How can I get out of the mess created by Freedom Debt Relief?

i did some searching back in dec 09 and i talked to several debt settlement companies, asking for their fee structure etc. searching for info online at ftc and other govt sites, it plainly tells you to stay AWAY from any settlement company that charges their fees upfront (other than maybe a few hundred dollars as a retainer fee to begin), but you can expect to pay a small monthly maintenance fee, but that they should NOT charge you any other fees until they ACTUALLY do a settlement. also each state has their own laws about the max percent fee they can charge you (ex: 13% of savings per settlement). in my state the max is 10%, and the 3 firms i checked with all charge 15 or higher.
one firm told me that they do not send out notices to creditors that you are under their program until AFTER they collect the first monthly payment. well, this is a bbb accredited firm, attorney backed, etc. we provided our info, received email to go to the website and sign in to officially be in the program. within 48 hours, after reading all the fine print on the website, we decided the fees and details were not acceptible. we called and cancelled our enrollment. mind you this was dec 09. in late march we received 2 notices, one on each of our discover cards from zwicker & assoc stating that they were handling our DFS accounts and to contact them. we didnt know who the heck DFS was, so i called asap and inquired. found out it was discover.. we had NEVER missed or been late with our discover payments, and accounts were still open (so we thought). well, the lady at zwicker told me that discover had received a letter that we were enrolled with debt settlement firm and they do not do business with them, so they closed the accounts and sent them to zwicker immediately after receiving that notice from ds firm. boy were we mad! i explained to them what we had done and that we were NOT enrolled in the program and that they should never have gotten the accounts. i went off on zwicker and hung up, tried to call discover bank,and kept getting sent back to zwicker but would hang up. i called the ds firm and blasted them, as they had to have sent out that letter immediately (within the 48 hours)after we enrolled and before we cancelled. they sent me a copy of the second notice they sent to creditors stating that we had cancelled our enrollment.. what got me is the fact we enrolled and cancelled in december, yet discover didnt get the first letter until late MARCH ! however damage was done, and discover customer service couldnt help me, as they account was locked out to them, and i had to deal with their atty based collection agency.
since i talked to 3 different ds firms, and being burned by one of them, every so often one of the others calls to see if we are ready to enroll with them, they slam other firms, and do everything they can to try and pressure you into signing with them.. there is NO WAY i will even consider working with a ds firm now! i would rather file bankruptcy than to deal with them ! they all charge way too much in fees and create a worse credit nightmare for consumers. we can settle our own debt for FREE, no fees! but we do have to tolerate dealing direct with creditors and listening to phones ringing off the wall.
so keep in mind that all banks DO NOT work with these ds firms.

I am not sure if this is a competitor attempting to slander FDR or a malicious
employee, but I have been working with FDR for over 1 year and feel very good about the company and the number of people we help every day. This statement does not reflect the truth about FDR and its shared values and we pride ourselves on the highest standards for our clients.

all companies charge a service fee. Name one that doesnt. Its not a red flag, its a service. Thats how it works.

My husband is going through Freedom debt and they have not done us any good. They never call back when they say they are going to. We were told a lot of things that they would do and haven't done. We were told they would start to negotiate once they had forty percent when we got into the program the one account was $8000 now it's $10.000 and my husband was served with papers to go to court. They have over forty percent and have not started to negotiate. This is the second one we are going to court for they did the same thing with the first one. So I would like to ask Brad where is our help you said you could give us.

FDR does charge fees for its services, as stated in our contract and during phone calls when people sign up for our program. If you are a client and have not been serviced properly please contact FDR's customer service department.

I work for FDR and the settlements you speak of are not typical. We are very fortunate that we are able to obtain great settlements for our clients as you can see on our website. There are exceptions sometimes and this may have been the case. We are very committed to settling our client’s debts in a short period of time for as little money as possible. You are correct, there is a possibility that an unpaid account may go in to a “Legal” status although that possibility is roughly 2.4% of accounts. If you would like to discuss your account please contact customer service.

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

I would love to but no one at customer service has answers for us they say they will call back and they don't call back. I paid off the last one that went to court and one other. I don't have the money for this one! They got there fees up front and paid one little one off. How is that fair? They say they start trying to settle at 40% that has not happen and now it has gone from $8.000 to $10.000

FDR does charge fees for its services, as stated in our contract and during the phone calls when people sign up for our program. If you are a client, please contact customer service.

FDR does charge fees for its services as stated in the contract. Fees and interest charged by your credit card company are determined by the original creditor and your contract with them. This is also advised in your contract with FDR that those fees and interest will still apply.

FDR is set up to handle all accounts from small to large although results per client may vary.

If you want people to call you directly, then why are you listed as 'Anonymous' and do not provide your full name, Official Title, and contact telephone number??????? I would LOVE to talk to you because I have an ongoing account that has been in 'negotiations' now since January, 2010 and I'm in a full blown Court battle (on my own, Pro-Per I might add) due to the incompetence of one of your 'so-called' Advanced Collection Team Negotiators! I can't even get her to communicate DIRECTLY with me, I've been lied to about the status of my current account, AND it should have NEVER gotten this far in the Court system if AT ALL.
So .......... IF you are who you 'say' you are, SHOW YOURSELF and be accountable. Remember, what goes around comes around - it's called "Karma" and those of you who hide behid the evil guise of 'helping those in financial trouble' just remember - It could be YOU someday and then you will suffer the same as you make other suffer today or something worse that might just come your way per the "Big Plan" from the "Big Guy". Please contact me at blosborn4@aol.com and I will be readily available to speak with you directly and off public posting websites. Let's see what you're made of..........

The person who you are referring to, states that they are a founder of our organization and encouraged you to call him directly. I will email you with my direct contact information so we can discuss your program and this particular account. FDR prides ourselves on helping our clients through their difficult financial times and although we cannot stop a creditor or anyone from taking you to court we will assist you and all of our clients to the best of our ability.

I would call 866-833-6398 they don't take any upfront fees and you pay the creditor directly and they only charge a small fee after the settlement letter is sent directly from the creditor or it's agent. They can settle between 20-35 cents on the dollar.

I work at Freedom Debt Relief and we offer a phenomenal product. I would encourage
consumers to shop around for the best product.

I am disgusted by these fools! They settled two of my credit cards with small balances-$1000 and $1200 within a few months. But the big one-$23,000 was never settled by them because it was written off 6 months after collection attempts-and FDR didn't even know this until 2 years later. To add insult to injury, thir so called FEES were over $4,000, DON'T use this company. I wish I hadn't and I know now that there are others who will charge reasonable fees and do a much better job for you.