Bill collector disguised as debt settlement company

[Credit Self Defense]

CreditAssist Financial Services markets itself as a debt settlement company to consumers on sites such as http://www.creditassistfs.com and http://www.debtsettlement4less.com. They advertise themselves as "America's Number One Debt Settlement Firm."

They collect the consumer's state of residence, email, and phone in advance just so they reduce debt more efficiently. Not because they are really a collection agency skip tracing for debt buyers. Right? You be the judge.

CreditAssists' consumer websites explain what their experience means to the consumer:

"CreditAssist's founders were former collection executives with some of the largest Credit Card Companies in the nation (Citibank, American Express, Bank of America, and Washington Mutual). This means that they know the inner workings of credit card companies, debt buyers and collection agencies, what they will agree to in terms of debt settlement and what they won't."

But CreditAssist is sending this press release http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/03/prweb794114.htm to collection agency news sites pitching a different service called DebtBuyerAssist.

The press release puts a different spin on what their experience means to bill collectors:

" CreditAssist was founded by collection industry veterans Rick Wittwer and Carmine Dorio. Our experience managing collection activities at most the major credit card issuers including Citi, American Express, BofA, and WAMU puts us in an enviable situation. We know the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of mail, collection call, and legal collection strategies. We also understand the costs associated with each of these strategies. No matter how much effort or expense is placed against the majority of accounts, debtors just won't respond, says Mr. Dorio."

"CreditAssist works with Debt Buyers to identify their unreachable populations and helps them develop both print and voice customized referral strategies. The debtors are offered an alternative to resolving the debt through one of their collectors by referring them to CreditAssist, an independent debt settlement company that represents the debtor to the debt buyer and offers similar settlement rates."

The consumer is charged a fee by CreditAssist to negotiate on their behalf. But if CreditAssist has sold the consumer's information to a debt buyer (as DebtBuyerAssist) and is also collecting a fee from the debt buyer that would be acting as a third party debt collector without disclosing it to the consumer they are supposedly representing.

Anyone who has paid CreditAssist or even provided their contact information to them needs to contact a consumer attorney immediately.

Credit Self Defense

http://www.creditselfdefense.com