Law Offices of Richard A. Brennan - Can you rely on them?

Hi Scaredsilly. I haven't heard anything about these people but I know theres other places that do debt consolidation that don't charge you anything--its totally free. Are you interested in these guys because its a law office? If you're really interested, I will see if I find anything on them for you :D shirley

scaredsillybydebt,

According to their website, they are specialized in credit counseling agency. They offer other services also. I did some research on the net and it appeared that they are a reputed company. So you can deal with them.

The offer also seems very attractive. Very few companies are there who are willing to consolidate payday loans. So if you accept their offer, it will give you relief from the headache of payday loans as well.

Always discuss all your problems with your counselor. If you have any doubts get it clarified with them. debt management is an interactive process, so you should be involved in it too. All the best and keep us updated.

P.S. Also check your PM, I have sent you some information.

Heres what I came up with---very very interesting.
I did a check on the law offices of Richard A. Brennan with the BBB to see if they are members. They are not. I put in their phone number in the search. The phone number that the law office has on their website, in their headlines on their home page---(checking through the BBB) is the number to Credicure, Inc. They are not on the BBB list either. Here is what BBB said about them.



hope this has helped in your decision. shirley

I did not have any problem dealing with them. They were very much prompt to respond to my queries and clarified all my doubts very well. It was a good experience to work with them.

heres their website:
credicure.org

I have read some good things about them. What I'm wondering is if you decide to go with these people, why not go straight through them and cut out the law office and having to pay $200? They're free, they do ask for donations but you don't have to donate at first or even at all if you can't afford to.
anyone care to comment on this? what would be the point in paying the lawyer $200 for them to set up an account with credicure when you can go straight to the source yourself??

Just wanted to let you all know that I have been a client of Credicure (the law offices of Richard A. Brennan) since October. Since my Credit has fallen to a POOR rating and I have filed a complaint with the better business bureau. I am now out approx $800 as of April 1st. The Law Offices of Richard A. Brennan is the same as Credicure/Ameridebt/USA Debt Management/United Christian Financial. STAY AWAY FROM THESE COMPANIES. They are not not-for-profit like they say. I actually had one account go into collections because they were not being paid by Credicure.Here are some links:
http://www.bbb.org/washington-dc-eastern-pa

coeinc.org/AllSections/AmeriDebt-WashingtonPost.htm

This law office took over the company that I had gone to for debt counseling. I have been trying to get questions regarding my account answered for almost two months now. Both my phone messages & emails have not been returned at all. Not even a call or email to let me know they received my messages and would look into my inquiries. There message says that emails will be answered within 24 hours, but that isn't the case. I would strongly suggest looking elsewhere. Do your research...Over a year and half ago I went to debt counseling. The company has changed hands twice now and none of them have been very responsive. :cry:

Don't do it! I was transfered by a previous debt counseling agency to them (without my permission) and I made a payment to them... IT NEVER showed up to any of my credit cards. They STILL have not resolved the issue and this is MONTHS later!

I was with another company also. They have $954 of my money that has not be paid to my creditors. I have not spoken to a human yet and none of my e-mails have been answered. But I am not giving up!

Which company was it? Charlotte, it is always suggested to do business with a reputed company. You can register with this site to get in touch with a good consolidation company and know your option now. The registration is free here.

Please be advised that this firm will do nothing for you. I signed up last year in Oct., have been paying the fee $260/month and have recieved absolutely poor service. They didnt even send out limited power of attorney forms until 4 months later! This is what stops the creditor phone calls. They didnt know who I was when I called twice! Now Im in the process of trying to get my money back-good luck right! I have been forced to file a small claims case, because they will not return my money. Beware, these people will steal your money. Everytime I call, the staff was inattentive, like their primary purpose was to get you off the phone. Ignored e-mails, phone messages, I finally got enough. The thing is I probably lost that money, and my credit is worse. STAY AWAY from Richard a Brennan!!!!!

I started with Nexum which was a great company. They handled everything promptly and efficently. I cancelled my bank draw today and finally talked to a human and told them they would not be pulling money from my account any more. They could still not tell me where my last two months of payments were and were very rude when I questioned them.

I put a stop to bank withdrawals on Friday. Called all my creditors and they worked with me. I know have 0% interest on 2 of my 3 cards. I will be paying less on my own then with Richard A. Brennan aka Credicure.

Upon reading the recent posts upon this site, I find it disturbing, the insinuation and misinformation. As an attorney, I have represented many non profit credit counseling agencies, for profit debt settlement companies, and debt consolidation companies. Having been in on legislative actions for new regulations, and I have defended individuals in bankruptcy and against IRS actions for years. I represented CrediCure at one point, and years ago I also represented AmeriDebt. In both cases the individuals there attempted to provide the best credit counseling available with the tools they had. Now I am angered that my name is being mixed into their dealings, as I do not have anything in common with those prior entities.

In regards to debt, my law office now provides individuals with the protections of a law office. Most creditors will temporarily work with any individual. However, they are still permitted by law to pursue legal actions against the debtor. Most consumers do not know this and unless the creditor moidifies your original credit contract in writing, they are under no obligation to extend any consumer any benefits, whether it be through credit counseling or on their own.

My law office charges reasonable fees to assist consumers. I am able to provide protections that for profit companies, non profit credit counseling agencies, and debt consolidation shops cannot. In fact, through my legal travels, I have discovered that most agences and for profit companies operate either illegally, or in grey areas of the law in which the consumer bears the risk of loss.

Nexum agreed to shut down in connection with a settlement agreement with the IRS. Unfortunately, and not due to the actions of their Board, which I represented, they were tied to AmeriDebt.

All of the agencies that Andris Pukke originated: Ameridebt, Nexum, the Credit Network, Neway, Debticated, A Better Way, Visual credit counseling, CrediCure, and three others, have been ordered to alter their operations, shut down, or divest of their portfolios. Through DebtWorks, Inc., Pukke caused all of the agencies to enter into service contracts which functionally took all of the money from the non profits. Pukke also made sure that most of the agencies were also dependent upon his or his associates' for profit marketing: DebtSaviors, 1-800 Credit Card, and several others. Although many of the Boards of Directors had no involvement in the wrong doing, all the agences were punished. In fact, when CrediCure attempted to get away from Pukke's for profit Ballenger Group, Ballenger Group attempted to destroy CrediCure by interfering with all of CrediCure's clients' debt management programs. Ballenger Group caused 41 people to lose their jobs as credit counselors and bankrupted the Board members.

Ballenger Group also did the same for Nexum and its Board.

Unfortunately, much of this has not been made public so the consumer can only assume the worst about the companies, without knowing what really went on. When the unhappy clients complained, Ballenger Group "saved the day" by swooping in with other agenceies it controlled to "restore" those clients.

More to follow:

During the summer of 2005 several states filed actions against non profit credit counseling agencies. In fact, the State of Maine sued and won against a non profit NFCC member.

Essentially the same lawsuit could be filed against any of the Credit counseling agencies.

In order to clean up the mess, the IRS proposed new rules changes in October of 2005, which went into effect later in the year.

The rules changes explicitly detail what activities a non profit may engage and their relationship to for profit entities.

As it applies to non profit credit counseling, here is the functional analysis:

Credit counseling agencies that do not charge fees make their money from "fair share". Fair share is a percentage of the money sent to the creditor, which the creditor then sends back to the agency.

Historically it was a nice system, however, there is a conflict of interest. How can the non profit protect the consumer from the creditor who pays the non profit? What it really was, was kinder, gentler collections, as the agencies still must conform to the requirements of the creditor, rather than act entirely in the interest of the consumer.

AS the IRS rules apply: no non profit may engage in commercial activity. Collecting money from consumers for a fee (either paid by the consumer or the creditor) constitues a commercial activity and therefor is impermissible under the non profit rules. What this means, is that any non profit which makes its money from collecting payments from consumers for debt management plans is in violation of the non profit rules.

Secondly, collecting payments from consumers to pay for profit creditors benefits the creditors. The creditors even pay for the service via "fair share". This is not permissible under the non profit rules as the activity of the non profit benefits a for profit company.

Therefore, any non profit that collects money from consumers to pay creditors and is paid to do so will lose its non profit status. As most states prohibit the activity unless the entity is a licensed collector, non profit, or attorney, these agenceies are then operating illegally.

If anyone is interested in learning more (as this is but a brief synopsis) please feel free to contact me.

I was getting scared reading this thread lately, because I just signed up with Richard Brennan's office, but I have had no problem contacting his office, and in fact they have contacted me as well. Now that he replied to the thread, I feel even better. As of yet, everyone at that office has been very friendly, and always returned phone calls. Hopefully everything will continue to go smoothly.

I am happy that you have got a positive response from Richard Brennan's office. Hopefully, you won't have problems while dealing with them.

OK so Richard why did CEO Jeff Formulak call me this morning and shout at me for five minutes, telling me I better get my facts straight before I make accusations. What should I think of an organization that shouts at its clients? And then I got the same treatment from the office manager Michael Tenny. Why dont you give me my money back then Mr. Brennan, and Ill be on my way-Oh yeah right that would require professionalism on your part, thats why you dont do it!! Beware folks, these guys are shady-Stay clear of Richard A. Brennan and creditcure, they stole $1500 from me. Mark

It is important that I let everyone know that Brennan gave me a refund. He apologized for staff problems, and was very reasonable in his dealings with me. Richard A. Brennan is a stand up guy, who is truly in the business of helping people.

I am a current client and I have to agree with most of the people here. I have tried to contact someone from this office about my account for 2 weeks, phone and email and no one will respond to me. If no one calls me by tomorrow I will be blocking their withdrawl and contacting the creditors myself. Mr. Brennan can write whatever he wants about his services but when they miss a payment and I can't talk to anyone about it makes me quite upset.

Hi Robert

Companies not responding to consumer requests do not leave a positive impact on their business. It sounds shady at times. Put your request in writing also so that you can prove your actions at a later period. At this point, I will also think about blocking the company from making future debits in my account.

Mr. Brennan,

Did you happen upon the thread in this very forum where the people speaking are complimenting you? I'm sure you are a hardworking and upstanding gentleman. Is it possible that a few of these upset clients of your are so because some of your staff didn't function properly. It happens, and I'm sorry to say that most of the time, when one person does wrong, it's the one in charge who gets a pie in the face.

Take care,
Ari

I have also paid $900 and no payments have been posted to my credit cards. I have called and called. No one ever calls me back. The companies that did agree to work with them have cancelled the lower interest rates due to not getting the payments.

Hi

You must file a case against the law office. Do you have the copy of the agreement signed with the law office? It seems to be a breach of contract and brings up a civil action. You must take some legal advice from an attorney and file a class action lawsuit against the law office.

I have had a negative experience with the staff. The company made one of the credit card payments extremely late. I called all day for 3 straight days before someone finally talked to me, and she was rude and stopped short of calling me an idiot. I will be looking for other options, for sure.

The Law Offices have not applied my February payment as of yet to any of my creditors and two of my creditors have not received a payment since the beginning of February 2006. I have tried to resolve this matter with the Law Office but they have not resolved this situation and thus the two creditors have dropped me and are now seeking collection actions against me. This is very unprofessional business. I have been with the program since 2003 and have not experienced such careless and negative business. I pray that Mr. Brennan is a upright law office and corrects my accounts ASAP.

I am dealing with a bankruptcy lawyer now. Consolidation was a means of avoiding that, but when payments were not made, my interests rates went up and late fees were applied. I have no other options now. My lawyer may be contacting Mr. Brennan

If you use a consolidation plan, the counselor can bring the accounts to the current status. He will try to reduce the interest rates and wipe off the late fees. Take a free quote from a debt counselor before you decide to file for bankruptcy. If you can manage making the consolidation payments, your credit will show some improvement. Bankruptcy will hurt your credit negatively in the long run.

I am currently using the law office of Richard Brennan for some of my accounts, but I am doing a debt settlement, not consolidation. So far, no problems contacting his office. Email gets the quickest response I think...always by the next day. They even emailed me once to say that they had been trying to contact me and wanted a better number to reach me at.

I am also a client of United Christian Financial which was taken over by Mr Brennan's Law Firm. I would suggest to anyone thinking of doing business with them to look elsewhere!!!! They have done more harm than good!!! We have had payments that were not posted to the creditors, payments that were ment for one creditor and sent to another and the most god awful customer service I have ever experienced. IF and that is a big IF you are able to talk to a live human being, they are the rudest, degrading people I ever have come across. We have disassociated ourselves with them and like a previous poster mentioned, were able to work with our creditors and are actually paying lower interest rates then with the credit counseling. To those that were actually able to post positive comments about Mr Brennan's LAw Firm, congrats...you are one of the few!!!
Carrie

Spoken like most lawyers I know. How many times did Johnny Cochran exclaim, "This is an outrage," without actually addressing the facts and issues on the table. Whether, sir, you have represented Credicure or other such companies in the past is not at all relevant to the problem. The problem is that your law office does not reply promptly to inquiries, and as far as my experience goes, everything was running smoothly until your law office took over my payments. Now I am receiving letters from creditors saying that they have not received payments in well over a month. What happened? I don't know. Everyone at the law offices of Richard A. Brennan appears to be on quite the extended vacation. Basically, what the hell is going on? Originally I was with USA debt management. Then before I know it, I'm with Credicure. Now without any notice from anyone, suddenly I'm with the law offices of Richard A. Brennan, and my creditors are NOT getting payments in a timely fashion. People are coming to this Web site for a reason, Mr. Brennen. They're not stumbling upon it randomly. They are here because they made a good faith effort to repair their credit, and your company is making the situation worse! You take money out of our accounts, you do God knows what with it (golf would be my best guess), and then you expect us to come up with the funds to take care of our credit card bills in addition to the money you have already automatically deducted from our accounts. Fantastic. What is YOUR basis for charging that the claims made on this post are "insinuation and misinformation"? Seems like the tone of this post is that you and your predecessors are doing one heck of a lousy job for the lot of your clients. A few seem to be making it through unscathed, but I'm not sure what they might be doing different from the rest aside from calling your office constantly during business hours and demanding satisfaction. You can keep my deposit. I'm withdrawing. I'd rather lose a few hundred bucks rather than watch my credit score crash through the floor because of your ineptitude.

IGNORE THEM! I somehow went through a consolidation process with United christian Finanical and everything got transferred to them. They are so hard to get a hold of and they do not pay my bills!!!! BE GLAD YOU ARE NOT IN THE PROGRAM ALREADY.

I am currently with them for one of my accounts other than some slight delays they are tolerable to work with.

Do not do it. He has a bad track record and shouldn't be charging you a retainer for debt consolidation. debt management company that claim to be nonprofit, are suppose to offer their services for free with the question of a montly donation (which you can refuse and still get the service) This is a shady practice and I would be very careful. In other words decline the offer, you can do better on your own. Call your credit companies and tell them you are looking into consolidating your debt with a management company and 9 times out of 10 you can work out a good deal, and you will know exactly where your mopney is going every month.

I have recently signed up with Fidelity Reserves, which is now referred to as this Richard Brennan. I am a little nervous now after reading all of this, as they have deducted a payment out of my account. Help me out if anyone.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get my money back from debt settlement company? I started debt settlement with the Law offices of Richard A. Brennan (alias: Credicure) in April. It is now July and I have just now received a "Welcome Packet". I have had 3 payments taken out of my checking account and not one penny has been sent to my creditors. I'm now out close to $1500 for nothing! Futhermore, I cannot reach anyone at the Law offices. I have left messages by phone, email, and fax for over 2 weeds, but not one message has been returned. When I try to check on my account via the internet, the site is continually down and I can't even find out any information about my money! In the meantime,my creditors are calling me numerous times a day and I'm in tears! I've gotten to where I don't want to anwer my phone anymore. Before all of this, I wasn't behind on any payments but wanted a way to manage my debt since I'm a single mother. Now I'm months behind and my credit is a mess! What do I do now? I want to get out of this company but also want my money back, since they didn't distribute it as promised.

In Tears in Texas

I feel so much for you. I can understand when some scam company tries to steal the hard earned money during crisis. File your complaints with the AG's office in your area as they might be having many complaints against Richard A. Brennan. Also, if you can afford a lawyer, he can show you some direction. Fighting with these scammers alone is quite tough and time consuming. You should have researched about them earlier so that this situation could have been avoided. But anyways, whatever has happened can't be changed. Talk to some free legal aid in your area.

I have some very disturbing information about this "law office"/ CrediCure. I have been waiting for several payments to be made to my creditors. As of now my February Payment has not been sent to my creditors. The Brennan Law firm is a fraud. 100% fraud. of all my payments this year only 1 has been on time, that is of the payments they have actually made on my behalf. Recently I received a letter telling me that my account was being switched again to another company. Brennan Law does not and will not return phone calls, or e-mails. I evententually went right to Mr. Brennan, who is a lyer and absolutely immoral. In fact of all of the companies that have been being sued there is one common denominator...... Richard A Brennan and his involvement with those companies.

I retained all of the e-mails that he finally responded to nad sent them along with letter to the massachusetts Attorney General's Office along with a copy to the Maryland Attorney General's office. His organization's failure to make timely payments, or withold payments is a breach of contract and illegal. I have since reported this matter to local police and my bank asking that they make a case of wire fraud, which may sound far fetched, but the fact of the matter is that is stolen money, and when they refuse to make the payment and/or call you to explain why there is even more wrong doing. I urge all people who have issues with this company to file charges. I am also speaking with a reputable Boston attorney to file charges against this organization on behalf of anyone who is a member and wishes to be a part of the suit. Should anyone be interested please contact me via e-mail. For anyone looking into this company...... STAY AWAY!!!!!! They are scum!

My e-mail

I am willing to share my experience further with you give you all the options available (i.e. contacting your congressional leaders, Attorney General's office, BBB etc). Remember this Law Office is Scum!!!! :x

email address removed as per forum rules - Mike

I was with CrediCure. My payment had always been posted to my creditors on time. I never had any problem. Since Richard Brennan took over my account, I have had one creditor that has never been paid. When I call, I get a machine. When I am fortunate to speak with someone I get the run around. I have been told my creditor, Citibank, will not accept any more electronic payments. Citibank has vehemently denied this charge. They have advised me that they believe I am being taken advantage of by Richard Brennan. Brennan now has $518 of my money that has never been posted to an account.

I, too, am being scammed by the Law offices of Richard A. Brennan. They have nearly $1500 of my money and have not distributed it to any of my creditors. Some of you have stated that you have saved their reply emails for your records. I can't even get them to reply to my emails!Neither have they replied to my numerous phone calls and faxes. No one answers the phones at the company and their website has been down for months, so I can't even check on my account! I feel used!!!Yesterday, I put a stop payment on my bank account so they cannot withdraw anymore money. I have reported them to my local BBB. Is that the right route to take. This is all new to me and I'm upset and scared. I'm a single parent and ran up credit card bill when caring for my dying father last fall. Can Richard A. Brennan's office (aka Credicure) still withdraw money from my account even if I've put a stop payment? Can they take legal action against me? Can I take action against them for not holing up their end of our agreement?

I'm so frustrated and sick that I didn't do more research before I hired the Law Office of RAB to represent me. I signed my contract back in January, and have been making payments every month since...tell me why they have not even contacted my creditors yet!?

If you leave a message they don't call you back. I called today, was put on hold and then disconnected after a half hour of waiting. And when you do get through, those obnoxious women they hire to answer your questions give you nothing but attitude.

I spoke with my creditor (Chase Manhattan) today. They were very helpful and settled with me themselves for 30% of my outstanding balance at monthly payments I can afford (about 20% less then what I was paying at RAB). I've put a stop payment on my bank account...I'll probably lose the $1,400 I've paid so far, but will end up saving about $4,000 overall and salvaging whats left of my credit.

Consider yourself warned.

I will let you know - and I have been with RA Brennan for over a year - that I have actually watched my credit score drop 100 points since signing up. In addition to that , I have paid my creditors over $2000 since I started with RA Brennan, because of late fees and all that stuff. They pretend they will get it wiped out, but - that is not the case.

He is a scammer if there ever was one. What is he doing with all our payments?

I have a lawyer friend that has read through my contract and I am thinking about moving forward against his company....for pain, stress and pure credit hell!

TO RICHARD -

It is funny that your office actually has the time to make sales calls...when they don't have the time to actually do the job we hired you to do!!!

Five of my credit cards have still not received their payments. Oh, yea, and I beleive you shut down your office from Monday until today - so even if we wanted to discuss our situation - that you put us in - we weren't able to.

You are a joke!!!

I am also with RA Brennan, and hoping to be debt free within the next 30-60 days, depending on whether or not the firm can post a payment to my account soon. While this firm has helped me out quite a bit, I was disappointed in the lack of reliablity. 3 payments were missed - I made a payment of my own to keep from being kicked out of the payment program I was in - even though RAB was able to draft the money from my account. I also got told to call the original company - Credicure - who told me to call his office. I wish I'd gotten something in the mail. As for people being rude, I have to agree. Yes I have a debt that I am trying to repay. My creditors were nicer than the people in the office. I finally found 1 person who will email me back and actually try to find the answer at the office, and also a direct line to her desk. It took 2 months. I guess moral of the story is - find out who they are paying the money to (for example NCO for AMEX) and then talk to all parties to make sure the amounts are the same. That's how I found the discrepancies. I also keep written documentation of everything. I wasnt expecting to have to babysit the payments I was making. Just be careful - and keep track of everything!!!!

stayawayfrombrennanLAW:

Please email me with any information you have about filing a complaint/lawsuit against this dirtbag. I was working with CrediCure until they were eaten up by this conglomerate of lies and horrible customer service and am about to get kicked out of the program by several of my creditors! I've called moved my automatic withdrawal date forward twice, but they can never explain why my payments are made later and later every month. It has now been 19 business days since they took the money out of my account, but have yet to pay one creditor. Even the one that accepts electronic payments from them. Their excuse lately has been that my creditors do not accept electronic payments....something tells me that Discover and Capital One have the capability to accept electronic payments from Brennan's office since they were able to accept them from my account for 5 years.

I've been looking all over the BBB to find where to file a complaint, and none of the phone numbers I have nor the ones on rabrennanlaw.com can be found by the BBB. They don't even recognize the zip code found on Brennan's website contact information! It sounds like there are enough upset people with valid cases to get something done... I just need some more information on how. I'll be writing a letter to Nebraska's AG tomorrow, so that's a start, I guess.

There are too many honest business owners in this country who do not get a fair shake from the start for us to allow pricks like Richard A. Brennan to screw so many people.

I have read through the posts and if I may, respond to the various issues.

First, having read both the positive and the negative, I see two trends. Those who had dmp's with other companies that were shut down, are angry because of payment disruptions, rude staff, dropping credit scores, and difficulty in reaching the office. All of these individuals have in common the fact that they did not sign on with the Law Offices of Richard A. Brennan, LLC. They were all clients of defunct non profit credit counseling agencies. My office has had great difficulty keeping up with these clients and due to regulatory issues, it is difficult to place them with another qualified agency. I have sought placement with an agency that is able to handle them capably. In the meantime, my staff and I struggle to meet all of their needs.

The positives, by and large, have come from actual clients of my law office. My paralegals are assigned the cases specifically to those individuals. The attorney and paralegal paired on each case only deal with their assigned cases. They provide their direct numbers and emails to make sure that no client of mine is left unattended to.

We work dilligently to address all client issues, however, I do feel for the DMP clients of other agencies who have gone through the tough times associated with the regulatory changes.

Several of my staff burned out working on resolving the DMP client issues. I simply cannot hire enough qualified people to answer the phone every time it rings from a DMP client.

On top of all this, we've had phone system failures to deal with, server failures to deal with, all due to overuse due to DMP's not related to my clients.

I do apologize to any indivudal who has encountered a problem with their DMP or representation and invite them to contact me for resolution or discussion on what can be done to improve your situation.

While I sympathize with the staffing issues, IT issues,etc...what should us dmp clients be doing to ensure that our accounts are paid up? No matter where we came from .... we still need to have our debts paid - whether directly to say, a company like NCO - which I didnt even know was involved until all of this. Right now, I'm waiting for a 22 day old (your office sent me confirmation) received payment to be even posted to my account before it is mailed to a creditor. I've contacted the bank to see if its been cashed. If we can just get this posted - I'm done with my debts. That's one less person you'll have to deal with!

By going through Richard Brennan who took over for Credicure they failed to make my payments to my credtiors. I went from having 0% on my credit cards
to having 23.99% interest. I had nothing but problems since they took over.
I have now just started paying back my credit cards on my own.

I dont know if people read this on a regular basis...or just come here to complain but I was told that his office system is down and taht's why my payment that I sent 23 days ago hasnt been posted to my account and they are hoping to have it up next week. Just thought I'd let the general public know this. For all of our sake, I hope they were just telling me that so I'd stop calling and writing - which is sad.