Up until the middle of July, my wife and I had absolutely perfect credit. We could qualify for any loan. We received credit card offers constantly.
Unfortuneately, we owed far too much money on credit cards. It was all we could do to keep up with the minimum payments... But we were NEVER late. So, I made the mistake of contacting Gibson Trust, Inc, a so-called "not for profit" consumer credit counseling service.
My first payment was for a whopping $1,762.00!! (We owed a LOT on credit cards).in fact, the second month I was told I had to increase my payment to $1,850.00!! I was told they would negotiate with my creditors and reduce not only my interest but my payments as well.
Later, I found out that my first payment was "just to set me up on the program"!! How much can it possibly cost to send out 12 letters or so. (Actually, they never even did that much) Immediately, I was 30 days behind on ALL my payments because I didn't have the money to pay the credit cards AND THESE THIEVES!
As time went on, I found they did send contracts to some of my creditors, but not all. Sometimes they would pay some or all of my creditors, but in one case they didn't send them anything for 6 months. I finally stopped paying them in December after paying them a total of $9,162!! I then had to pay $1,340 just to get all of my credit cards back to a paid up status! Counting the first month's payment which they stole and the payments I had to make to catch my accounts back up that THEY SHOULD HAVE PAID... I figure they owe me $3,102!!!
The worst part is now my credit is totally ruined when it had been perfect. Through no fault of my own, I have many accounts that are reporting 30,60 or even 90 days late during this time period and I can not get them to remove this information! Somehow, I have gotten marked as a CCCS person with late payment history and it seems it will be years before I can ever correct it.
I hope this will in some way deter anyone from ever using Gibson Trust to help get out debt. You will only be DEEPER in the hole! I wish there was some way to correct the wrong that these people have done, but I can't aford a lawyer and probably wouldn' win anyway.
Paul
Roanoke, Virginia
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