I found myself in a rather hopeless situation when my husband's company folded and I was laid off. We called our credit cards before looking for an alternative, yet while we were current and able to pay our monthly payment the credit cards and car loan was unwilling to work sonething out to help. I was doing research and started receiving calls from debt settlement groups, which eventually ended up being the way we decided to pay our debts. We enrolled in the FIRE program and our debt settlement fee was $2,755.08! (Which they talked me into maxing out the cards I was putting in the program to partially pay that fee!) In debt settlement, a consumer is advised to stop making payments to any creditor. That gets their attention! But you're made to feel that at last you are protected while you are working to have your debt settled! Ha Ha Ha is all I can say, and FIRE knows the joke! After signing on the dotted line and following the advice of FIRE I began receiving 16 to 20 calls per day. I have been in the program for 6 months and the past month the calls just stated to lessen per day. I had to send @ 10.00 per letter, certified letters to my creditors. What was the $2,755.08 for? I have to Fax every piece of correspondence to FIRE @ $1.00 per page. What was the $2,755.00 for? I have to keep the call log. Fax the call log. FIRE has no authority to protect or stop creditors from collecting their monies. I had to write and mail $10.00 cease and desist letters, which do NO good. I had to write $10.00 and demand proof of debt... I was told to open a seperate account for FIRE funds, and for the entire 6 months I have been in the program FIRE has taken the monthly electronic payment from the wrong account overdrafting my house account every month! I was asked to mail clear copies of my drivers license and SS card through the mail. Fax's were unacceptable. I told them I did not feel comfortable sending that information through the mail and was told by FIRE..."your credit is so shot by now, no one would want to steal your identity anyway! They only want to steal from people who HAVE money!" Everything I do as a member of FIRE is subject to violation of the program if they so choose to say so! I was contacted by one of my credit cards in the program and ended up negotiating the settlement myself! I wrote to FIRE and specifically ask if paying the agreed settlement was in anyway violating my agreement with FIRE. I was told as long as I got everything in writing (and faxed it to them!) I was fine. But it just so happens it WAS technically in violation and that is where they "get you" so to speak. So, I finally decided to remove myself from the program and that was the only thing that got THEIR attention. But little did I know, I could remove myself from the program all I wanted, but I would still owe them all of the remaining money immediately upon leaving the program. At that point, FIRE would BECOME one of my creditors! I was told, "You're right you'll still owe FIRE that money and believe you me, I can move alot faster than any of your creditors". My conversation was with the "compliance department" and to date was by far the rudest I had ever been treated by any creditor I owed money to. I was talked to and treated just exactly like I was told for the last 6 months by FIRE that creditors were not allowed to do, but did anyway, just to intimidate consumers into giving them their money! So I found out today that if I thought I felt stupid being in the situation where I needed FIRE in the first place, I feel even "stupider" (if that's a word) to realize I am trapped into paying $2,755.08 for advice! Simple advice about what I can do about trying to settle my debt, that if I don't follow to the letter of the law, constitutes a violation, which absolves all responsibility on the part of FIRE and makes me the consumer responsibile and collectable!
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