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Review 6/9/2010
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I was pitched a Debt Settlement Program through a random telemarketing call from Square One back in July 2009. In retrospect, I feel this transaction was a shady one, as there were many instances that I now realize I was mislead and asked to misrepresent the facts about myself.
#1 - During initial conversations with Square One I was asked to find a relative or friend with an address outside of my state that I could use their address as my residence, because my State's laws are stricter than others.
#2 - After many conversations with Square One I eventually signed on for debt settlement, but when I received the contract, it had another company's name on it - Financial 180 Group. There was no offer of explanation, I had to specifically ask about it to find out who this company was. Then Square One said that they use a different company to represent clients in my state. I have since discovered that Square One somehow does this through some other group called Financial Capital Consultants Corp Of America (FCCCA) (Affiliate to Square One Direct). I'm in the process of trying to figure this all out with BBB complaints, but from what I understand right now, my fees were split 90/10 between FCCCA and Financial 180. This was never made fully clear at any time while signing on - only since I have been trying to get some of my money back am I weeding through all the red tape.
#3 - In one email conversation with a Square One Direct rep named Brandon, I asked if I'd have my own personal attorney to work with if I had questions or concerns during the process. I was assured that I would. Later I found out that I never worked with attorneys - the debt settlement agents are not attorneys at all. If I wanted to work with an attorney, it would have cost me much more than the already high fees I was paying.
Though my interaction with Square One was short, as I then signed on with Financial 180 Group to execute the program, I feel that the debt settlement service I was pitched was intentionally skewed to make me feel that my results would be much better than they actually were. In fact, my overall debt settlement experience was terrible. I have also posted a review on the Financial 180 Group site and plan to do the same for FCCCA.
In the end, I paid about $5000 in fees for a debt settlement program completely not suited to a person in my financial situation. It was really only able to save me about $2000. Basically, I paid $3000 for nothing. Despite following the "debt settlement plan" I ended up getting sued by multiple creditors before any money could build up in the settlement accounts due to paying such high up-front fees. Obviously my situation was not a good one to benefit from debt settlement services, but when I was pitched the service, none of these risks were emphasized or really even mentioned.
I take full responsibility for my poor choice in going against my gut instincts and working with this company, but feel it is my duty to put a warning out there for others. In my experience, the creditors did not wait 1-3 years to settle debt. They saw I had a job and a paycheck to be garnished, and they started coming after me pretty quickly. By the time I realized this, I had paid many months of high up-front fees to the debt settlement company and had barely any money saved in the settlement account to use in negotiating a settlement. I had to cancel my settlement contract just so I could afford the payments to settle with the creditors. At that point in the game, I found out that the creditors gave me just as good, if not better, settlement deals as they would the settlement company - I just did not have to pay the extra debt settlement company fee.
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