bad settlement company has ruined my credit

Your first step to repair your bad credit is to pull a copy of your credit report from the three bureaus. You can list the name of your creditor and send them a payment plan. Do not stretch your monthly payment in case if it becomes tough for you to pay in the later period. I am sure the creditor will accept your payment plan and you will be able to clear it faster.

Charged off debts are those debts which become uncollectible and hence are turned over to the collections. It is advised to keep the debts current otherwise debt in collections is a negative remark and will hurt your credit for 7 years.

Comparing to debt settlement programs, consolidation programs are much better as they help in improving your credit file. You might like to read this article to understand the basic difference between both the programs:

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/comparison.html

You can register yourself in this site for a free counseling and know more about your repayment options. I believe that the consultant will be able to choke out a payment plan and help you in achieving a debt free life faster.

Similar to your problems, I also took the help of a debt consolidation program with this company. I am happy to see the improvement in my credit file.

i think that there are more importent things in life that are more concerning then just to get a good settlement coz people should be happy that atleast them people who have got a bad settlement hav a settlement. imagine the people without honme and the people who dont even live under neth a roof

Shammi

A credit file is the most important financial report in his entire lifetime. It should be his prime concern to maintain its worthiness so that he gets access to new credit with respect.

i am also with this agency and they are not doing anything for me either. how do i get out of the contract?

lori,

Selecting a good company is very important. You are going to hand over your finance to them after all! And your finance always should be in good hands. People doing consolidation with debt consolidation care are very happy with the service offered to them, have a look-

http://forums.debtcc.com/customer-service.html

Contact with your settlement company and tell them that you want to cancel the contract. That's it. Make sure that they give you some written document of cancellation.

fornia, luftman and heck will not take my phone call to cancel my contract. what can i do? can i just not put the money in my account for their payment? please help me. i am in desprite need. thank you, lori

Lori,

Do you have any papers of agreement? Please check it carefully if it states anything on how to cancel the contract. So you can simply follow the procedure.

Otherwise write them a letter and clearly state that you want to cancel the contract. You can also mention the reason why are doing so. It will help them understand your problem as well and perhaps they will make some arrangements to satisfy your requirements. Hope this helps.

i tried getting ahold of the settlement company to cancel my membership, because they were not taking care of my settlement with the credit cards, the wouldn't take my calls, so i cancelled my bank account and sent them an email. did i do the right thing? thank you, lori

lori,

If you had started paying some of your creditors through this settlement company, obviously they will not receive the money from the next month. So you have to take care of them as well.

I hope you have checked the papers of agreement with the settlement company. If not recheck it just to ensure if they follow some particular procedure to cancel the contracts.

on there website, you cannot see the agreement because the writing is to small. also it will not let you print it off. the whole agreement will not print out. i got in contact with the creditors myself and worked something out with them. the lawyers did pay one creditor because they were getting ready to take me to court. what else should i do? the settlement company will not take my call, and i emailed them a letter stating that i am cancelling. thank you, lori

Sounds like a shady company. :(

What company is it? Maybe someone here has experience with them and would know how to help.

lori,

They are holding satisfactory record with BBB. You can search BBB website to check if they have any additional phone number. It would be better if you can get in touch with them to explain your problem. Keep us posted.

I am also with this company. I am having issues. We just settled one, only because they had filed suit against me. I came up with the money, and am waiting for Capital One to dismiss. I really want to get rid of this problem and move on. The balances are higher now and on the others we have there. This company just doesn't seem to be to concerned with the problem at hand. The response I get is don't worry, the credit card company isn't calling. I was able to make the payments before, but there was nothing left to live on. Do you have any idea how I can get out of this and still be able to settle somehow?

If you are not getting the satisfactory results from the settlement company, shop for another company. I guess you have not paid anything to the settlement company as all the money is going towards the account separately opened. You can still cancel the contract with them.

Talk to Capital One and check the actual status of your account. You can still proposal a settlement amount. They will like to receive the money before the account runs out of the SOL period. Talk to them and see if they can have a better deal for you. If you are satisfied, you can think of terminating the contract with the settlement company.

I have been paying the company for 1yr., 275 a month. a portion goes toward their fee the rest goes in a savings account that will be used to pay the debts. Problem is, this company will not negotiate until there is a good amount of money in the account. The did agree to put the full payment into the savings for the next 3 months.

Do you think it would be a good idea to contact the credit card companies and see what I can work out? The balances and interest rates are now higher.

If I had this to do over again I would never have gone with this company.

Any help that anyone can provide would be great.

Thanks!

If the settlement company is not able to return beneficial results in the program, cancel the contract and see what you can do with the original company. For what purpose are they charging the fee on you if they can't negotiate in the right time? Guess, if the creditor takes any sort of actions against you before the negotiations begin.. I am sorry but I will take care of this matter and think about using the services of the settlement company you are working with.

They're lawyers. File a grievance with the Columbus Bar Association or the Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission.

Official Law Firm Response

Our law firm did not want to respond to these complaints. However, these individuals have attacked my firm????????s reputation with complaints that are completely without merit. I now feel that defending our reputation is appropriate. We have over one thousand clients for which we do various consumer work, and the vast majority of them are very happy with our services and the attention provided to their particular situations.

The firm chooses not to address each post individually, as we feel that we could potentially breach attorney-client privilege by posting individual client specifics.

We provide aggressive and professional legal representation to each of our clients. We are proud to represent these clients, but at times their expectations are unreasonable or fall outside the scope of what may be a reasonable settlement for their creditors. We always thoroughly inform our clients that a settlement is not possible until adequate funds are available, and on many occasions, we put our fees on the backburner in order for the client to more quickly build these funds. This exact situation was even indicated by one of the individuals making a complaint on this forum.

Our staff is available twelve hours each day to help our clients, and we also have 24 hour phone coverage in case of an emergency. We treat each of our clients with the utmost respect, and provide thorough services to ensure the best possible outcome.

My husband and I are using this company and have never had any problems with them. I think most of these people complaining are expecting there problems to just disappear without any work or waiting. We have been with them a little less then a year but they have shown us the savings account they are depositing into (which I'm sure they do for everyone). I trust them to make the right decision when it comes to making settlements and paying our debts.
Also the reason we originally came to them was because my sister-in-law and her husband used them to pay off over $10,000 in debt, which was completed in under 3 years, with payments they could afford and with there total debt amount paid brought down to $8,000. This alone tells me these guys know what they are doing and aren't trying to rip anyone off.

I buried my husband, in 2002. The insurance company claimed that he had withdrawn the funeral money one month before he passed away. They also collected premiums, and, did not pay the policy at the time of the policy holders death. They accepted the case because of harrassment. I have paid $120.00 a month since 2002. They are still after me for this amount each month. This funeral should have been paid for August 2009 in full. Their records say not. What do I now do.

I contacted the funeral home and they would not agree to the settlement offered. This is not the lawyers fault. However the funeral is for $7,642.00 of which they said no payment has been made since 2005. Unium Provident I found, has 268 persons who have paid premiums for quite a number of years, and, has yet to pay any money to the familys' of the deceased policy holders yet. They always have some reason for it. From what I read, they better take a policy with their own company out on theirselves.

Will paying a settlement amount help or affect my credit? if I am not able to pay the whole amount or make payment arrangements because my amounts are too high.

Settlements will generally lower your score.