CareOne Credit Counseling

We went to Care One for help with our debt situation in hopes we could pay our debts in a method which would allow us lower payments and still pay our creditors. Care One explained their method which is to contact the credit company and negotiate a payoff. Then our monthly fee to them would help pay the credit company until the debt was paid off. After almost two years into the program, we received a summons to appear in court for garnishment of wages. We called Care One who informed us that some creditors will do this and they would take care of it. We asked if we should go to the scheduled court date but they informed us not to. They would take care of it. Two months later, a garnishment on my wages began. When we called Care One, we had to leave messages for our reps. They, however, never returned our calls.

After one month and about 40 calls to Care One, we received another summons from another company to appear in court for the purpose of initiating another garnishment. We attempted to call Care One 10 more times, but no calls were returned. We sought the help of an attorney who told us our only resource was to file bankruptcy. In the process, Care One was contacted for the amount of attorney fees we paid to Care One and a refund of any money they were holding to pay off any creditors. Our initial attorney fees with Care One were nearly $2000 and we found that very little of our monthly payments went to pay our creditors, the majority being taken by Care One (Percells & Associate) as fees. The bankruptcy we were trying to avoid by contacting Care One was now unavoidable.

I entered the debt management program at CareOne for the express purpose of lowering my interest rate and consolidating my payments. My cards were not late, my credit is in good standing. CareOne didn't send my payment in a timely manner to my Citi accounts and after 3 months of "re-negotiating", Citi has now dropped those accounts from my consolidation, leaving me with late fees, a penalty 29% interest and late payments. Citi will not allow me to enter into another plan or agreement either.

So far I'm doing 90% of the work. If this continues, I will not be with them much longer .11 creditors approved, one more to go. I'm looking for a better option. A lawyer said for a grand he can clean up all my debts legally! I'm hopping the government shuts them down.

My husband called CareOne to get information on their program. When I found out, I told him and the company that I was not interested because of the cost and I did not want our credit score to be affected. Since this time, they have called at least five times. When they called this morning (12-7-2011), I told them I was the one in charge of finances and I was not interested in their program. I was told I "was not *** and that he would call back." He then hung up on me. When my husband called back and asked them not to call again, he was called an ***! I would not do business with this company now or in the future!

I came to CareOne credit with about $10,000 of debt. I spoke with a consultant regarding DMP at length before I enrolled in the plan because I had heard that these programs could negatively affect your credit history (My credit was excellent, but I was out of work and only able to pay the minimum balance at a very high interest rate). CareOne helped to lower my interest rates so that my payments were, in fact, lowering the amount I owed. However, the representative swore (on a recorded phone call) that the DMP would absolutely have no effect on my credit rating. I pulled my credit report recently, and saw negative marks on my credit report. I called CareOne to report that their employee had provided fraudulent information in order to get me to enroll in the program. The manager apologized and said there was nothing they could do about this. The employee was not even reprimanded.

CareOne Credit Counseling of Cherry Hill, NJ is out of business. We paid $1,000 per month that was supposed to be accumulated to anticipate a payoff from our creditors. $4,000, later we learned that they were out of business and took all of our money without providing one bit of service that we paid for. They didn't tell us anything. Phones disconnected, office packed up, the employees and owners all moved away. We cannot find them to even try and get out money back.

What a bunch of ** this company is! They do what they want and without your best interest. They take $50 a month as a fee. And then they take a fee for whatever money they supposedly save you, which for me amounted to about $200. For over the year that I was with this company they took over $1000 in fees. They settled with a few creditors, but I could have done that myself without their help or their fees. I specifically told them not to settle on any accounts without first letting me know. They said they wouldn't negotiate and settle without first talking to me. But instead they just did what they wanted and took the fees without any correspondence on what they took or paid. Please do not waste your time working with this company. There has to be better debt consolidation companies out there!

I signed up for the Debt Management Program (DMP) a year and a half ago in Arizona. I had five or six creditors that accepted me into the program, and everything was going very well. I moved to California, and I called CareOne to change my mailing address. They told me that there was a different program in California, and that I'd have sign a new agreement to continue.

I signed the new agreement, but now the same creditors I had before won't accept me back into the program under the previous terms. The idiots at CareOne didn't bother to tell me that creditors with less than a $1000 balance were dropped from the program. Now I'm getting notices from my creditors demanding all sorts of payments, and telling me that my interest rates are going back to the 22-35 percent range.

We made our monthly payments to CareOne as agreed. One year later we find that CareOne has passed our account to some law firm without telling us. None of our bills had been paid even once during that year. When we complained, we were told there was nothing they could do and our only recourse was to discontinue the service. When we did, the law firm kept 2/3s of the money we'd paid over the year for "expenses."

I signed up with Care One Credit Services (CESI) in March 2011. This company is bogus. Citibank accepted the proposal sent for monthly payments of $77. CESI neglected to send the payment to Citibank in a timely fashion as Citibank dropped me from their debt management program. CESI pretty much has told me that there was nothing that they could do. When I called customer service, the service representatives have been unprofessional. I have been hung up on and also told to cancel my services if I am unsatisfied. They have no intention of rectifying their error. Because of this, it doesn't appear that Citibank will accept me into their debt management program.

My husband and I are enrolled in CareOne's debit settlement program. January of this year, I received a call from the lawyer of CareOne, Stan ***, saying that he had settled an account and agreed to make monthly payments of $100 but that I needed to pay an extra $200 over the $300 monthly payment to pay this account on time. I did so. I received another call from Mr. *** about a week or so later telling me that CareOne had used the money that was supposed to be paid on the account to settle another account. He also said he spoke to the lawyers for the creditor and they agreed to a partial payment in February and a full payment in March but that I was again short because of the money being used on that other account. Mr. *** said I needed to come up with another $27 on Feb. 27th. I paid another $27. The payment was never made. CareOne said I didn't get it in on time. As a result of this, my husband's check is being garnished.

I joined CareOne in May 2010 and everything seems to go okay until in November, they took out 2 payments within 4 days of each other. I had my bank cancelled the 2nd erroneous payment since when I contacted CareOne, they said it would take 14 days to reimburse me for the error. The agent also stated that all my bank fees would be reimbursed. This was in December 2. Now, it is December 14 and I get a letter in the mail basically stating they will not reimburse me for the bank charges.

I quit them and now am working directly with my creditor and am getting the same deal as CareOne but no headaches. So going through CareOne, it costs me an extra $245 for service fees which ended up being bad service. How can their agent say something and they do not follow up on it? So basically, an agent can say anything and you are not guaranteed that the information is correct or will be followed through on.

I am not leery of Care One Credit. Before I started with Care One Credit, I had heard of Consumer Credit Counseling of Rochester, New York, but I chose to go with Care One Credit. So far, things are going okay; my bills are going to the creditors because I double-check.

The one thing that I don't understand though is that Care One says that they negotiated with the creditors but I don't think they really did. When I first started the program, they told them they can assure me that my payment would be 254 dollars. After the first month, my payment went up to 333 dollars and was still growing until I told them I can't afford not one more dime and if the creditor can't accept the proposal then what can I do, my hours were cut in half. I am not trying to run away from my bill but I would think going through a credit counseling would help. I also have to contact the creditors to find out the remaining balance or better yet, Care One runs a credit report check to see what I still owe the creditors, how can that be helping my credit score.

I want to switch to Consumer Credit Counseling of Rochester but I don't know how to go about switching from one company to the next.

Though I've previously had no difficulty with the services provided by Care One, I currently am unable to contact them in any way. Online attempts result in error notices stating there are problems with a server. Even web searches for a new way to contact the company result in no information. Please let me know if you find a way to contact them. They deducted a payment from my account this week, a week earlier than normally scheduled deductions.

After searching for a dentist that does financing, I finally found one that said they could finance. I was given a credit card application and told to fill it out and get back to them after approval because that is what they use. The approval was for $2400 and I thought to myself this should be more than enough. I made the appointment and they went over everything but the amount. The receptionist charged the card then asked how I was going to satisfy the remaining balance of $1500, at this point I could have pasted out. The receptionist stated that the dentist told me the amount on the consultation and that I should speak to him, he said the receptionist was supposed to go over the amount.

I explained that I was unemployed and working a temporary job and could not afford a $3500 for a procedure that should have cost $1000. The dentist said he would be able to work out something using discounts which would now have me with an out of pocket of $1000 which could be paid monthly. This is financing which they could have done all along, instead they were pushing the CareOne Credit Card and this is where the problem comes in. I was offered and took out the protection plan offered by Care Credit just in case the temporary position did not take me through complete payment, and after two I submitted by phone an application for coverage and they denied me the coverage because they said that I needed to be unemployed for three months.

I signed up with CareOne in October 2009. I was told that I would be paid off in 18 months. However, in May 2010, I wanted to pay off my creditors and requested a pay off balance. I was surprised to see that most of the totals of my bills were either the same amount or higher. I was not pleased with CareOne and will not suggest them to anyone. They also were not helpful in helping me reach to the creditors with a closeout amount. I have to reach them and get my own quotes. The money I paid CareOne could have went towards my creditors. To say the least, I will never use them again.

I am writing only to defend Care One. I have had nothing but excellent customer service and results with them. I used them over a 4-year period. When Kansas changed their laws as to how much money they could collect per creditor on my account, they sent me a check for the difference without any calls from myself. My credit was restored to 712 after the program and I cannot give enough praise for the guidance they have provided me. If someone has experienced a problem with them, maybe it was because they were looking for someone to completely absolve the mess they created for themselves.

I contacted CareOne credit because I was in much need of financial assistance. I had three payday loans plus credit card bills to pay. I wanted to consolidate everything into one bill. I couldn't apply or qualify for a personal loan because of my poor credit rating (590) at the time. The first month they sent out proposal letters no one accepted anything and the calls kept coming in. Second month, one of my creditors "joined" but CareOne told me it can take up to three months to hear from everyone. The third and final month I finally got a representative who told me they can't handle payday loans even when they are in collections, and the other two creditors "took" the payments but didn't join the program.

I cancelled my CareOne account with them and told them what's the point of joining this program when it gives you more headaches than actually having to pay 6 different companies. I managed to pay off my payday loans but now my creditors are still a problem. Sigh. My creditors kept harassing me everyday saying they didn't get the proposal letter and payments. My credit rating is probably lower than when I was in semi-decent shape, and now I have the stress of paying my creditors and one collection agency, I think, wants to sue me.

I signed up with Care One to (as ads state) "stop harassing phone calls" and pay off debt. It began with $1225 per month to pay 3 credit card bills. After a few months, I was moved to their 'debt resolution program' and my checking account was only charged $499.44 per month to settle these three. On 12/23, I was served papers at home notifying me that one of the companies, Capital One, had filed suit and wanted to add interest at 23.1% plus attorney fees of $1,998 plus court costs.

My debt was suddenly more than when Care One took charge! I immediately called and was told to fax the form to them and someone would be in touch within 3 business days! On 12/28, I called to tell them I'd heard nothing and was told by my attorney that I'd receive emailed instructions as soon as she got home or the next day at the latest. That was 2 days ago. Now I receive no phone calls but am being sued by one creditor. This may force me into the bankruptcy I was trying to avoid when I originally contacted Care One!

In 2003 I paid $80 monthly to Careone for an account with providian before it went out of business. I authorized Careone to take $12 monthly for their fees as allowed by the state of Colorado. I tried to check my account several times within that time but was unsuccessful. I wrote and asked them to send me statements all to no avail but I kept paying because I knew the bill would be over in 24 months and that should be the end of it.

After that time period I contacted CESI and was told that I still owed over a 1000 becasue they were taking $50 monthly for servicing fees that I had not authorized.( I had never been contacted about the raise in service fees) I still asked for some time of statement and was told that I could get it off line but could not access their online service.

After many conversations I was told that the problem would be rectified and, I stopped the automatic deduction. Now I find that the providian bill has been sold to a collection agency who is hounding me for money I already paid CESI. I feel as though I have been scammed and have no recourse. I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

In 2003 I paid $80 monthly to Careone for an account ,1241,with providian before it went out of business. I authorized Careone to take $12 monthly for their fees as allowed by the Colorado. I tried to check my account several times within that time but was unsuccessful. I wrote and asked them to send me statements all to no avail but I kept paying because I knew the bill would be over in 24 months and that should be the end of it. After that time period I contacted CESI and was told that I still owed over a 1000 becasue they were taking $50 monthly for servicing fees that I had not authorized.( I had never been contacted about the raise in service fees) I still asked for some time of statement and was told that I could get it off line but could not access their online service. After many conversations I was told that the problem would be rectified and, I stopped the automatic deduction. Now I find that the providian bill has been sold to a collection agency who is hounding me for money I already paid CESI. I feel as though I have been scammed and have no recourse. I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Said they would pay my debt each month when they took money from my checking account. Told me to quit paying my debt. Debtors started calling, so I contacted Care One. Told me to ignore them and they would send them a settlement in 39 months. 39 months of phone calls and letters yeah right. Sent them 2000 dollars in 6 months and was told I only had 600 dollars in my account to pay my debtors.

Same as the others, they kept taking my money and not doing anything to pay my creditors. My credit situation is worse than when I started.

I promised to reduce my debt by negotiating a lower interest on my outstanding credit card balances. I received notification that all my creditors agreed to the terms presented to them. After only 2 months of making payments, I lost all access to any further credit with these creditors and all my balances with the creditors are in arrears due to the fact that none of them were in agreement. I did not solicit Credit One, they came to me. Yes, I only agreed because they told me they could get my interest rates lowered.

I started receiving calls from my creditors telling me I was late on payments. I thought Care One had resolved this. My creditors were actually able to pinpoint the exact month that Care One took over my payments as prior to this time I was never late on payments. I called my bank and had automatic debit discontinued and called Care One demanding they reimburse my money as they had not held up to their end of the agreement, and had literally "stolen" my money. Something has to be done to stop them.

I have to now try to obtain a personal loan from a reputable institution to pay accounts to current status, what I should have done, if I can get a loan. I am humiliated and depressed over this and I feel violated.

Stay away from this company. My father was ill and contracted with them to help him reduce his monthly credit card expenses. He was not finacially savy and was taken advantage of. His montly payments did not decrease (primarily due to the fee charged). He died in February, I called the company and a representative assured me that his contract would be terminated.

They are still drafting his checking account. When I called today to complained I was told your father was the only one on the account, we can only speak to him...I kept saying, he is no longer alive. This is a scam...stay away. They did not even have compasion for my father'd death...I am going to have to close his checking account to stop the drafts. Beware!!!!

Emotional stress and financial.

After 15 months of paying my bills, I was curious to see when I was going to be paid up so I contacted Care One Credit services. I was told that I need to keep paying my $180 a month for another 9-10 months. According to my records, I had already paid $2700!!! I began to see more and more credit card bills and my balances are $100 higher now than when I began the program. It seems as if this program just took my money and didn't pay my debts.

My credit has been damaged beyond repair by this company. I can't get a job nor apply for a new apartment, car, or a checking account. My $2700 has not been applied to any of my credit card bills, I need a refund. I am stressed out, overwhelmed and receiving calls 5-10 times a day from my creditors.

I signed up for CareOne because like many I was overwhelmed with credit card debt. I was working at a job that didn't pay me enough for basic living expenses so I had to do something. But like the others, I have had trouble with them. They are not approachable with any problem. I told them that I lost my job but they still demanded that I pay the account after I asked for an extension. They do not care about anyone or anybody. I strongly suggest that people stay away from them. I am worried now about my credit score. I wrote them a letter to tell them I no longer wanted their services. As of yet, they have not stopped. I can't get out of debt no matter how hard I am trying because of these people. I am going to email them today to tell them I no longer want their services. I am also contacting all my credit card companies to let them know that I will make the payments again myself. Lord help us and this economy. Peeople like them are hurting all of us.

They are paying below the minimum payment on all the credit cards and the companies are still charging me financial fees. What good are they?

My payment due date was the first week of every month. I paid care one on time each month for 3 months. The month of Dec. the payment was moved to the 19th. Care One failed to pay my creditors on time resulting in late fees for 3 months which caused accounts to go over the limit which created more fees. They failed to get the proposals in a timely manner causing more fees. In which they said they would take care of. When my creditors stated the payments had been coming late, that now there were past due fees, Care One said these were creditor tactics. Care one also stated that all the 30,60,90 days past due that I received on my credit report from them would go away in 3 months did not and in fact they then stated that it would be 6 months.

My credit score has gone down almost 200pts since signing with care one in october. Care One is dodging all questions that I raised, a report to the BBB has been made and care one states they have done nothing wrong but they have and you can see that I am not the only one. If they stated the late marks would come off in 3 months of service and then when questioned at 3 months of when the marks would come off they said 6 months (no marks should have been placed if they were on paid on time) but this shows that they knew they were paying them late. Any help would be great in fixing this problem.

One night I was curious to see if debt management would be the way for me to go since my personal circumstances have changed. After submitting my information, I found a link on the website that is a tool to repay your debts yourself without going through a counseling agency. I saw where that would be the better way for me to go since I can pay my monthly bills OK. Two hours after I submitted my information to CareOne, I sent them a letter telling them that I would like to cancel and that I would contact my creditors myself. I even called them the following morning to make sure they cancelled the service.

Today, I received a notice from my Discover Card that they were revoking my credit card due to my inability to pay. Which is FALSE. After calling Discover, I was told that they were contacted by an debt relief agency and that it was their policy to cancel credit cards when this happens. I called CareOne and was told that no one there contacted any creditors but that by me cancelling the account, a cancellation letter goes out to all the creditors and to me even though I never used their service. I cancelled after TWO HOURS. I was told that the computer system may have automatically sent out the letters in response to the cancellation.

Kimberly Claude was trying to help me out and was taking my plight to her supervisor. Kimberly emailed me after speaking to a supervisor and stated that there was nothing they could or would not do to help correct my problem.

I have worked long and hard to build my credit up to a very decent level and did not want anything to jeopardize it. I mentioned this to CareOne and emphasized that I did not want to do anything to mar my credit rating. I was under the impression that my credit rating would not suffer. How can it not suffer when I'm getting letters telling me to cut up my credit cards because I can't repay them? I am expecting letters from my other credit card companies to follow suit, I'm sure.

I never realized how damaging this could be to someone. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought it would have gone this far.

Credit card(s) falsely revoked.

Possible false reporting to credit bureau's

This credit company charged me $39.00 late charge for my $31.00 payment being 3 days late. I called to use another credit card to pay off the Care Credit card. The rep said they would charge me $15.00 to make any payment over the phone. Then she said that they don't take credit cards for payment or to pay off accounts. I'm between a rock and a hard place. I can't pay off this account that cantinues to go higher instead of down. Please help me out.

I filled a complaint with the BBB and the reply from GE Money was that we had missed two payments within a six month period thus canceling the interest free contract and we had to pay back charges. I requested a spreadsheet of my account from beginning to current in writing and only recieved copies of all our monthly billings.These people are running a scam, and are in the business of ripping people off with thier devious business practices. I WOULD WARN ANYBODY NOT TO USE THESE CROOKS. I had to pay them $1329.50 in late fees to get them to stop calling my house and my cell phone 5 or more times a day, 10 days after I had mialed them the check the where still calling.

signed up for debt counseling and management service which cost $30/month for CareOne to work with my creditors to lower my interest rates and minimum monthly payments. After the first month of the service, CareOne neglected to pay on creditor, underpayed every minimum payment, payments were late, and no one from CareOne EVER contacted me to resolve, prevent, or address the situation.

I am now in MORE debt that I was before due to penalties and late fees, my accounts have been closed with a negative rating on them, and I cannot reopen or apply for a secured loan to help consolidate my debt due to their mishandeling of my account. Over $700 in one month in penalties and late charges. Damage to my credit score. Unable to obtain a loan from the bank due to black mark on my account left by CareOne.

I tried to get help from Care One Credit Counseling two months ago. I called and spoke with an agent who told me to make sure I paid my accounts until Care One would take over. It took them a month for the program to start. A week before they were to debit my checking account, they sent out proposals to the companies I owe to see if they would accept the amounts to pay each month. Most of these companies didn't even accept the proposal the first month. Since they didn't accept the amounts to be paid, they added a lot of late fees and over limit fees. The next month some had accepted the proposal but two still had not, so these companies added more fees. One of my credit card companies never did accept the program, and they added over $200 worth of fees that I am now trying to pay on my own. The other credit card was my husband's and they added over $100 worth of fees.

I called the credit card companies to explain to them what was going on, and they still would not take away the fees. On top of all of this, I'm paying Care One to handle the accounts, to do the contacting for me, but I had to be the one to call these companies to negotiate with them. So why should I be paying Care One every month to do nothing? I'm now canceling their services and amgoing to try to take over my accounts again. Before I started this program my accounts were never late, and at least the minimum was paid every month. Now these accounts are all messed up, and I don't know what to do.



I applied on-line January 9, 2007 with this company to consolidate 4 credit cards because the payments were over my head and I needed help. I do pay a $17 fee for their services.

Care One did not send out the proposals to my creditors due to the payments being too low. I was never notified to adjust my payments in order to send out the proposals to my creditors. I did call Care One on January 30th to check to make sure the proposals were sent out and everything was fine at which point I was told all was well and the proposals went out. I continued to make my payments to Care One and they continued to apply those to my creditors, but still proposals were not sent to my creditors. I received a collection notice for one of them at which point I called the creditor and advised them that I was enrolled in a debt consolidation program sine January 9 2007.

They told me that they do not have any record of receiving or rejecting a proposal at any point. I then called Care One and asked them for a copy of the proposals that were sent out. They said they keep hard copies of the proposals but that mine were never sent out due to insufficient payment amounts. Again...I was never notified that my payments were too small.

Due to the inaction of this company my credit card balances have not decreased but have increased due to interest rates and over-limit charges. Thus my stress level in dealing with this has skyrocketed.

Have been with this group for over three years...last August I made a change in creditors with the service, paying off about 70% of the debt I had through them with a Home Equity Loan. Two months later, a payment was missed to my creditor through the service. This resulted in a late fee as well. When I contacted Care One, they stated that they would look into the matter but that I was not to pay the amount overdue or it would result in my service being terminated and the interest rate on the debt would return to the initial rate. The next month the same payment amount was sent to the creditor, but not enough to correct the previous error.

After two months, the creditor upped the monthly payment and Care One still directed the same monthly payment to be made without contact to me. All the while, this was being reflected on my credit score and report as a late payment, thus lowering my credit score. My credit score has dropped because of this to a point lower than when I started the service and Care One when contacted has done nothing to help me with this matter.

Credit Score has lowered, new and potential creditors refuse to give loans or offer loans at astronomical rates! Can't move forward in reducing debt because of the lower credit score. Has put a financial strain on me and my family.

I started an account with Care One in May 2003. Initially, I thought it would be easier to manage and pay off my credit cards with one payment. Wrong! Since the very beginning, I have had nothing but problems with Care One. They routinely take at least 10 days to two weeks after debting my checking account before sending money to my creditors. This results in frequent late payments. So in addition to making monthly payments (often higher than what I paid before), I get bills almost every month charging late fees. This has happened every month. I've tried paying Care One earlier in the month, but it seems the earlier I pay, the longer they take.

Today I have started the process of cancelling my account with Care One, but even that seems rigged. Their website has specific instructions on cancelling services, including faxing a signed statement. Of course the fax number is not listed anywhere on the website. The phone number listed has a recording that says to push 1 for the fax number, but no matter how many times you press 1 it just repeats the recorded menu. In the meantime they will not cancel services without a faxed statement. Before I signed on with Care One, my bills were an annoyance, but at least my credit was intact. Now it will probably take years to straighten out this mess.