Complain about a product or service

Consumer Credit Counseling Service

Sonya of Meldrim GA writes (10/24/01):
I have been underneath Consumer Credit Counseling Service since February, 2001. In June, 2001, I began receiving phone calls from some of my creditors stating that they are either not receiving payments, not receiving payments on time or either not receiving the payment that was agreed upon when the proposal from Consumer Credit was sent to them.

Some of the creditors even stated that they had not received any proposals at all or some not until August 1, 2001. I was under the impression that all my creditors were being taken care of since February, 2001. I had no idea until I started receiving phone calls from the creditors that I had a problem.

I immediately contacted my counselor, Joselyn, to inform her that there was a problem. She advised me to send in copies of my bills to try and clear the matter up with the creditors. She stated that she needed to see the bills so that she would be able to determine a solution and that she would contact each creditor to try and rectify any problem or misunderstanding that may be.

On June 29, 2001, I sent my bills, certified mail, to Joselyn Hansbarger. I called several times to inquire about where we stood on all this and was told she was working on it. She did inform me of some of the creditors she had spoke with. She told me Capital One, of which I have 3 acoounts underneath, was taken care of. Capital One had accepted proposals and that it would take 3 months to get late fees, and interest adjusted. She said that most creditors require 3 consecutive payments before the creditor will bring the account current. She also informed me she had been working with Fingerhut who she also said was fine.

In August, a credtor dropped me from the plan but could give me no answer as to why. At the time I contacted the creditor I was told that a new proposal was sent on Sept. 27, 2001 for $15.00 from Consumer Credit but on Oct. 9, 2001 Consumer Credit only sent a payment of $10.00. This particular creditor agreed upon $15.00 but when only receiving $10.00 they were reluctant to trust that they would ever be receiving what was actually proposed.

I have other inquiries as to why one of my creditors received $66.00 for so many months then only received $44.00 one month. I was contacted by this creditor and asked why their payments were lowered when they agreed upon $66.00, not $44.00. I was asked on Sept. 21, 2001 by Joselyn Hansbarger to send FingerHut $82.00 before Sept. 26, 2001. On Sept. 26, 2001 my account would of been written off for bad debt and turned over to a collection agency.

I informed Joselyn that I did not have $82.00 to send to FingerHut because they should of already been paid out of the money taken out of my checking account on Sept. 17, 2001. She told me that what they were getting paid was never enough and that they needed more money. I did not feel I should have to increase my payemnt after being in the program for 7 months. That should have been taken care of in the beginning, in February, 2001. Joselyn said for me not to worry about getting the payment to Fingerhut and that she would take care of it.

Today, Oct. 24, 2001, I received a phone call at work from Joselyn requesting that I increase my total payment to Consumer Credit from $710.00 a month to $742.75 in order to get all my accounts back in line. She also informed me that I will need to wait another 3 months for my accounts to re-age and become current. I told Joselyn that I should not have to start over again. She once again requested that I fax copies of all my bills so that she can look at them and contact whichever creditor she needs to in order to get things strightened out.

Since my creditors have started contacting me concerning issues with Consumer Credit, I have noticed my balances increasing each month on some creditors. I do not understand why I am being asked to increase my payments and start over again. My goal under this program was to decrease my debt. My debt has increased while under the program.

Before entering into Consumer Credit, my credit report was good, now my credit report has as high as 4's on some of my creditors. I would like to know where to turn for help. I feel that my job is in jeopardy due to the fact that some employers pull credit reports from time to time. My credit is in poor condition at this time. I have been trying to purchase a home and was told by my realtor that I need to get things straight on my credit report before we can go any farther.

Steven of East Brunswick NJ writes (12/1/01):
I signed up for credit counseling, however, I realized that the ultimate rate of change on my interest to the creditors would have gone up. I have never been late on a payment and I had relatively low interest rates on many cards. I decided to withdraw my enrollment. I had made no payments to CCCS and was never late to any of my creditors.

Now my rates have skyrocketed, less money is going to principal on my payments and I am backed into a corner. The credit counseling agency advised me wrong and I feel I would have been better off if I never signed up for CCCS.

Gabriel of Miami Beach writes (11/27/01):
I signed up with this service to assist in a debt management program. I sent money to them monthly to pay creditors. The creditors were paid except for one (The Associates). This creditor began hounding me claiming to not have been paid for the past 8 months. I have contacted the counselor and apparently the counselor has no idea where the money I have been sending the CCCS service has gone. They cannot find canceled checks or trace the payments to the creditor.

Since this time, the account has been sold to Citi-Financial. I have filed a BBB complaint and have faxed documentation to the counseling service time and again. They still do not know what happened to the money I sent to them. They have indicated this is not their problem although I have paid them over $1000 and the statement CCCS keeps mailing says the account has been paid. The creditor is adding legal and late fees.

Citi-Financial has placed derogatory items in my credit report which is what I signed on to the program to avoid happening. They are threatening to sue me as a result. They call day and night and the counseling service refuses to offer me a refund so I can pay Citi-Financial directly or handle the situation themselves.

Brian of North Wales PA writes (3/20/01):
Consumer Credit Counseling Service is a company that is supposed to consilidate your bills, lower the finance charges, eliminate overlimit fees, and other fees, and quite frankly assist in reducing debt.

Unfortunately, this has yet to take place. The first phone call I placed to become a part of this program took place almost a year ago, I believe in April of 2000. Since then I've made approximately ten calls explaining a pleading to different representatives from the company that I had not received any notification of finance changes or dropped fees. Instead of my debts getting lower they were getting higher.

Within the past year I've had CCCS send statements to the wrong address and have had discussions with Rosemary where she insisted that everything was taken care of and I was on the program (which in fact I was not). I feel that the worst part of this was the unprofessional manner in which they treated me with on a variety of occassions. I was treated like a child and was verbally abused with sarcasm.

I have a a college degree, am a teacher, and pride myself in acting in a professional manner. To say that these phone conversations were ridiculous would be an understatement. My only hope is to have the program work as it was intended to and that my debt is decreased.

Jesse of Dallas (4/12/01):
I worked out a three year plan to consolidate my bills, so to pay without penalty from creditors. After about four years, I paid my last payment on February 1, 2001, (according to their records and my payment voucher). I was mailed a refund for overpaying my account, and then called two days later to inform me that I still owed over $2,000.00 in hidden interest on my last creditors account.

I called the branch operations manager to discuss this matter, and was told that the creditors had the right to charge me interest. I asked her why didn't they keep up with my account the way they had promised, but she had no answer. I was paying them $12.00 a month for their service and she told me that it was my responsibilty to keep my account updated. They only paid and deducted payments from the orginal form. I have not had any contact with them since then, but have been billed for the remainder of the account.

Florence of Miami (8/13/01):
In September of 1997 I went to consumer counseling as I was really getting in trouble with finances. After having fairly good credit for many years here in Miami, I was in financial difficulty.

After going through all problems, arthritis, respiratory illness and husband having two artificial knee replacements, I was told I had to come up with $736.00 more a month. As I have a limited income and illness there was no way I could do this.

I did not file for bankruptcy but did write all the credit cards personally. I am not trying to compensate for what happened to me but show how the elderly get into bad problems. I was taking out cash advances to pay the amount due. Several cards charged off the debt, I am still hearing from others. They keep calling. Other agencies take over to collect.

I am 73 years old with respiratory problems, (asthma, hyperactive airway and now a CVA). I just want to say I did try to correct the problem but stealing was not my way of living. Could not even get a loan on my home because I did not have enough income. So not much has changed. Do not expect you to correct my situation in any way. Just a comment to you about the changes in economy. Thank you for reading this. It helps to vent sometimes.

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