I can sympathize with everyone who has dealt with this company. We were first involved with them in 1992. A check was sent to us right after christmas of '92. We had incurred alot of debt prior to then and had 2 small children to take care of, we held onto the check for a couple of weeks before cashing it.
All went well for about a year, until my husband had to take an almost $10,000.00 cut in pay to keep his job of 12 years. We couldn't afford to lose the insurance. We went to a credit counseling agency for help. All creditors agreed to take a lesser amount to help us out while we were in credit counseling (even HFC). About 18 months later, we had gotten back on our feet and contacted creditors to begin sending billing to us again, rather than credit counseling agency.
All complied but it took us 6 months to get one from HFC. When contacted finally (noone returned my phone calls, which were daily for 6 months) they said that the account had gone into a bankruptcy account and they would have to contact a manager to go any further.
We talked to manager and stupidly, we re-enstated the account. They showed no payments, by the way, for the 18 months credit counseling was sending them payments. We gave them the $1200.00 in payments that we set aside during the 6 months it took to get a bill, and re-wrote the account. They stated that we would receive a bill in 30 days to start the regular payments.
We got a bill alright! We received a notice of impending judgement if we didn't pay the $4900.00 in 30 days. Our original account was for $3800.00, and we paid $3600.00 through credit counseling in that 18 months and then another $1200.00 to re-enstate the account so we could pay them back.By all accounts we should have only owed them $100.00!!!
We were then forced to file bankruptcy, unfortunatly. HFC was definately part of that. But then in 2003 we tried to get a mortage on the home we have, and there was HFC standing in our way. They had slipped the judgement in on the same day the bankruptcy was filed!!! We could not get the loan because of it, despite our, now, excellent credit. We are trying again soon, when it should drop off, but from what we have been told, they can renew it as a personal judgement. Let's hope not...
Please do your self a favor and never do business with this company. They lie, cheat and steal from people who are too desperate to see the truth of their practices until it's too late. Find another way out. Good luck to all who have experienced the same.
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