to see if I had any concerns etc but that stopped after that point.
6. At the time that I cancelled the program I had about 1200 in the dispersal account. I had 2 Cap One accounts legal with the same local law firm. One of them was less then the 1200 I already had but no negotiations ever occurred even after I called in to let them know.
7. I got notice of lawsuit, cancelled, filed chapter 13 well to my unpleasant surprise while going through my Credit Report to fill out necessary paperwork not 1 of the 6 settlements showed correctly on any of my 3 consumer credit reports. I never was provided with any sort of proof of the settlements in writing other then 1 small legal account which was settled after me calling in day after day to get it worked on.
This made things difficult and still is as I was not sure to include the 5 accounts in my BR due to them not showing settlement. Anyway, in conclusion, I believe Freedom to be useful in the case of smaller accounts where you do not have a large amount of CC debt to settle. There is simply not enough money accrued with the fees etc to get to CC collection companies for settlement in a time quick enough that they do not go legal. I believe with many accounts you are better looking at other options like Chapter 13.
All of this said it was not a totally unsatisfying experience just kind of disorganized and incomplete. I see the 2.4% legal account number above and was told that as well but had 3 accounts go legal in 6 months. Two of these were with a supposed non aggressive collector in Cap One.
Anyway my money was refunded in a prompt manner from the account setup for withdrawal so no issue there.
Hopefully this is a constructive review for those thinking of going this route.
Thanks