My settlement--done through Sifxpert

I just wanted, in the light of a recent post made in response to mine, to clear the air on Sifxpert. I do not work for him. I was led to him from information from this website.

My husband and I were drowning in debt. Our interest rates had been jacked up even though every one of our accounts was current and we had good credit scores. We had one lender once even show us our credit report and brag about how good it was. Still, we were barely afloat. I had looked at options to get us out of this. We had consolidated and it didn't work. We had taken big bonuses that we had gotten at work and paid on it but all the progress that we made was eaten up by high interest rates, which no one would lower. When we called, we got the run around every time. Finally, I could juggle no longer and we couldn't make the minimum payments.

I finally read somewhere, I think on one of these forums, that trying to save your credit while you are drowning in debt was like trying to water your grass when your house is on fire. It finally clicked and we knew that we couldn't do this on our own anymore.

I started looking at different companies that would help us settle this debt. I had one "Christian" company tell me that they could do this, explained their fees and told us that they could stretch our payments out to five years. Luckily, I had done enough reading and researching to know that that was NOT possible and would land me in court. I wanted to avoid that.

I finally sent an email to Sifxpert and got hooked up with James Lombardo. He gave me the straight poop. He told us what he could settle each account for, what our fees to him would be, what the retainer would be and how it would work. He also told us that with our debt load, we would probably have at least one lawsuit. We were weeks from having no other choice but bankruptcy and he was honest enough to acknowledge that.

There was no pressure whatsoever to sign on with him. He, in fact, had to consider US and whether or not he would take our case on, knowing that we would probably be headed to court. He encouraged us to talk it over and make an informed decision. There was never any pressure, phone calls, or emails from him trying to get us to sign on.

We signed on in September with him. We had a total of nine different accounts. He started tackling them one by one.

So far, we have settled $47K for $15. I will share card names and more totals when we are done with the entire program. We have more accounts still to settle but will be done this summer.

Has this been easy? Yes and no.

Yes because the stress that has been lifted from not being able to pay these has been enormous. It's not an easy thing to see your credit tank but it's better than trying to stretch 57 cents into a dollar every week to try and get the bills paid. We put aside the agreed amount into a savings account that was used for settling when the card companies finally agreed.

It's getting easier too the more results that we see!

Why has it not been easy? It's hard to watch your credit scores take a nose dive into the crapper. So much emphasis is placed on credit scores! We had worked our whole life to have good credit. But we have accepted that they will tank and that they will eventually recover.

The other thing that has been annoying are the phone calls. James told us to not talk to them and to let him handle the calls. We did. We use our Caller ID to make sure who is on the other end before we answer. As the accounts settle, the calls are decreasing.

I have read posts on this website that tell about Sifxpert being hard to get ahold of. Sometimes he is, I will be honest. At first, I thought he should answer every one of my emails the same day. Then one day, I realized, we are on different coasts. Of course he reads them later than I do.

The other thing I realized, as the program progressed was that he DID contact me every time he needed to. He would email me and let me know that a settlement was coming--then I wouldn't hear anything for a while. I finally realized how slowly these things work. Just because a bank tells you a letter is coming doesn't mean you'll see it that week! Once I learned this, I wasn't so anxious. He gets hold of me every time there was something to report. And nothing has gone unanswered.

All in all, this has been a great experience for us and I would recommend this to anyone. I would not recommend using anyone but Sifxpert. His fee structure is fair and he knows that the first 3-4 months of your savings cannot go to fees--it has to go to settling debt. Without that, we would have been in bankruptcy.

Sifxpert has saved us from that.

I won't recommend a particuliar company to anyone because everyones' financial problems are different, and what works for one, may not work with another.

If you do decide to go with a company, please check out the following, and more:

1. Checked out their reputation, complaints, etc., with the BBB, and also your attorney general can sometimes give you a heads up.

2. Ask about any and all fees, included and not.

3. How the creditors are handled, and if the creditors work with them.

4. How long the program lasts and when do the creditors start getting paid.

5. How available are they to you-do they promptly return calls or emails, etc.

These are just a few things you need to look for and at when choosing a company, never rush into something because of your panic at your financial situation...KAren

There are a few good companies out there, you just have to do your research which is made easier by this forum.

You are right, dbcoders. We would have been lost without this forum. We have learned so much! If you are new to here, I would recommend spending a few HOURS on here, learning. It is very informative and you will know what to expect.

SIFXPERT IS A BAD BUSINESS.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY .
I GOT RIP OFF FOR THEM.

TASCGIV..can you please explain your experience with Sifxpert? Thanks. Would lke to know 'both' sides. Someone, above recommended them. Can you let me know your problems with them?

Personally for me james told me how to go about setting this up and now that it is time for the settlement to take place I haven't heard from him in over 3 weeks. The last I heard from him he told me he was calling that day and he would give me an update the next.. The update never came...

Mere 10 days ago, I was very much negative about him. (please read my posts) I am changed man because he delivered what he promised. At the end, he settled 1/2 of my debt load in 4 days of end of March 2008. Just like you said, sometimes,I had hard time to comunicate with him. But I have to admit that I was under very stressful condition from nonstop demoting phone calls from collectors. As a result, I needed constant assurance from James or someone with experience-(this website)to counter emotional demages from threatening collection calls. I am sure answering all of my daily email would take good chunk of his valuable time from settlements.
Everyday was felt like eternity and waking up in the morning was depressing task. Everything changed when James delivered 3 settlements resulting 1/2 of my debt reduction in just 4 days. Now I am more patient with him because I know he was working on my mess.

Two questions.

Scottinred, how long have you been in the program with Sifxpert?

Tania, care to explain your experiences with Sifxpert a little more. The short incomplete sentences you have posted in this and other topics regarding Sifxpert and his company aren't very informative for people considering his services.

tanias experience is that she gave him the initial 500.00 and never heard from him again.whats to explain?there are others on these forums that have had the same thing happen.there are positives and negatives with any settlement company.do your homework and decide from there.

Before I heard of Sifxpert. I talked credit counselor refered by Amex. Counselor looked my budget, he recommend me to look into bankrupcy. I learned about debt settlement from thiswebsite and talked debt settlement co which was refered by this web site. He told me that I could only enroll personal credit cards with his program. It was not the best I hped for, but I decided to follow the settlement co's recommendation. Then mere coincidence, I stumble into information on James Lombardo of Sifxpert from this website. He told me he could take care of all- personal, business and Amex- credit cards!! I enroll all my 11 credit cards with his frogram since end of Jan. 2008. Nothing was done in Feb. and Most part of March 2008. I thought lots of times he might be too good to be truth- $500 retainer and 20% what I will save as fee!! He did not tell me clearly what I shoud do with daily coping with debt collectors calls. It was emotionally draining Feb. and March. 2008. I needed some spiritual boost on each day to counter all kind of negative thoughts originating from collection calls. Most of his email reply was short and to the point only. My skeptism about James' promise grew larger as each days of March passes by without solid proof of settlement. Then last 4 days of March he settled my biggest and problemsome 3 large account to cut my debt load to 1/2 ,in mere 4 days!! He told me on each email that he is working on my case but I did not believe him much because nothing happend for 1 month and a half. He settled 70k in 38% average I still owe him settlment fees , but he is still working on Amex and Citi totaling about 40k balance. I told James to stop the settlement work in April because I need to save money to pay his fee for the March settlements. He told me to settle as soon as possible to minimize credit damage on my business account. We are working on pre charge off settlement on most aged accounts at this moment. I don't think any debt settlement agency will continue to work if their fees are not paid yet. This is reason I changed my position on James from 180 degree.

Paulmergel, there's a lot to explain. You can't just say you got ripped out of $500.00 and not prove that he misled you in some way. I would be more interested in knowing what sort of accounts you brought to Sifxpert and what the status of each of them was at the time. Please provide more details.

Enough with the advertising for james Lombardo. people can chose for themselves. I think 10 posts a day about this guy is a bit much, amd actually very annoying

pardon me miss lombardo,oops i mean williamson.i wouldn't use him with your money.if tania who is a great member of this forum says she got ripped off by him i believe it.i never even heard of him till this forum.now ENOUGH!i am through responding to you.

Thank you scottinred for your quick response. Currently I am researching the prospect of going through the debt settlement process and I am at the point where I trying to get actually feedback (positive and negative) from people who are in or have gone through the debt settlement process.

I meant no disrepect to tsacgiv/Tania in my earlier post and if I came across as rude I apologize. All I was looking for was a greater explanation of your earlier post and the negative experience you had with Sifxpert. I wasn't the only one looking for that information as sdchargers_63 also inquired about it in an earlier thread. If you don't feel comfortable sharing that information publicly a quick PM with a few details would be greatly appreciated.