American Debt Foundation-Are they really helpful or a scam?

oops, couldn't remember my password to log in earlier.

I consolidated cc debt and a consumer loan. The consumer loan company is the one that refuses to work with the consolidation company. I did manage to get lowered payments for a few months from the company, but now they are harassing us for full payment + repayment of late fees that were charged each month (that we weren't informed we would be charged under the payment arrangements). If we don't pay this company, not only is it already on our credit report but they will contact my husband's command (military). I am beyond frustrated with them, but they don't care.

Have you explained your problem to your counselor? The company you are working with is a BBB member company and holding good records as well. The consumer loan company refused payments from your consolidator or they told you that they won't work with consolidation company?

Please understand, creditors, except for student loans and tax debt, cannot garnish wages without a court order. So they have to go to court first for this debt. And if they go to court, I think, you will be in a better position, because they refused your payment, right?

BTW, have you checked the SOL for this debt?

Thanks Stan. I had checked on BBB status before signing the contract with the American Debt Foundation, but I thought it was worth checking to make sure they were still a solid company.

As for the loan company, after we had set up payments with ADF, and stopped paying the loan pmts, the company contacted us threatening to contact my husband's command to have him reported as financially irresponsible. (I talked to the company several times, complaining that by law they aren't allowed to talk to his employer about details, but it's done all the time with military folks. Loan companies know that the military will kick someone out for being financially irresponsible, so people will do almost anything to prevent the command from being contacted). So we pulled that loan company from the debt settlement, and had to make separate pmt arrangements with them. Now that loan company is threatening again to contact the command if we don't pay the full payments from now on, even though they know our situation. There's more, it's a really long story, but my husband wouldn't consider just filing for bankruptcy last year to get rid of all of it.

Going to court, apparently some companies can garnish military wages WITHOUT court order. Beats me how they get around it, but they do.

drats, sorry I forgot to log back in.
And I forgot to add, I did talk to the counselor when we had the company removed. They had sent several letters to Pioneer about the settlement offers, and Pioneer refused to deal with them.

set4sail,

What about the SOL, have you checked your state laws regarding SOL? The clock starts from the date of last activity seen in the account. If the debt is past SOL, no one can legally force you to pay it.

However, if the debt is within SOL, contact them and negotiate. Try to convince them about your hardship, also point out that you tried to pay them through consolidation program, but they refused your payment.

Quote:

Anyway, I just wanted you to know that i have a friend who is enrolled in American Debt Foundation program and they are causing more trouble. Most of the creditors wont negotiate with them and American Debt Foundation won't even give you updates what's going on. If you try to call them, you can hardly get hold of anybody and if you leave a message to call you back, you would be very lucky if they will return your call.

In fact, I researched the consumer code for CA and Federal under credit repair agencies, it states on Civil Code Section 1789.13
A credit services organization, and its salespersons,
agents, representatives, and independent contractors who sell or attempt to sell the services of a credit services organization, shall not do any of the following:
(a) Charge or receive any money or other valuable consideration prior to full and complete performance of the services the credit services organization has agreed to perform for or on behalf of the buyer.
(b) Fail to perform the agreed services within six months following the date the buyer signs the contract for those services.

With this, American Debt Foundation violated this code which they charge you for their fee for the first year and after that, the money goes into your escrow account.

They will also tell you after you signed up on their program to stop paying your creditor so you will have a deliquent account. This happens if you are not paying your creditor for 6 months or so.

Signing in to the American Debt Foundation program is more of a hassle than making arrangements to your creditors directly. And if you don't do that, you will end up paying the creditor yourself by garnishing your wage or getting money from your bank account.

Before signing into a contract, make sure you know their limitations and what they can do and the Consumer Code.

Thank you so very much on the information about American Debt Foundation. I am trying to help my mom out on her debt. She is about 25 thousand in debt. I contacted Christian Debt Consolidators thinking it will be them that will be helping us. When I got the paperwork it stated it will be American Debt Foundation to handle it. So your imput is very helpful. Best to all!

They Suck!!! Iam being sued because one of our creditors refused to settle with them but they never told us and did not defend us in this litigation. I wish I had the time to contact the PA attorney general or Florida AG. STAY AWAU FROM THEM!!! You can NEVER talk to anyone

I have been in the ADF program for about 5 months now and I am not liking the way things are going. My credit is crap now, and I get phones calls from creditors about 10 times a day on my cell phone and 2 times a day at work. Sometimes these calls are made at 7am...ugh. But anyway, so are they just a bunch of crap? Because if it is true on what you guys are saying about them, I need to write them a letter so I can get out of the program before I get too deep.

I've been with them for almost a year & I feel like I'm in to deep to get out...

If you have not signed up with them DO NOT, They SUCK !!! Go find someone else !!!

We signed up in June and things have been okay so far, but now I'm having trouble getting call backs. Can anyone out there say they have finished the program or that they are making some serious dents in their debt? I don't want our family to suffer from this.

I've been enrolled with american debt foundation, inc. and got me out of debt. Have nothing but good things to say about them!!! After the program was over I received credit card offers in the mail and was even able to buy a home. Future references on the company i suggest you contact the Better Business Bureau.

I have been enrolled with American Debt Foundation for approximately 12 months and I have had a great experience with them. They have settled 3 of my 5 accounts & I am only in a 24 month program. They are saving me a lot of money and they have stopped creditors harrassing phone calls. I know that I am in this situation because of myself and I have no one to blame but I can thank American Debt Foundation for helping me to become credit worthy again.

I have been with adf for about 1 year and 1/2 and i have no complaints!! They got me out of debt i had no harassing calls, and best of my debt to income ratio leveled and my credit score went up!! I went from having ok credit to having great a= credit!! Will def ref friends and family!

Hi terry at first i was a bit skeptical about the program but after a couple months my debt began to get settled.changes did not take place on my credit report until about three months after the settlements were completed and to tell you the truth it helped my family and i very much. All my debts were taken care of including the one debt that i had a judgement on. Tough there were minor bumps and sometimes i was frustrated because i was in so much debt i think it was worth it i the end. Now that everythign is paid off i can finally begin to restart my life once again and hopefully i get to purchase a home before the end of this year! Well i hope this served well for you and if you have questions feel free to ask away!

I read one time, the difference between a wise man and a wiser is that a wise man learns from his mistakes and a wiser man learns from others. Please be WISER and learn from mine!!!!!

I had accumulated debt for one reason or the other, and decided that I needed help- so I contacted a Christian debt counseling company and they brokered my account to American Debt Foundation. It was agreed that I pay $256.69 per month for four to five months for their fee. The first payment was debited from my account in June which was what I expected.

Well I came up w/ the idea-well I could do the same thing that they could do and save money in doing so. So I called the ADF- the debt management company- on July 12th and told them that I had settled w/ the creditor and please stop any transaction from my debit account. They said it was too late -this was on Wed and the funds were supposed to come from my account on Saturday. They basically said sorry-too bad.

So now they had at this point collected $513.69. So I tried to dispute it but no success. I emailed the associate that I had been speaking w/ and told her to close my account and to please send me a written statement stating such- which I never did rec'd.I called her and spoke w/ her and she assured me there would be no more funds extracted from my account.

I found out today August 18th that they extracted funds from my account AGAIN!! now it's $770.07. This is a rip off!! I have an email where I sent it to them requesting, so to me this a case of theft- I did not authorize them to take the fee from my account.

Please, if you are considering a debt management program, research until you are exhausted. This company, by the way,is a member of the BBB. That doesn't mean squat. This world is full of greed. You can negotiate your own self, like I did.

I read one time, the difference between a wise man and a wiser is that a wise man learns from his mistakes and a wiser man learns from others. Think about it. It's so true.
Learn from me and be a wiser person. Negotiate yourself.

On July 12th I spoke w/ an associate of the American Debt Foundation and They suggested that I could stop payment so I called the bank and they said since it was a debit, that I could not but after it went through that I could dispute it.

Well, I transferred the funds to my other checking account and called ADF back and told them there were no funds available.

They went head and processed the payment so therefore I had insufficient funds(which I am not accustomed of) so I had to pay $30. for that.

And since I thought this was a done deal and over with, I had no need of putting any funds into that account.

Well they debited my account and again I will have to pay the $30 for insufficient funds.

They have not provided a service and this is a rip off.

Has anyone contacted the BBB? Something must be done. We can't allow this to go on and we can't let it happen to other consumers.

I signed up with ADF about 5 months ago. I get no progress reports and when I call, the ppl are not very helpful at all. They are almost as lost as I am. I wonder where my $280 a month is going because it certainly isn't paying off my debt. My credit standing is crap!!!!

we cancelled our account with American Debt Foundation, but be warned. Tell your bank not to allow any further transactions because they still took this mnths payment out!!!!!
ADF totally screwed us!! We are further in debt now than we ever were. Most of our accounts have already gone to collections and law offices. Also our credit score is dropping by the minute.
We just signed on with Consumer Credit Counciling services and with there help and a little luck we'll have everything taken care of in 4-5 yrs. CCC has a good reputaion and the make monthly payments to EVERYONE!! so no more trouble with law suits and most all of our creditors are happy to work with them.

I joined American Debt Foundation 2 years ago and I regret signing on with them because I came to find out that they are a bunch of Crooks!!!! They have yet to settle with my creditors and when I call they are very Rude especially the owners Jess and Becker they do not care at all. I've been paying $550.00 a month and nothing is being done. Do not follow there lie about the BBB report; that report is SH--!! You will be another VICTOM!!!! BE CARE!!!

Please do not be fooled with the attached comments from the people that have names like Terry, Jason G, Katherine, Samantha and Sonya they are all made up by the owners to fool everyone into thinking that other people are happy with their services. If I were happy with the services you really think I would take the time out to annouce it, I'm to busy with my children and homework of course that is why we relie on the BBB correct WRONG!!! I'm taking the time NOW to let everyone know that ADF is not what they pretend to be. They say they are members of the BBB. The BBB does not report everything. DO NOT FOLLOW THE BBB!!!! I wish I what of been a little wiser!!!!!!! Please follow another route do not put yourself deeper in the hole.

Be very careful listening to legal advice from ADF that would have you stop peyment on a "deferred payment loan check"

ADF is in Florida, and in Florida these transactions are considered loans. However, in other states, such as Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, etc., they are considered bad checks if you stop pay or go NSF.

Local prosecutors are earning extra revenue collecting on these. ADF should not be telling you to do this without first researching the laws in your state. Contact a lawyer.

Correction: Ohio does not allow criminal prosecution of payday loans, it is a civil matter. Period.

American Debt Foundation is located in South Florida; what they do is hire counselors that have no knowledge about this industry. These counselors are given legal advice and they are not even attorney's. People have enrolled into this "debt free PROGRAM" "debt settlement PROGRAM" and after the first 3 to 6 months of taking your money they become very rude and they do not want to deal with you until they settle accounts and they do not follow through at all with what they promise. Thousands and thousands of people are going through LAW SUITS!!! Their wages are being garnished. Seek another way of dealing with your debt otherwise you will be the next VICTOM.

I joined ADF last year and I spoke to one of their counslers who enrolled me and they seemed to be a very honest relieable company. I search the Better Business Bureau and everything seem OKAY well little did I know that what I was doing is getting myself deeper in the hole. I got out of the program last month and it was hell trying to get my money back. They pulled money out of my account when I sent them certified mail stating that I wanted to cancel. I suggest anyone who is enrolled in this program GET OUT and STOP Payment with your bank. These people don't care they are taking everyones money and sitting back laughing about it.

American Debt Foundation is BULL SH--!!! Do not be fooled they will take your money and at the end your credit looks like SH--!

There is only one American Debt Foundation and its located in South Florida. They offer Credit Repair, debt settlement and debt consolidation. This company are making lots of money from innocent people like you do not enroll into any of their programs. This company will only take your money and make your situation worse. Speak to a attorney!!!!!

Do not believe anything this company tells you, they don't CARE about anyone only themselves. Please do not give them your money you deserve better treatment you work to hard for your money.

debt settlement does not work and it destroys your credit report for 10 years. Do not enroll into these programs, creditors can still sue and harass you no matter what.

American Debt is a SCAM they promise you they will settle and at the end your settling yourself and thats in COURT!!

I want to thank everyone for all these comments. I was considering enrolling with ADF but after I read all these remarks I can say now that I WILL NOT ENROLL!!

American Debt Foundation is all a SCAM!!!!!!! They charged my $400.00 to repair my credit and they told me they would remove all derogatory accounts from my report. Today is 1 year after enrollment and not one derogatory has been removed. SCAM!!! Scam!!! Scam!!!! ADF SCAM!!!