Harold Shepley and Associates (PENN.)

As long as they have no outstanding complaints, things look pretty good. You've been with them 9 months, have things gone well for you so far?

Does this company offer consolidation plans or debt settlement programs? If you enrolled in their consolidation plan back in the month of November, you should get some updates on your accounts from them. Give them a call and inquire about the latest standing.

Thanks for responding!!! They are a settlement firm, and sent me a confirmation stating that they had settled one of my debts already a Chase account. The whole process just makes me very upset and nervous as I still have two large accounts one from capital one and the other from MBNA to deal with, and my current credit score is 515 and I would like to own a home someday, and now I am worried that my score may bleed into my wife's score as we were married last OCT.

Any Suggestions or reassurances PLEASE!

I also joined with Harold Shepley and Assoc in 5/07 and so far they seem to be doing a very good job. They always answer my questions and they seem like they do care.

I joined with Harold Shepley in Oct of 07 I have been very pleased with them, but I have one credit card that filed a lawsuit against me, it goes to trial April 22,08 my debt negotiator said he would have it paid by then, but I still worry as there won't be enough money for my other debts to be paid.

Quick question for those that have used their services. The only thing that I could find on their website about the fees they charge is that they charge a monthly payment that is based on your debt. Anyone care to give any additional details on this fee and any other fees that might be present.

They wont pay your creditors or communicate with them they have three attorneys that handle debts and they dont answer the phone or return calls. They will wait till your debt is out of statute then take their 25% settlement fee of the whole balance on top of their other fees. Since they dont pay the creditors your credit is not fixed and many times your creditors will sue you anyway. Ask them if they will show up in court to defend you or will they charge you more money on top of the program fees and how much do they charge per hour?

They did the same thing to me as they did to collector. They waited until my debts were "past the statute" and then just took 25% of the balance for themselves.

As shady as can be, they sent me letters saying they were "paid off". When I got sued by one of the companies, I found out what they were really doing, which was giving the companies NOTHING, and then telling me it was settled and uncollectible.

I wish I would have never given them my money. I wanted to have a good feeling when this was done, like I paid the companies back at least part of my balance. Now I just feel sick knowing that the creditors got nothing and Shepley got a few thousand dollars. :cry:

SECURITY AND PEACE OF MIND
I am Attorney Harold Shepley and I am choosing to respond to the negative response and give a detailed explanation of how our negotiation program works.
First and foremost we begin our negotiations by sending out a cease and desist /power of attorney letters to all of the clients creditors. While this may sounds relatively simple, everyone must understand exactly what is now occurring. We have just transferred the burden of harassing calls from the client to our law firm. For most clients this alone is such a breath of fresh because they can now start answering their phone again. The paralyzing feeling the creditors cause is now lifted and clients feel like they can actually live again. Meanwhile the 10 or more calls a day now come to our law firm. So did we just send a cease a desist letter? No, we just transferred what could be 300 or more harassing phone calls per month onto our shoulders for possibly the next 36 months. This is why so very few debt settlement companies continue to offer this service. We remain steadfast in our service to the client
Next, we employ several strategies in our negotiation efforts. Sometimes we to settle with the original creditor. Sometimes we choose to settle with the third party collector. Sometimes the creditors are so stubborn that they refuse to negotiate and therefore a debt can go beyond the statute of limitations. Is that our choice? No! We want to settle, but I am here to represent my clients interests to the best of my ability.
What does this mean ???????beyond the statute of limitation???????? The statute of limitations is the period of time in which a creditor can bring a valid cause of action. Once this time passes the client has a valid defense that the debt is too old. The pitfall to this defense is that it must be brought in the courtroom once you are sued.
Our clients will never have to deal with this because we stand behind our settlements even those past the statute of limitations. This means, if a client gets sued on a debt which is settled by our firm, we will defend our find someone to defend this action in court. The client obviously must notify us so we know what is going on, but once again the burden falls on us.
The fact is for all of our clients, we are with them from beginning to end holding their hand the whole way start to finish. If the person in question had bothered to call in and speak with a staff customer service member then he/she would have been told everything explained here. As ignorant and rude as this person is, we will still be here to defend any lawsuit that may arise, provided the client informs us that they are being sued. Why? Because we stand behind our services.
Remember the consultation is free. Give my law firm a call. Besides, the only thing you have to lose is your debt!

Hey Harold,

Letting a debt go past the SOL does not make that debt settled. The debt is still owed. Letting the debt go past the SOL just makes it very difficult for the creditor to sue and win a judgment assuming someone shows up and defends the suit.

I don't know exactly how your business operates but if all you are doing is letting the SOL expire and then charging your client 25% of the full balance and telling them it was settled then you are commiting fraud in my opinion.

If you feel that this firm is handling things in an unethical manner then file with the PA Supreme Court Disciplinary Board:

http://www.padisciplinaryboard.org/pa_attorney_search.php

PA Attorney Information
Harold W. Shepley
PA Attorney ID: 76267
Current Status: Active
Date of Admission: 11/27/1995
Lawfirm: Harold Shepley and Associates, L.L.C.
Other Organization:
District: 4
County: Somerset
Public Access Address Harold W Shepley & Assoc
485 Berlin Plank Road
Somerset, PA 15501
Tel: 814 445-3970
Fax: 814 445-4437

I am not defending them but they have a very good reputation with the BBB and have been members since 2004. The BBB only processed a total of 3 complaints about this business in the last 36 months. They also voluntarily participate in the BBB arbitration. Honestly they have one of the best reputations in the debt settlement industry.

What Harold Shepley posted in his defense make since and can be a strategy used by law firms. If you truly have an issue call them and try and resolve it with them. If your are not happy you can take it us the an arbitrator.

Here is the link to the BBB report.

http://us.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=113&id=46a6a9cd-5402-454e-9476-e4df22e6f371

As far as credit repair is concerned, there is nothing their firm can do for you that you can't do on your own. Also, if they charge you for "credit repair" services before they actually "repair" your credit, they are breaking the law -- the federal Credit Repair Organizations Act. If you need to get something off of your credit report that is a mistake or shouldn't be on there, contact the Federal Trade Commission. It's the FTC's job to investigate and fix it. Otherwise, just contact your creditor directly and see if they would be willing to update your credit report. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy, by law, can stay on your credit report for 10 years. Also, your attorney has no control over how things get reported to the credit bureaus. If you get a law firm to do credit repair for you, you will need a power of attorney for them to handle your finances. Do you really want some lawyer to have a power of attorney for your finances? Think about that. And why would you pay for all of that when you can do it yourself for free?

Also, I love how this firm touts that they are a "Christian" law firm. I worked for this guy and he is quite the A.H. I personally don't think he knows much about bankruptcy law. His associates don't know crap and he pays his best employees $7-$8/hr. to slave for him.

I guess you do whatever you can do to get business out in the sticks of Somerset, PA.

If anyone has problems with a bankruptcy firm, the proper authority to notify is the U.S. Trustee, not the BBB. The U.S. Trustee oversees the bankruptcy system. And don't waste your time with the BBB; they don't give a hoot.

I have read all the blogs here, read blogs on other companies and also read the website and I have to be honest Harold Shepley & Associates don't seem so bad. It sounds as if they are taking care of the guy with the staute of limitations issue and the above person sounds like a disgruntled ex-employee looking to fling mud at the company. I know someone who went with the Shepley group and although it isn't easy to get out of debt anywhere, they have always been professional, caring and shoot them strait on things. I will proceed with caution, but I know there are always 2 sides to every story.

I have been using their services for over 20 months, and I can honestly say ???????They do what they say.???????

We own a small business that lost a major customer and put us behind by using personal credit to pay vendors. When interest rates went sky high we utilized them to try to help prevent us from claiming bankruptcy. They have been there every step of the way for us. Yes, we have been sued, and yes they defended our case and got us a settlement. They have also settled some of our accounts for 50% of the balance.

On one of our major accounts (Business credit line of 60,000.00) they helped us to reach an agreement to repay the settled amount over 4 years. This was even after the case was filed. The owner (Harold Shepley) Contacted me directly and gave me his personal number to help lead us through this very troubling, at least to us, case. As they do not handle ???????Business Bankruptcy??????? he advised us to talk to a highly rated Pittsburgh law firm specializing in business bankruptcy. They thought we should just go ahead and file, but Harold thought we would be able to work a deal out. We followed his advice and they did work it out for us.

We are still in the program and I am very happy with the results. I would recommend them to anyone needing a Law firm that actually cares. I know they do, I have had questions and concerns and they have ???????ALWAYS??????? been there for us. I actually started out using another settlement company and they did nothing for us but take our money, after six months with them I was fortunate enough to find Harold Shepley and Assoc.

I will happily respond to any questions about their service.

I started with Harold's firm in August 2008 and I am posting to try and answer some of the questions here. The fee to get started depends on how much debt you need to have settled. I believe it started at $200 and went all the way up to $500. That is just the fee to enroll in the program and it is non-refundable. Once you are in the program and a monthly payment schedule has been established, the first 3 months of payments are retainer fees for the firm. Additional fees and costs can arise while in the program, especially if you get sued. They charge $300 to defend each lawsuit. Plus, you have to remember that all of the settlement numbers they crunch for you during the consultation are estimations of the settlements you can expect, but results will vary.

I have already been threatened with a lawsuit by Bank of America, but the account was six months past due when I enrolled in Harold's settlement program, so I am not surprised. Last I heard, the law firm calling on BOA's behalf was working with the negotiator at Harold's firm, so hopefully it doesn't go to trial.

I feel so much better about having a trusted law firm on my side than I felt when I was trying to handle the creditors myself. I was throwing money away every month trying to setup payment plans with creditors myself.

And the gripe about Harold above and the observation that his firm is Christian-centric, remember, he is not Jesus...nobody is, so nobody is always as perfect and nice as you may want them to be. All we can do as Christians is try to live as Jesus would want us to, but we don't always succeed.

I am just writing to update my status with Harold Shepley & Associates. I have only been in the program 3 months and they have settled one of my accounts for 58% of what I owed! I am happy to be working with them.

Just another quick update to say that they have now settled 2 of my accounts and saved me over $10,000.00 so far! And that's just in 2 accounts!

HS&A has now settled 3 of my accounts. The latest settlement was for only about $100 less than what I originally owed, but the debt was only $3,000. I've been in their program about 10 months now and couldn't be happier to be working with this firm.

Sounds to me like you work for the agency yourself. ???Pumping up all of this hype and garbage while defending the reputation of the company???. I paid into the program enough to pay off all debts and not knowing much about credit and how debts, SOL's work as well as my rights, so I figured that since I had a lawyer..... things would go fine. Wrong!
Instead I was told several times we are negotiating on a particular account, when in fact nothing had been done to start with. It is true, they wait until something is past the SOL and then tell you it is settled and then take out there 25% fee on top of the retainer fees and enrollment fees.
They charged me a 25% fee for settling an account with a private student loan company that filed bankruptcy and went out of business. There was nothing reported on my credit for five years from the company and come to find out that because the company filed bankruptcy and went out of business, they could no longer collect for the debts nor did they send it to a 3rd party collection agency. Harold Shepley's agency took extreme advantage over this and collected their fee for it and all I asked for was advice on what to do with this account to clear it from my credit report. (There 25% fee was over $1,000 dollars)
They will also play on your fears saying, "Let us protect you from being sued because you are at the risk and we will guarantee that we will protect you from such law suits". This is the same fear tactic that creditors and collection agencies use to collect on a debt saying, "We will bring a law suit against you if you do not pay". What is the difference?
Their motto is:
"We collect the money for largest debts first, because these have the highest risk for the creditor to come back and sue you". But what that does is buy time for smaller debts to go past the statute of limitations and then Shepley???s law firm capitalizes on that fact that these small accounts went past the SOL, then they collect their fee of 25% saying, it has been settled. The fact is though...... a creditor cannot sue you or collect on a debt that is time barred (Past the SOL) anyways. They may try and they may threaten, but nope..... can???t do it if it is time barred.
Here is another fact, you never actually speak to a lawyer, and instead you speak to staff member that can answer questions concerning an account. But even then, they read from notes that a so called "Negotiator" places in the computer. The only time that I was able to actually speak to a lawyer is when I pi**ed of the right person and she hung up on me. After I was told by another person in the agency that I had some small accounts that were past the SOL, this particular woman told me that they were being negotiated on. I questioned her as to why these were being negotiated if they were past the SOL and her reply was, "We never told you that they were past the SOL". I then responded to her....... do you always know what someone else in your office says to a client? Are you a mind reader? This was enough to get her to hang up on me and run to Mr. Shepley. Funny thing was that when I called back and asked to speak to her supervisor.... I got to talk to Mr. Shepley himself. He was more than eager to let me cancel my contract with them, but off course for a fee. Great client care there Sir! I will in all fairness admit that there was much more to the conversation to this incident though, such as being told that my largest account looks like it is past the SOL and I was going to have a lot of money saved. Of course I was happy to hear that but when they discovered that this account was not past the SOL because of what it was??????. Of course I got pretty upset that they told me this news in the first place. Why even tell me something unless you know all the facts. But it was this same lady that denied that I was told by another in the office that it looks like my account is past the statute of limitations. So we had some acute words.
Did I also mention that upon enrollment into the program, you have to furnish your own credit report from all three agencies and then go through and list all creditors and bad debts and do all of the leg work yourself. You are nothing more than a pocket book to the company and while they are "Negotiating" your actual credit report sits there and stagnates and does not get fixed. It is not until you are finished with their program that you get what they call, Credit restoration through a third party private contractor. They say that they pay for the first two months of service with the credit restoration service, but when the fees for credit restoration run about $400 annually, think about who is actually paying for this service. And even here, you have to do a large majority of the leg work.
This whole thing is a scam that preys on a person???s desperation to get out of debt. Sad, but they offer no real resolution in a timely manner. Knowing what I know now...... I would not have ever joined this agency. I think it is absurd to claim to offer protecting from a law suit anyways that cannot be brought against a person in the first place. Again, once something reaches SOL, except in rare occasions, it cannot be brought against in a law suit from a creditor.

My advice is that you find a real lawyer or do the work yourself to restore your credit. Learn all that you can and handle your own affairs. I know that sucks and it is a pain, but at leat you will have a peace of mind about your finances. Also, as for the "Christian Values" that some mentions HS Law Frim opporates from..... a Christian does not get over on a fellow Christian like this.

I went with Shepley's Law Firm and I was more than pleased when I finished the program. What madhatter is saying is absolutely not the truth. I will give the benefit of the doubt and say that he "might" have had a bad experience with them but they are good and compassionate lawfirm who really cares about their clients. Madhatter when you say the settled them for sol's, shouldnt you be happy that it was settled for 25%. I had one of my accounts settled for sol's and was more than thrilled that I saved so much money. The 25% is their fee, but if you would read the letter you received when they settled the account for sol's you would have read that the lawfirm will pay for credit restoration for you AND back up the settlement if the creditor tries to collect on the debt again. Maybe you should get your story straight before you bad mouth a great lawfirm who is out to help people. I recommend their services to everyone. This lawfirm really does care!

Just checking in again to say that I am really happy with what they are accomplishing on my accounts. They have now settled 5 of my accounts and saved me nearly $20,000!

I don't know what Madhatter is talking about. My experience with HS&A has been great! I speak with my attorney on a regular basis and she is constantly updating me on the status of my accounts. I have been sued on several accounts so far and my attorney has handled all things related to the suits and got settlements before ever going to court. I am so thankful I made the decision to get into their program.

I agree with those of you who are unhappy....I was told that I had settled a credit card with bank of america only to find out two years later, that it never was sent to the credit bureau....Now I am being sued for the account which was supposedly paid off. Think twice before going to them, and look into non profit agencies instead. Oh, and they fail to tell you that they will "settle" an account even if you dont have the funds in their escrow....that set me back a few hundred dollars. Complaint will be filed with the attorney general's office. Hope this helps with the undecided folks!

Anon, what you are saying doesn't even make sense. Credit bureau reporting has nothing to do with accounts never being paid, or with lawsuits regarding said unpaid accounts. If something was paid and never reported to a bureau, you challenge the information that the bureau is reporting so that your credit report is accurate. Also, what did Harold's office say about this allegation when you went to them?

Quote:

It's not a scam. I am in the program and it is going great!

:confused:I have just started working with harold shepley to settle my debt and I am scared to death. I had never been late on a monthly payment, so this is freaking me out!! I have 6 or 7 cards that need settled, so it's gonna take a couple yrs. Im only recieving 1 phone call since the letters were sent out. Have to stop up at the office and tell them this guy is telling me Im going to get sued....yikes!!

I have been with Harold Shepley since June 2007. They have settled 10 of my credit card accounts and I have not a bad thing to say about them. I also received notice that I was going to be sued but one of the attorneys worked close with me and kept me updated on what they were going to do. I would highly recommend them.

Quote:

I understand 60% used to be the ratio for debt settlement.. but, really is that still the case? NOT... given the state of the economy companies are settling at far less than 60%... but, not harold shepley... they want their fees.... what the hell was I thinking? probably better to go at this myself....

I've now been in their program for 28 months and just received another settlement letter. I was very pleased to receive a settlement of 51% that saved me over $12,000!!! I am now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and look forward to finishing the program in about a year. Seeking the services of this firm has been a blessing.

ah the shill is back.sorry but you last responded a year ago.no creditor will sit for a year on that much and not sue.nice try,but please.you shills stop pumping plant posts here.

Not a shill. It's a real program with real results. Just check the BBB rating of this firm. I have had 4 lawsuits filed against me. My attorney at Harold's office is awesome. She has been able to negotiate these settlements before the suits ever get to court. At least so far, anyway.

bull.again the owner of this place was on,and even stated how his scam works.either you are a plant meant to counteract his stupidity,or are gonna be in for a rude awakening.just quit trying to shove it down my,and everyone else's throat about how awesome this scam is.because it's not.

The worst part of debt negotiation and settlement so far is the unexpected Federal taxes you have to pay on the canceled debt. For 2010, my expected tax refund of about $3500 was whittled down to only $400 after I added in the 1099-C's from canceled debt.

Regardless, this will have all been so worth it in the end.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS LAW FIRM. If you are already enrolled, check with the companies they say they have contacted. Shepley charges you every time they make a two second call to remind you that your monthly payment is due even if you have automatic payments. They charge for everything and do very little. Check up on their activities. You can get the same help by contacting other reputable credit repair companies for as little as forty-nine dollars a month. And you get immediate results. It doesn't take months like Shepley does.

You said you had accounts from Capital one. i have been with them since 2009 and at first they seemed to work ok but now they seem to be taking forever. I also have a capital one account and i cant believe that they dont want to settle.. So now i get the phone call that my last few accounts are over the SOL.. So now I need to decide what to do.. Im a little scared.. The Lawyer said that they cant sue me because of the SOL. They can try and take it to court but they wont win... Im a little nervouse because of everything in reading on here but I really dont want to keep paying shepley if there is nothing else they can do. He even told me if they try to sue me that I need to contact them and they will take care of it... Any advise?:confused:

Capital one will very rarely settle. The main reason for that is because capital one does not offer super high credit limits. They are in between subprime and prime lending and, unlike Chase of BoA, do not have tons of people with credit limits in the 20/30s/40 thousands. The max credit limit for people who go delinquent with cap1 is usually under 7.5k and they would rather sue you than settle.

Stay away. They don't do anything to help. They overcharge for phone calls and charge for calls they have never made. I had automatic payments made every month from my bank and Harold Shepley representatives would call and leave a five second recording saying another payment was being deducted and then would charge for the call. The representatives are extremely rude and once you sign the contract they will not refund any amounts of money. THIS FIRM NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED BY THE STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL!!!!!!:(

Read my post to other question. STAY AWAY! THERE ARE MANY MORE LESS EXPENSIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT. DELETED...PMAND WILL DO MUCH MORE THAN HAROLD SHEPLEY.:(

geez shill for another scam elsewhere.btw stop cyber yelling idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!