DO NOT fall for this FOR PROFIT "debt consolidation" company! I almost did but thankful I didn't!
So I am no stranger to debt consolidation fortunately and unfortunately. I have done debt consolidation with NON-profit debt consolidation companies with much success. There were some red flags for sure with Accredited Debt Relief that I seemed to ignore at first when I initially signed up for their debt relief program. This is how the program works:
They go over everything with your finances of what you owe, own and what your income in. Seems pretty standard there, sure. But it gets interesting, as you decided to go with their low bi-monthly payment and see some numbers of what they could "save you" which looked like fudged numbers to me when I think back to what I was presented with. They give you a set of instructions of what to do when you're starting out with the program. They tell you to STOP making payments to all of your creditors ASAP, yes to STOP paying creditors to purposely put your accounts in the past due status and into collections. The reasoning behind this they said is so that they can say, "Hey, this client cannot pay you anymore" and prove it by stopping all payments all together. In that period of time which is what they said would be anywhere from 3-6 months of non-payment we'd be paying into an account bi-monthly building money for Accredited Debt Relief to have an amount to negotiate with their alleged "good relationship" with creditors. What they do not tell you is that they won't be making any payments on your behalf for 2-3 YEARS! Yes, YEARS not months!
The rep went over each page on the DocuSign with me and there was one page stating that legal action could be taken against me during the non-payment period from the creditors. I would be at risk for being sued, served legal documents and a lot of harassing phone calls for my delinquent accounts. The rep nonchalantly, "Oh, this RARELY happens and if it does, we have a whole legal team and will be there for you." Red flag. I didn't feel too good about this at all. I had a sinking pit feeling in my stomach that told me that this was NOT a good idea. He also told me that if I wanted out of the program at anytime that I have that right. He further explained that my credit score would suffer initially during the non-payment phase but assured me that I'd come out on the other side of it with a better credit score. I also got HORRIBLE advice to put all of my 0% promotional no interest credit cards on the program.
All of that couldn't be more further from the truth. I woke up the next day still feeling uneasy about signing up with Accredited Debt Relief. I happened to go to the dentist that day and struck up a conversation with the dental assistant about my debt consolidation plan. She pulled me aside and told me to not do it because she got caught in that huge mess and her credit score never recovered. She endured servers serving her legal papers at her work, harassing phone calls and was living a very stressful life because of the non-payment route that National Debt Relief (another for profit company) persuaded her to do. I told her that I did a consolidation program with a NON-profit debt consolidation company prior and had a good experience. She really stressed for me to call them up again if I worked with them prior instead of Accredited Debt Relief. I quickly called American Consumer Credit Counseling that is a NON-profit organization and has been around since 1991.
The consultant at American Consumer Credit Counseling said to me, "I get clients calling me all the time that are facing scary legal action against them from using these kinds of debt consolidation companies because they were told to not pay their creditors. We do not encourage our clients to do that. We want our clients to preserve their credit scores instead of hurting it further by deliberately going into collections and the past due status. We highly recommend that you keep making payments until we can step in and take over the payments so that your accounts are ALWAYS in good standing." I ended up going with them and they are more of a legit company.
SAVE yourself and DO NOT go with this for profit company. I highly DO NOT recommend them for debt consolidation. You'll be glad you didn't, like me. read more