After a bad real estate investment in my wife and I had to file for bankruptcy which severely damaged our credit. A year later, we both found good jobs despite the sluggish economy and wanted to rebuild our credit. It was then that I came across Manny Moumdjian of EZ Choice Financial in the Irvine/LA County area. When I first met Manny, he struck me as someone who is very charismatic and genuine. He talked about his kids in sports, his wife Sally and how they go to church.
I walked into his office and the operation seemed legit enough with a receptionist that is eager to help. I sat down with Manny and he impressed me with his deep knowledge of the Credit Reporting agencies, the credit reporting process, and passion to help people like me with bad credit. He showed me a binder with photocopies of letters/results he has gotten for previous clients. One of them included a letter where someone's bankruptcy record had been wiped clean. With some skeptism, I went ahead and signed up for me and my wife.
Manny's fees are based on the number of negative in your credit. For my wife and I, those fees ended up being around $1,100.00 each. The first gothcha appeared when we signed our contract. Legally, Manny can't charge you anything ahead of gettings results for his services so his contract is written as a credit advisory service. Nothing in his contract will guarantee you any results. The second gotcha came in the way they structure future payments to be deducted automatically on your credit card.
I looked around his office and figured he's not going anywhere, checked out some reviews on the Internet and came across some recommendations by people in the Real Estate industry. I was sold on the idea this guy would be able to help me and continued on. Up until the day we signed the contract, Manny's service was impeccable. I received numerous email detailing what they needed from me, and even got numerous text messages on my phone letting me know everything went through and the process to get our credit back on track is about to begin.
In the first three months, there was a flurry of activities. I kept getting letters in the mail from the three major credit bureaus and Manny's instructions were to forward them to him IMMEDIATELY (so he can respond right away!). I was not allowed to buy a car, sign up for credit card, or otherwise do anything that would get in the way of their repairing my credit. All these instructions, activities, and cautious warnings were just enough to keep me thinking that our credit scores are on their way up, that negative records are starting to dissappear from one payment... I mean one month... To the next. I had six months to pay $2200.00 for me and my wife.
From the time I signed my contract and the 6th month when I made my last payment, I did not hear any more from Manny. The only time they called me was to let me know my automatic payment did not go through and I had to give them another credit card to keep the process going. I called Manny numerous times asking him for a status and he kept telling me the process will take some time because the Credit Bureaus have to do their investigation.
Interestingly enough, the timeframe he gave me when I can expect results exceeds the timeframe that he needed to collect all 6 payments for me and my wife. Toward the 6th or 7th month of the process, I was getting letters from all three credit bureaus stating they have performed their investigation and most of the negative records in me and my wife's profile will remain.
It has been well over 1 year since I signed up with EZ Choice Financial, and never again did I hear from Manny or gotten any follow up from their office after I signed their contract. Our credit scores went up by a few points but that is because we signed up for credit cards on our own and made payments on time.in the end, I realized Manny Moumdjian is nothing but a common crook preying on people in unfortunate circumstances.
My wife and I make good money now so the $2000.00 we wasted isn't going to break us. The only thing I want to do now is to hopefully help other people from becoming victims of people like Manny who profit from other people's circumstances and are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Manny has friends in the Real Estate and Loan Banking community, but don't be fooled. He is just a common criminal who is out to get your money.
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