I signed on to the debt consolidation program over a year ago. Going into the program I had difficulty getting UFS to send out all the proposels to my creditors and get the payments rolling. I fortunately was able to pay my way through those first few months.
Things were then rolling smoothly, payments were being deducted from my account and getting to my creditors on-time. One month I found I had enough to send in an extra $50 so I made a money order as they don't accept personal checks and I didn't have time to change my monthly deduction amount. That's when I found out they don't just charge me $49 a month for their services, but rather $49 per check they cash so if I want to send in an extra money order it will cost me $49. Ridiculous!!!
We'll I moved on from that hiccup. Then my payments started arriving later and later each month. Finally, I was booted out of a debt management plan with one account. I got a letter stating they would no longer allow me to maintain a lower APR and furthermore I would be charged late fees. When I contacted UFS they said I should try and reenter an agreement on my own. There was nothing they could do about it. I was on the phone with UFS and my credit card for hours.in the end, neither company was of any assistance to me. I began paying that credit card on my own to avoid ruining my credit report.
So the program continues... Payments get later and later and LATER. They are deducted by the 3rd of the month from my account, but don't arrive to my credit cards until after 30 days. Meaning the billing cycle closes with no payment. I called to find out what the is happening. I told over and over and over that it is a system error and it would be fixed. So finally the payments arrived in the wrong month, after the next month's payment had been taken from my personal account. I told them I would monitor my accounts to ensure that all this months payments were made on time. I waited and watched. The end of the month came and once AGAIN no payment for the month was applied to my accounts!!!
I called and emailed and threatened to send a report to the BBB. Funny, as the ex-employee stated I got some action. Payments arrived on-time and in a reasonable amount of time, BUT other agreements were made to make-up for my account being thrown out of an agreement due to UFS's mismanagement of my account. I am still waiting for this situation to resolved.
Although, they are slowly resolving the issues THEY caused I would NOT recommend this program to anyone for ANY reason! Not to mention that I am breathing down their necks to ensure things are moving along. From now until all my debt is paid off I will monitor every payment and action by UFS. I want my first payment back, so for now I will play their game. I am very responsible with my finances, I only entered the program in the hopes to pay off a relatively high amount of debt more quickly, while paying less interest. Now it seems to be a game of chess and I have to stay one move ahead.
Future consumers be very aware of what you may be getting yourself into. I thought I did enough research before I entered this program, but obviously I did not. I am very sure debt consolidation can be benificial, but ask your credit companies for recommendations on companies they usually work with. READ every detail of the contracts. I read it, all of it, but after re-reading it I believe that UFS tries as hard as they can to NOT take responsibility for anything!
Beware!
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