CreditAssociates Reviews

When I first talked to them, I was reassured to trust their process, but by the third month, I expected them to be in gear. There’s an account I can access, but they only use it to pay creditors. They said they’d pull from that account based on what I have for settlements. I had planned to put in larger amounts for settlements, but I haven’t been able to do that yet. They told me that if I wanted to add more funds, they could settle a card, but I had already given them around 420 or 410 and was questioning how much more they expected. They said another 400 would be good. If I had that kind of money, I wouldn’t have contacted them in the first place. I would have just called each card myself and offered to pay a portion right away, since it usually works in a few payments. For balances around 2,000 to 3,000, that would have been easy.

Meanwhile, I’m getting emails saying my creditors are going to go to court and that other things are going to happen. It made me question what I’m even paying CreditAssociates for. I got duped in a lot of ways, and in my opinion, they’re shady. They also increased the amount owed by adding late fees and interest. For example, one card that was around 2,600 got pushed up to about 5,000. They did that across all 11 cards and said I owed 33,000, which didn’t make sense. When I break it down, the actual amount is about half of that. Most cards would settle and drop those added amounts just to get cash now and close it out. I thought this would be the way to go, but it hasn’t been.

The people at CreditAssociates said that’s just how they do it and if I deposit more money, then they can settle more accounts. They told me to forward any emails I get, and I did. The phone calls stopped, but the emails kept coming. So I started wondering what they were going to do if it turned into something legal. In my eyes as a consumer, if I hire somebody to do something for me, that’s their job, and that’s what I’m paying them for. They’ve only settled one card in four months, and I have 11 total. If I had a way to get out from under them, I would in a heartbeat.

I just finished paying for a shoulder surgery I had in January, which wasn’t cheap. As a welder, my insurance isn’t great, and I kept working through the injury for months until I couldn’t anymore. The surgery cost about 12,000, and my copay alone was 5,000. At the time, I was making six figures, so my premiums were around 120 a month, but now that I’m on disability, my situation has changed. The way that Credit Associates’ program was pitched to me and how it worked doesn’t exist on the planet. I should have just handled it myself. When I talked to them, it felt like I was dealing with the best car salesman ever. I'm not too impressed with Credit Associates. I could have done a way better job by myself.

She went over things with me in detail over and over again. And when I said I still wanted to think about it, she wasn't pushy. She just said, "Just give me a call." I said, "I'll give you a call by Tuesday." That was Thursday or Friday. She said, "Okay." She wasn't overpersuasive. The only thing she told me was I pay more with them because I pay my percentage of the interest. It's all complicated to me, so I don't understand. But she took her time explaining it to me, and I never felt like I was pressured. Like some places, the companies do certain things that make you feel, "Why aren't you signing up for me today?" "Can I call you back later today until tomorrow?" There was nothing like that. It was the opposite. I got the impression they were legit and professional and there to help you.

When they’re giving the welcome calls and other communications, they need to get some people who speak English. When they're talking, you can't even understand what they're saying. They're speaking in a foreign language. I also felt uncomfortable after looking into the company and not seeing them listed where I expected. They don't even work with the bank that I use. I had already given them a lot of my personal information, and with all the hacking going on, that made me uncomfortable. I didn't have regular contact and information until I called. And then, all of a sudden, all this information started coming in. They weren't keeping me informed and didn't give me information on who the negotiator is.

We should have been doing that since we started in December, so I don’t understand what the holdup is. When I did this before, they gathered the numbers, worked with the bank, and quickly presented a payment plan. It shouldn't take six months to come up with a plan to consolidate somebody's credit card. So I plan to find out if I need to just cancel out and do it myself to save my money. The people were nice, but I wouldn’t recommend the service.

Then I was referred to a guy who asked me to download an app. I don't understand the app but I usually check it. So I'm planning to call them about that because I'm not seeing any changes. Other than that, the sum of everything I paid for the three credits is pretty reasonable. Also, with the way they spoke with me, I could recommend people to them. But I haven't seen the results of what I was trying to do.