4 creditors removed themselves from the program do to not receiving payment ontime from the MDM. Before my cancer – my bills were always paid on time and I had a good credit score. They ruined my credit.

Once I cancel their service, they cannot withdraw any fees according to the FTC as a consumer has the right to cancel and the fees are based on a month to month while in the program. I just won’t get my set up fee back.

And creditors, as I contacted mine, said I will revert back to normal terms and conditions along with payments, but in the long run, leaving MDM I will gain an extra $300.00/mth after I make my payments to the outstanding creditors which will allow me to apply more then the minimum.

Funny when a client catches a problem, they get ignored by these companies. And it hasn’t even been a year for me and my reason was to feel comfort payments were made while I went through cancer treatments and couldn’t work as much.

A majority of these companies will inform a consumer not not only stop paying the delinquent accounts, but to pay them instead so they can build funds to make offers, mean while accepting funds to pay them self a service fee prior top performing the service.

Secondly they also provide a consumer a script of what to state to both creditors and collections firms when they call. Expressing the consumer has engaged a third party to assist them and they are not able or allowed to talk to the creditor or collections firm any further. This is deceitful and a very poor judgement in legal advise. It is now also common to have a consumer be called with notification of their debt being in collective activity and they are now being provided a tape to play once the creditor identifies them self, that they are retaining a company to handle their debt.

Third, a very large number of these companies now have creditors and collection company phone numbers blocked. So if a creditor does make an attempt to contact the third party management company they can not get through.

I have been in the field of law and collections for many years. I have seen the companies that once provided a service to the consumer now preying on them to make a financial gain from their misfortune. The debt management / reduction company filed is the largest and fastest growing cash cow in the country today.

As a final note…. if consumers would take the time to review their situation and understand they can openly negotiate a settlement or reduction in fees without some company taking money out of their already hurting pockets.

I have had consumers on a three-way call to many of these companies and had them listen in for them self on how they actual take core of their financial interests. Clearly stating the banks full intent if a solution is not rendered by a specific date the consumer will be sued. Their response was in all case very similar. “The consumer does not have enough money in their account to make an offer, they are still paying the representation fee. We doubt the bank will actually sue anyways… so go ahead, we still get paid from them anyways” That is a very discouraging thing for a consumer to hear when they have been fed lie after lie to get them to enroll and take their money.

The attorneys general in most states currently compiling information against these companies and they are filing suit against them. As once is closed down another two open. Most of these companies have a parent company and many, many sub-companies under different names.