Freedom financial management - has anyone used freedom financial management?

Don't do it, I am facing being sued by my creditors

No No No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ask them if they are licensed do do business as debt proator in Ca. I saw online they are set up as a duty free shop. Their attorney has had his license susended more than once.

Try Solicitation deleted - NDl. Worked for me!

I've been with FFM since December 2008. I have paid them about $6,000 to date. I still owe them $1,000 to cover the 12% non-refundable fee of the total balance of accounts. FFM will collect their fees prior to settling any of your accounts. I have been receiving harassing calls from collection agencies warning me that I will be sued. FFM has informed that they will send a Cease and Desist letter to keep collection agencies from contacting me. Important information that you should consider...FFM will drop any account that you're being sued on. According to the representative, FFM will reduce your payment if this happens. Right now, I am terrified. I'm getting a bad vibe like that previous entry describes. While reluctant to continue with the company fearing that FFM will fail to settle my debts and I'll end up in court, I'm left with little choice but continue and hope for the best. For now, I'm expecting to get served. It is the most awful feeling. If anyone has any advice for me, please help. :(

I have been with Freedom Financial Management since July. They have gotten almost $4,000.00 , from me and now that I am being sued by everyone they tell me to get legal help and find a way to settle my debt. This company is a ripoff. I am now going to have to pay a REAL lawyer and file for bankruptcy. I have asked them for a total refund but doubt I will ever see it. So save yourself a lot of money and heartache, DONT DO IT...........

Freedom Financial Management has a poor F rating with BBB.

This company is not about customer service. Ann from compliance never called me back. When I finally got thru she hung up on me. Your just a number to them! Don't do it!

If you are doing business with Freedom,,PLEASE cancel your account as soon as possible and take your business elsewhere otherwise your current situation is going to be way worse and you will REALLY end up in Financial ruins. My advise to you is to work with your local Consumer Credit Counseling as I have worked with them before and from experience, they DO pay and are on your side.

scary stuff, you need to know the facts about settlement and research these companies well. i feel like a broken record but lately it seems to be the same answer. not enough research. not enough information, not a clue about settlement.

KNOW THE FACTS KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

ihave signed with FFM & am paying 200.00$ per month , am just now checking up on them as I am a very trusting person(also very dumb, I am thinking) Is anybody trustworthy? I am going to stop the payments NOW & see what happens.

yes, there are trusted companies, but the key is doing the research before signing at the dotted line not after.

There is a syseematic order to debt settlements, I have done negotiations for ten years and the process may not show results in the first 6 months, due to savings, but in the term accounts are settled and do show as paid for a lesser amount, in some cases people join expecting for the loan shark's not to harrass them, it is a fact that you can not wave a bone in front of a dog and he will not bite,(This is debt settlement). If you don't have a bone then he will keep barking until you do. There are some untrust worthy companies without an idea what to do but keep taking $$ and no results. Ask For Offers, Ask For Settlements this is the purpose of the program.

I have been with them since July. I have had about 6 different customer service reps since. Stay away from this company. I am now getting ready to file Chapter 7. Everytime I speak to Susan in this company, it is a different story on why nothing is being settled. You cant get an honest answer out of them. I am asking for a full refund and putting in a complaint with the Attorney General Of CA against them. I will find a way to get them out of business of putting people further into debt and laughing at the end of the day. They should be ashamed of what they are doing to people

ive been with freedom since dec.of 08 i started with 200. dollar payments a month. by the second month i hadnt received any feedback so i called and called until someone answered and i asked to get monthly statements, they said they would send them. nothing to date. i received a call from them today 4/08/09 asking me how things where going, i said fine, (not knowing any better) i again asked for statements they said they would send them by the end of this week. i asked the guy a question and he wasnt quite sure how to respond, he sounded like a kid to me. he also told me that i could look up my account status online on their website ffmgt.com and right in the middle of the page a big fat 'F' so i went to the BBB in the state of california, wich only confirmed my suspision. i went straight to the bank to cancel my electronic payments, they said to find out the thruth by calling my creditors, and not believe the blogs, wich i did, they havent received any payments since dec. they where conctacted by freedom but they made no promise to pay them any amount what so ever. I am at the point where they want to sue. i was told to report them to the Federal Trading Commision and Better Business Bureu of California. My bank will go back and obtain my last three payments but past that they cant do much. i suggest that you all report them as well. and for the guy that lost 4000.00 to them already, sue them. you might as well, if you win they will have to pay all of the creditors they filed paperwork with saying that you where there client.

The BBB has this company listed as not Accredited with BBB...isnt this false advertisement!!!

Promotional part of the post deleted - Jason

Oh Boy.. :roll:

Calling all Mods..

Well written Ryan.

I would like to point out however, even with all the TASC-esque disclusure and attorney recommended CYA stuff you mention in your post, many people are enrolled into settlement programs that should not be.

The typical business model(s) used by the vast majority of settlement firms are profit oriented first, consumer benefit second.

These are my personal observations. Mileage may vary.

I have to disagree with you. Perhaps some bad companies put profit first and not care about the client. A perfect example of this would be Credit Solutions. However to generalize and assume that pretty much all are like this is an opinion , not a fact. A legit company finds a balance of profit and consumer benefit. TASC is actually implementing more strict standards for its members.

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Mobile,
I did state in my post that it was a personal observation, not fact.
I agree that there are good companies out there. I find them to be the exception though.

TASC implementation of more strict standards is a result of a stricter regulatory environment, not the result of a best practices round table (also my opinion).

To be more clear regarding my first post in this thread:

The fee models used by most in the industry are too high. It lengthens the time to reach success. Would not the consumer be better off settling with BofA prior to charge off based on current trends at BofA then by a settlement firm subtracting a fee from monthly set aside fund thereby diminishing the ability to fund the great offer from BofA pre-charge off? Which, then leads to third party settlement at a higher percentage. This has the effect of paying more in settlement and having missed an opportunity to avoid an R-9 with the CRA's in order to garner a fee. The fee, in this instance, is more important than the consumer.

Fee caps are being enacted through state legislation or, being enforced more, when they were already in place.

Further:

The sales side of the industry is responsible for most of the black eyes that get delivered on this and, other forums.

FFM is a complete scam, I was with them for about two months before finding out some disturbing info. So I tried to cancel, and then they went ahead and billed me for another month anyway. They actually went into my 3rd party savings account that was suppose to be mine and I was suppose to control, and took my money, so now I don't even get the money that I had been accumalating for my settlements back. I call and call and of course now that they have my money no one calls me back. It is funny how eager they are to talk to you when they are ripping you off, once you smarten up and try to cancel they disseapear. If you are reading this Ryan, get me money back.

How can I authorize a refund...when I don't know who you are?

This is a perfect example of why anonymous message boards have a limited benefit.

To outright label us a "complete scam" is libelous. If you want to express that you had a bad experience with our services, fine, duly noted. But to make the civil (or potentially criminal) accusation that we are a scam is not right.

If we did in fact collect a payment after you cancelled then I implore you to reach us so that we can correct this. But this can't be done if we don't know who you are.

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