I have had a similar problem with this company as many of the other people. The thing is I got scammed more because I nearly completed the program. They give you this good faith estimate, which is actually based in bad faith. They give you this estimate of payments you can possibly afford to settle your debts, the only problem is that the good faith estimate they give you has no realistc chance fo fruition. The people at American Debt Foundation are crooks, theives, they run a scam. I am in a much worse situation than before.
I made payments for three years, then towards the end of the program they said that I would have to give them another $5,000 to settle the debts. With their fees and the amounts I had paid them plus the $5,000. I would be paying off the total debt. They basically dupe you into signing an unrealistic contract, which has no means of coming true. They keep taking your money and taking in. When you call them for your escrow funds, they tell you that all your escrow funds went toward their fees.
They take advantage of people by getting all your numbers then giving you a payment you can afford but has no realistic chance of coming true. When I asked them to stop my payments, I sent them a letter and even called the person their for their ABA number, they refused to give it to me. Anyway they continued to take payments out of my account, even when the promised they would stop.
They don't even negotiate anything on your behalf. They simply wait for the creditors to give you a settlement deal. The creditor will eventually send you something saying we will take X, XXX dollars to cancel the debt. They just take this offer, they don't even negotiate or try and lower the amount. They don't even call the creitor to negotiate any type of settlement beforehand. Even when you get this type of settlement offer you have to fax the letter to them. I averaged about 6 faxes and 3 to 4 telephone calls to get them to call the creditor. You could just call the creditor and with one phone call handle the settlement youself or even beforehand. The thing is if you call the creditor you are in violation of your contract, so you have to continue to call and fax American Debt Foundation.
Anyway they just take your money and take it. They dupe you into signing an unrealistic contract. Then they ask you for a large sum of money to "settle" your debt towards the end of the program. What jerks. Then you call them for your escrow funds and there are suprisingly none because you have not paid enough in fees. They also get away with it because a lot of the people who sign this sort of agreement (as I do) don't have the money to fight in court or get any sort of legal help. I couldn't keep up with my payments, I had lost my job and was kind of at the end of my rope. Then they make all these promises and duped me into signing a contract, which isn't an arm's length transaction because it is based on a lie. You rely on their good faith estimate to your detriment.
They get away with it because most of the people that sign onto their program don't have the financial means to sue them. They advertise like they help the poor get out of their debt situation but they are really stealing from the poor to make the rich richer. Reverse Robin Hoods. Hoods kind of fits because they basically say stick em up, then snatch grab and run. They certianly don't help the poor and it sucks because you are already poor and they are trying to rob the poor. If I was a bum they would probably steal my spare change. It is such a frustrating process. I do want to set up some kind of class action against them. I'm afraid they they will just take the money and disappear. Then set up a new company a couple years later running the same rip-off scam.
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