Can you tell me if Summit Group, LLC in Tennessee is a legitimate debt consolidation service or is this a scam?

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We have used this company and want to make sure it was a wise choice. Can you help us

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Type 'Summit Group' in the search function for this site and you'll see what others have said. Hopefully it'll give you a heads up as to what others have experienced with them.

Also, check them out on the BBB...if they don't have a file there...it's best to leave them alone.

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I have a 300 dollar loan that I cant pay off until the middle of february when my school loan comes in, will you please stop attempting to take out payments from my checking account. If you cant I will have to close my checking account. I will pay off the loan in full in february. Thank you in advance Cheryl Bonham

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They are ligitimate, according to the BBB. But definately not non profit. And they get their money first before they even start to help you. not sure how they are getting away with this because technically, they are suppose to provide you a service before you pay them.
They charge you 9 months worth of fee's.
Plus they make 35% of what they save you.
So for example, if you get a quote from them, and your monthly payment will be $500.00 a month, the first 9 months payment goes straight to Summitt. That's $4,500 your paying them. Plus whatever they save you. If you owe a crediator 20 thousand, and they settle your debt for half (10 thousand) 35% of that would be $3,500. So you have paid them a total of $8,000 dollars to payoff your 20 thousand dollar debt.
Settle 20k debt for 10k
Pay summitt 8k
You have only saved 2k
Plus on top of that, it takes a year before your crediator starts seeing any money. The first 9 months goes to summitt, then they start putting your payment into a saving account and let it build up for 6 months or so befoe they start negotiating with your crediators. so now it's been well over a year since you have made any type of payment to the crediator. They tell you to change your number, or don't answer your phone when a crediator calls. I was with them for only three months before I canceled my service with them. A crediator called me and told me that they have never heard from the summitt group and they had tried to get in touch with Summitt with no return phone call. I Quickly called my rep with Summitt and asked about this. She asked me why I was answering my phone to speak with them and then got very defensive. She advised me that "of course they are going to tell you that because they want you to make a payment over the phone"
I then asked if anyone had contacted my creditor, she assured me they had. I asked that she give me some sort of proof. A date and time they called, and who they spoke with etc. She said they could not do this. This was a major red flag for me. I even spoke to corporate about my concern and was told by the vice President Ed Wordly that they could not provide proof and that I would "just have to trust them" That is crazy....who today would "just trust a company" with no backup documentation. I quickly pulled my account with them.
My suggeston to you would be to try to settle your debt yourself with your creditors, if you can. You can settle for almost half or more of what you owe. You can stop making payment to the creditor for 6 months and put that money back into an account the same way summitt would have, then settle with the creditor, because once you settle they want three consecutive payments of what you owe. So back to the example, you owe 20k settle with them for 10k and thats $3,333 / month to pay them back. That is exactly what summitt would do, so why not do it yourself and save yourself the fee?

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