In a time of dire financial crisis and coming to the point where my credit card bills were becoming very difficult to pay, I turned to Debt Settlement USA for help. I was told to stop paying my creditors and start paying the company $811 a month and deceived into believing that they would get my creditors to stop calling me and to enter into low, desirable settlements on my credit card balances.
In the reality, they took my money, but never provided any services to me. The creditor calls were incessant, and anytime I had a question or concern it took multiple phone calls and messages left before I could get a response from my "negotiator." Several times, I resorted to calling the "customer service" department or the original person I had spoke with when signing up in order to get a response from anyone. I was never informed of what, if any, conversations or actions had taken place on my behalf, and have no reason to believe that any actually did.
One time a local legal firm who had acquired one of my accounts managed to get ahold of me (it was a local number so I assumed it was a client and answered the call). I was informed that they had never been contacted by Debt Settlement USA and that they were not surprised—they had had other cases where the defendant thought they were being "represented" by this company only to find out later that nothing was being done on their behalf. I dumped thousands of dollars into this company and now all I have to show for it is a ruined credit report, non-stop creditor calls, and pending lawsuits.
When I enrolled in the program, my representative (i.E. Salesperson) informed me that if the program ever became more than we could afford to keep up with, we always had the option to get out of it and request our money back. He failed to mention that if I did that, all I would get is a rude, condescending answer that it was my fault the program failed (I stopped paying their fees after 7 months when nothing had happened for us in that time). He said they had done a large amount of work with my accounts and that I was not entitled to any refund—even though I never saw any decrease in creditor contact, never was offered or even asked if I could afford any settlements, and never received any contact from the company without fervent effort on my own part.
I'm now in the process of trying to save up for a bankruptcy lawer and get caught up on late mortgage payments so that I can file for bankruptcy and put a stop to the lawsuits that this company has brought up on me—something that would be easily paid for with a refund of the $5677.21 of fees that they are holding for all the "work" that they did not do on my behalf.
In summary, stay FAR away from Debt Settlement USA. They run a greedy and deceitful operation and have no intention or desire to help you with your financial situation, and when they cause more problems than they solve, they are unwilling to work with you and make things right. I sincerely hope that this post helps someone else avoid the financial and emotional turmoil that working this company can create.
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