Credit Solutions of America is another of a long line of Debt Settlement companies currently in hot water with State Attorney Generals throughout the Country for unfair and deceptive business practices. As is almost always the case, the unfair and deceptive practice stems form the structure and the amount of fees charged to consumers upfront. In the case of Credit Solutions of America, after 17 months in their program, nearly 50% of client payments would actually go toward their fees. (What a Deal huh)
Sure this information might be disclosed in the contract, but as with most of these programs, the telemarketer/salesman that talked the consumer into signing up, likely didn’t spend much time explaining this aspect of the program. Instead they tend to focus on telling the consumer how blissful their life will be once they start making payments to them. It usually isn’t until 6 months down the road, that the consumer realizes, none of the promises are coming true and most of their money has been stolen in upfront fees by the settlement company. That is typically when the complaints reach the Attorney Generals Desks.
Credit Solutions has also been sued by the Attorney Generals in Texas, New York and Missouri as well, alleging essentially the same deceptive practices of charging in full for services that they do not always perform.
The BBB Reports over 1700 consumer complaints in the last 3 years agains Credit Solutions of America and gives them an F Rating.
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15 Responses to “Credit Solutions of America – Sued by Florida Attorney General”
I too was “client” of credit solutions. After being with them for almost a year I realized they were bogus because they didnt follow through with anything and I was out of the money I had given to them in that time. In the meantime I lost all the jewelry my husband had bought me including my wedding ring. It was heartbreaking to lose that ring and I still have been unable to purchase a new one.
Hello Chasity,
I am sorry to hear that. Unfortunately you are not alone in your experience. If consumers knew how the vast majority of these programs operated, they would be appalled. For most of these guys, it is just sell, sell, sell. They make their money on sales not in service.
Was this situation fairly recent? Have you been able to resolve your debts with your creditors?
Damon Day´s last blog ..Debt Settlement USA – A Not So Glowing Review
I enrolled with Credit Solutions after a year. When I told them I wanted to cancel the program and give me back my money they said that they couldn’t. I had explained to them that they have done absolutely NOTHING for me and have only debited my account of $98.00 for 18 mos. With no results and about $1800 in the hole I feel hopeless.
They made me feel that this is what I signed up for. That if I cancel now they wont be able to settle any of my accounts and I will lose out on the $1800 service fee I already paid. So I am still enrolled.
What do I do now?
Hello Janet,
Unfortunately you have found yourself in the same position that 100’s of 1,000’s of consumers have found themselves in after paying a lot of money in fees to these types of programs. Essentially it sounds like they are blackmailing you. Now that you have paid them 1800 of the 2400 in fees that they are ripping you off for, they are holding that money over your head and saying well, if you cancel now, we won’t give you your money and we won’t help you. It is absolutely incredible. Do you wonder why these guys have been sued by at least 4 state attorney generals.
What state do you live in?
Recently I have been able to get some of my clients that were in similar situations with credit solutions at least a 50% refund. I know it isn’t the same as getting all of your money back, but at this point, it is important to recover whatever we can and then focus on getting this debt paid off. I absolutely would not continue to work with a company that essentially charged you a ton of money, and then holds it over your head as blackmail. At the very least, they should have offered to stop the fees so you can focus on getting your debts settled.
Go to the consultation link on the top bar on my website and schedule a consultation with me. I want to get more specifics on your situation and we will see if we can get at least a good portion of your money back and then create a strategy to satisfy your creditors as quickly as possible.
Damon Day´s last blog ..Debt Relief USA files Bankruptcy – Clients get Burned
Is this company the same company at “My Credit Solutions?”
Hello Aris,
I don’t think so. I did a quick search for “my credit solutions” and they look to be some sort of credit repair company. I don’t know anything about them, but I would proceed with extreme caution if you are thinking of paying them to fix your credit. Again, to qualify, I don’t know anything about “My Credit Solutions”, but on their site it looks like they charge between 600 to 1200 dollars to fix your credit. In my experience most credit repair programs will do little for you.
The other thing I found is that they have some sort of training program to teach people to set up their own business repairing credit, possibly under the my credit solutions umbrella. That is a huge red flag for me. That tells me, there are probably a whole bunch of people out there masquerading as credit repair specialists, when the reality is they just paid these guys a few hundred bucks for a training program. So be very very careful before you pay anyone to help you repair your credit.
Also keep in mind, there is nothing they can do for you, that you can not do for yourself when it comes to repairing your credit.
The “Credit Solutions” company that I am referring to in this article is a Debt Settlement Program. With such a generic name it is easy to confuse them.
Damon Day´s last blog ..Debt Relief USA files Bankruptcy – Clients get Burned
I’m reading all of this with interest. After paying fees to credit solutions for one year, I am headed to court tomorrow, and have been told that there is nothing they can do to help me without $2,000.00 up front to my creditor. I WILL say that they resolved one account for me, but I had to pay $1,000.00 per month to do it for 4 months. So that done, they now say – well, that’s the money you’ve saved yourself through our program outlines. I STILL had to pay the $264.24 fee as well as the $1,000.00 per month, so with no savings left, I don’t have the $2,000.00 up front for another creditor, so I am being sued.
By the way, as far as the fees go, it began in the $300.00’s per month. I’m getting out, there’s got to be another way. There’s no excuse for my getting in debtt, but I feel I chose the wrong path to get out. The harassing calls continue, and now I’m getting sued for the first time in my entire life. My sister has gone with Green Path Financial Counselors – is this the better way? I just want to get out of debt and continue saving and move on! I am employed, in the State of Michigan.
THESE JERKS HAVE BEEN TAKING 248.54 OUT OF MY ACCOUNT FOR THE FIRST THREE MONTHS. EVER SINCE JULY OF LAST YEAR 2009,AND SINCE SEPTEMBER THEY HAVE BEEN TAKING OUT 118.48 A MONTH SO THIS IS SCREWED UP BECAUSE THEY WILL TAKE OUT 118.48 EVERY MONTH THERE AFTER FOR FOUR YEARS SO WHAT DO I DO?
THAT WAS WRONG, I WAS WONDERING WHAT I COULD DO TO GET MY MONEY BACK PLUS INTEREST
Hello Susan,
I am sorry to hear about your experience. Unfortunately this is fairly typical with programs like credit Solutions. The irony is that if they hadn’t been charging you 200 to 300 a month in fees over the past year, you would actually have the 2,000 available to settle and avoid this lawsuit. This is the very reason that I speak out against these programs that charge all of these fees upfront. They put you in the very likely position of getting sued before you can save up enough money to settle your debts with your creditors.
Now you are stuck. You are getting sued and they won’t even assist you with that. If you quit they will want to keep the 2500 or so that you have already paid them in fees. However if you don’t quit they are going to charge you another 2,000 or so in fees over the next year and for what? To get sued again and get no support.
Unfortunately they have put you in a bad position with no good options. If it were me, I would cancel the program immediately before they draft another 264 out of your account. Then I would write them a letter demanding a full refund. You are not likely to get it, but many of my clients have had success obtaining at least a partial refund.
Credit Solutions has been sued by Attorney Generals in at least four states and they are in quite a bit of hot water. If you are not happy with their service, it is in their best interest to at least refund some of your money, rather then have you file another complaint with the FTC, the attorney general in your state and in the state that Credit Solutions is located in.
That will at least stop the bleeding and correct the mistake of hiring these guys.
Now to address your more immediate concern. It would be very hard for me to Monday morning quarterback this thing for you, especially since you are going to court tomorrow. However, if you can at least delay a judgment that would be good.
I normally take Sundays off, but given the circumstances, I will do a quick consultation with you to help you prepare for your hearing tomorrow. Please click this link Consultation to set something up this afternoon.
Credit Solutions has really put you in a bad spot with not much room to work with, but there is usually always something that can be worked out with the creditor, even if you have to take what is called a stipulated judgment. I can cover it all with you in the consult.
As far as green path financial goes. They are a CCCS program and unfortunately because of what Credit Solutions has done, you are not in a position to take advantage of a program like that because you are already at least a year behind on your debts and currently involved in a lawsuit. Your best bet moving forward is to stop paying all of these fees to Credit Solutions, focus on resolving the immediate lawsuit situation, and then creating a plan to try and settle with the rest of your creditors as quickly as possible before any additional lawsuits occur.
I am sorry my news isn’t better, but at least your story can serve as a warning to other consumers to never enroll into a debt settlement program that charges large fees and charges them upfront. If you do you will find, that when things go south, you are on your own because they have already been paid.
If you can set up a consult today Susan, I can do my best to help you prepare last minute for your hearing tomorrow.
Damon Day´s last blog ..Debt Relief USA files Bankruptcy – Clients get Burned
Hello Mik,
Ya, if you are wanting to get your money back, the first thing you need to do is cancel their program in writing and make sure they will not be drafting any additional money out of your account. Then you will need to write them a letter explaining why you are not happy with the service and what you would like them to do. You should not ask for interest on the money as you will certainly not get it and they are not contractually obligated to give it to you.
In fact when you look at their contract, they are not even contractually obligated to give you a refund at all. They certainly write their contracts to favor them, not the consumer. So according to their contract, they can charge you thousands of dollars, do nothing for you and just keep the money.
However that being said, I have seen Credit Solutions issue partial refunds to consumers that were not happy with the service they received. So it is worth a shot to write them a letter and see if they are willing to do the right thing based on your experience with them.
Please keep me posted on the outcome.
Damon Day´s last blog ..TARF – The Association of Red Foxes
Thank you Damon. I am not going to bother you on a Sunday, but I feel better that your initial advice is exactly what I am going to ask for tomorrow – A Delay In Judgement. I have already sent a cancellation email to credit solutions, and transferred any $ out of my account. This is a small town and I deal with a local bank, so I will stop there and reverese the electronic transfer to CSA; I have the paperwork all ready. I guess I have all my ducks in a row for tomorrow, I have correspondence dating back to March, 2009 that it looked like I was going to be sued, and asking CSA for help on my behalf. I willl let you know tomorrow evening what happened in court.
The scary news that you have given me is that I might not qualify for other programs because CSA told me to stop paying my credit cards. I guess January is going to be an interesting month for me~!!!
Stay tuned!!!! & Everyone, listen to Damon – stay away from Credit Relief Companies that sound too good to be true…
susie
Hello Susan,
Ok, I wish you luck tomorrow. There are a few different possibilities depending on what has been done thus far. If you tell the judge that you have been trying to settle, and the company that you hired charged you so much in fees that they were unable to come to an agreement, you may be able to get the judge to send the case to court mediation which would buy you some additional time to try and come to an agreement with the creditor.
At this point, you will likely find that any sort of an agreement is going to come with what is called a stipulated judgment. That is where you agree on a settlement either in lump sum or in payments but you also agree to allow the creditor to enter a judgment against you. This judgment will essentially be an insurance policy to insure that you make the payments to the settlement as agreed. If you do, then the judgment will go away. If you do not, then they can move to enforce the judgment either through wage garnishment, bank levy etc.
Please keep us posted on the outcome tomorrow. I have some resources that I can refer to you to help you clean up the mess that credit solutions created. Go ahead and set up a consult with me sometime next week so I can get the specifics and help you put together a plan to get the debt off your back as quickly as possible.
Damon Day´s last blog ..TASC – Debt Settlement Lobby or Protector of the People?
Hello Damon,
Well, for the first time in my entire life, I stood in front of a judge today, and I was petrified. I did not have an attorney because I did not know what was going to happen, I’ve never been sued before. I did receive a delay in judgment to see if I can work this out with my creditor. The funny thing, the attorney for the party suing me gave me lots of advice, and numbers to call for help. Yesterday, as I mentioned, I canceled my association with the program by email. They answered by saying that I had to call them – this is the funny/ridiculous part – first they asked me what account I had to go to court over, to which I answered, I think you know the answer to that question. Then, they asked me if I was going to get an attorney, and I told them that was confidential. But, here’s the real deal breaker – they actually suggested that I drop the account I am being sued over from their program, and they would just continue with the rest of the accounts. If I had any doubts (which I didn’t) – this took the cake. I have closed my checking account, am getting ready to cancel power of attorney for this company with all accounts. Yes, I AM getting an attorney – one I trust very much, because I want everything that I don’t know about to be covered legally. Everyone reading this – Please learn from my experience – work things out yourself with your creditors, or get an attorney you trust. I need an attorney because I am now 1-year behind on these accounts as instructed by this Company – I will keep you all posted!!
susie
Hello Susan,
Thanks for letting us know how things went. I am glad you were able to get a continuance to get your ducks in a row on this account. I am certainly not surprised that credit solutions offered to keep charging you fees for your other accounts and were more than happy to get out from under the account that you actually need help with right now. I am glad that you have found someone to help you out. As nice as the attorney was for the bank, I would be a little cautious of the people he suggests that you call for help. Legally they are required to produce the best outcome that they can for their client. So it could be a little conflict of interest.
If you would like me to take a look at your current situation and offer some suggestions about what you should do moving forward, feel free to fill out a consultation request. I can point you in the direction of some resources to help you dig out of the hole, that are likely less expensive then hiring an attorney, unless it is perhaps a friend of yours doing it for a highly reduced cost.
Either way, let me know if I can be of any help. Also please keep me posted on your results at obtaining at least a partial refund from credit solutions. I may be of some benefit there as well, as I have helped a few clients obtain partial refunds from them.
Damon Day´s last blog ..Debt Settlement – FTC could put 84% of Companies out of Business!