Why Debt Counseling Does Not Work

In the 80's it was pyramid schemes. "Send $100 to five people on list one and send $50 to ten people on list two and drop one person from each list and after 30 days you will have a million dollars." When people wised up to the scam, then came multi-level marketing.

"Recruit 10 people in your down-line and have each of them pay $40 for a marketing kit. You get 30% of their sales. If those ten people recruit 10 more people, you get 10% on their sales. Continue this for 5 more levels and then you will become a regional director and be making $100,000 per month". When people wised up to the scam, then came envelope stuffing.

"Business opportunity. Make $10,000 a month part-time stuffing envelopes. Send us $5 for the how-to kit" When people wised up to this scam, then it became debt consolidation."

Debt counseling says:

"Turn over large chunks of your pay check to us and we will reduce your payments and free you from the hassle of paying your bills. Trust us. Don't ask us how we get paid because we are a non-profit organization."

"Concentrate on the moving target. Concentrate on the great hope of better credit down the line. Concentrate on your fear of bankruptcy. Concentrate on your guilt for running up your credit cards. Don't worry about what we do with the money you blindly send us. Don't worry about our hidden fees or about if we pay ourselves first."

"Don't worry about when or if we ever pay your creditors. It is no longer your problem. Instead, concentrate on saving your credit. Concentrate on avoiding bankruptcy. Don't ask for a guarantee of any kind. We do not guarantee to reduce your monthly payments. We only say we will. We do not guarantee to pay your creditors on time. We want you to assume we will. And most important of all, we do not guarantee to protect your credit. Just trust us because we are non-profit. "

The debt consolidation business has become the scheme of choice for many get-rich-quick operators. It seems like everyday, there are a dozen or more new operators. It is like the gold rush of the West and the gold they are rushing for is your money.

They Claim to be Non-Profit But...
They Will Make From $2000 to $7000 Per Customer -- And That is You.

Debt counseling companies get paid many different ways. They get paid by you in hidden fees and charges which they do not disclose on their web sites. "Just fill out the form and get a free quote," they urge you. Often times, you are lead to believe that the only fee they will get is from the credit card companies. Here is how the scam works...

Let's say the the credit card companies want a combined $600 per month instead of the $1,200 that you are currently paying, you have no way to know that. This is because that information is sent directly to the debt consolidation company and not to you.

The consolidation company can turn around and quote you a payment of $800 and you will not know the difference. This is because they all insist that you sign over to them power of attorney to handle your bills.

They Will Demand That You Give Them Power of Attorney But...
They Will Not Tell You so Upfront on Their Web Sites Until You are Hooked.

Almost all credit counseling companies demand that you sign over to them power of attorney. They will not say so on their web sites but after they have hooked you into becoming their customer, they will have you sign a power of attorney form.

When you give them power of attorney, you have given them a license to rob you.

After signing over to them power of attorney, you have basically said to them, "Treat me as if I were mentally incompetent and handle my finances as you see fit." You wouldn't give your best friend power of attorney, yet at the drop of a hat, you will give it to the new non-profit consolidation masters, many of whom are in it only to line their pockets with your money.

Because of the power of attorney, the credit card companies will deal only with them and whatever lowering of payments that the credit card companies give, it is given only to them. If the lower interest has reduced your payments to a combined $600 per month, many of the credit counselors will tell you that it is $800 instead. This way, each month these non-profit organizations pocket $200 in addition to the 15% that the credit card companies pay them.

Do the math. $200 + $90 (15% of $600) = $290 per month. If you stay with the program of 24 months, that is a whopping $6,960 that you would have paid to the debt consolidation company alone. Now, it is all legal and you cannot accuse them of stealing because it is all in the fine print that you agreed to.

Their Fine Print will Ruin You.
If You Thought You Were in Financial Trouble, You Have Seen Nothing Yet

Have you ever seen a link on any debt counseling web site for their agreement? You will see links for their privacy statements but you will never see a link for their agreement. That is because, like insurance policies, their agreements are written to be understood only by attorneys and you only see after you have said yes to them.

Here is an example...

"You agree to pay a transaction remittance fee of only 1.12% of the balance per month."

What does this clause in one of their agreements mean? 1.12% seems very small right? Wrong! let us do the math. If your total credit card balance is $20,000, then 1.12% of that is 0.012 X $20,000 = $240.

1.12% may seem small until you realize that they are asking you to agree to pay them $240 per month. If the credit card companies agreed to a new low payment of $600, then $240 of that amount is taken off the top by your credit counselor before passing the balance to the credit card companies.

They Will Pay Themselves First, No Matter What, But...
They Will Not Say so on Their Web Sites Until You Have Been Hooked.

The example above was taken from a contract of one of the big credit counseling companies that advertises aggressively on television. A debtor had enrolled with them not realizing that they were taking $240 off the top of her payments on top of the $90 per month that the credit card companies were going to pay them. In fact, that was not the bad news.

The bad news was that they took the first six months of their fee before starting to send payments to the credit card companies. The debtor became aware of this only after she got a copy of her credit report and was horrified to see how much worse it had gotten. Here is how it works...

They know that credit counseling does not work and that most people will drop out before it is over, so, to guarantee their "non-profit" cash flow,

they devise a scheme to collect a big chunk of their fee upfront. Many of them put in their agreements, small print that says in complicated legal jargon, that they can pay themselves first. The result is that many debt counseling companies will not pay the credit card companies for 4 to 7 months until they have gotten $2,000 to $3,000 of their own fees first.

This guarantees them that even if all their customers drop out and file for bankruptcy, they will have made at least $2000 on each customer.

Debt Consolidation Will Ruin Your Credit,
But They Lead You into Thinking That it Will Improve.

Why will anyone consider debt consolidation? Good credit, of course. Yet, the opposite is what will actually happen.

Credit card companies do not
re-negotiate their agreement

just because you are in a debt counseling program! Only bankruptcy can force their hand. If your interest rate is 25%, that will not change. They will temporarily change their collection rate, but not the actual interest rate. It is the changing of their collection rate that lowers your payments. With some of them, if you complete the 3 or 4 year program, they will consider the debt settled at the collection rate.

On the other hand, if you miss payments or cannot complete the program, you are back where you started -- only this time much worse.

Because the real interest rate has not changed, you are delinquent the whole time you are under the consolidation program.

In other words, debt counseling companies are nothing more than collection companies. Having a creditor hire a collection company to go after you does not improve your credit. It makes it worse.

Not all credit counseling companies are bad. In fact there are many good and honest companies. The trouble is finding them. Years ago, one could say that for every bad debt counseling company, there were five good ones. Now, with everybody and their grandma entering the business, the opposite seems to true.

Finding a good debt consolidation company is like playing Russian roulette with your financial future.

There are so many bad ones and there is really no way to tell the good debt consolidation companies from the bad ones.

• You cannot go by how professional their web sites look. Some of these guys make millions of dollars a year and can afford the most flashy web site.
   
• You cannot go by their record at the Better Business Bureau because many of the bad ones keep changing their names every few months. They often sell under dozens of affiliates and so you can never link them to their history.
   
• You cannot go by their size. Some of the worst offenders are the biggest debt counseling companies in the country.
  
  Case in point: One of the biggest debt counseling companies in the country was forced into refunding millions of dollars to the public and a year or two after that settlement, they are reported to have quadrupled their operation. Go figure.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is Better
Than Debt Consolidation

Not only is Chapter 7 bankruptcy better for your credit than debt consolidation, it is better than Chapter 13 bankruptcy where you pay back the debt over time. Here is the comparison.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

1. If you already have bad credit, bankruptcy tells future lenders that you are debt free and can afford to pay back a new loan. Often times, right after filing bankruptcy, car finance companies flood you with auto finance offers.
    
2. If you have good credit before filing, the damage to your credit is done just once. You can start reestablishing credit immediately, instead of waiting several years for your consolidation payments to end.
    
3. Throughout the United States, you can finance the purchase of a house just 2 short years after filing bankruptcy. In fact, it is written in the FHA, Fannie Mae and other home loan underwriting guidelines. Don't take our word for it. Pick up the phone and call any mortgage broker and ask them. Under a consolidation program, you would have to wait up to 5, 7 or even 10 years.
    
4. With bankruptcy, once you turn in the bankruptcy documents to the court clerk, your obligation to make payments ends right there and then! This means that if you use our bankruptcy platform today, you can file today and be free from making any more payment today.
    
5. Bankruptcy works on virtually all debts, so when it is done it is done. You decide which debts you want to pay after bankruptcy and which ones you want to wipe out, for example, your mortgage or car loan.
    
6. If you are thinking of purchasing a new car or house, would you be better able to save up the down payment when you have zero debts or when you still owe $20,000 to $40,000 and are paying under a consolidation program?

Debt Consolidation

1. Debt Consolidation is treated like Chapter 13 bankruptcy and lenders shy away from you because they know the real scoop, which is that you still owe all that money and cannot take on new debt.
    
2. With debt consolidation, if you have good credit, your credit goes from good to very bad.
    
3. If you have bad credit, your credit gets even worse. In fact, very very bad.
    
4. FHA, Fannie Mae and all the home loan programs insist that you wait two years after you have paid off all your debts under the consolidation program.
    
5. Think about it. If you start a debt consolidation program, no one will loan you a dime for a house or car until years after you have paid off all your debts and that could be 5, 7, 10 years or more.
    
6. With debt consolidation, the pain does not go away. You still go to sleep with knots in your stomach and you wake up wishing you were still sleeping. You still owe the same amount to the credit card companies and on all of your other debts.
    
7. Debt consolidation cannot help you with past judgment, deficiencies, lawsuits or with any other type of debt. Debt counseling only works for credit debt. Bankruptcy works on just about everything.
    
8. If your car was repossessed or your house was foreclosed and you owe the bank or if your owe your landlord back rent, debt consolidation will not help you. Bankruptcy will wipe it off instantly.
    
9. If you owe lawyer fees or were in an accident and owe the insurance company, debt consolidation will not help. Bankruptcy will wipe that out too.
    
10. If you owe on a personal loan, or if there is a judgment against you, debt counseling will not help you. The debt consolidation companies will not even look at those debts. They just want to concentrate on credit card debts because they are essentially collection agencies for the major credit card companies.

Ask Them to Guarantee Your Credit
And They Will Laugh at You.

Anyone who has watched action movies knows that when the bad guy is holding a hostage and asks the good guy to drop his gun, the bad guy has no intention of letting them go. He can promise to let the hostage go or even to turn himself in, but we all know what happens. The good guy gets shot every single time.

If laying down the gun sounds stupid to you, that is exactly what you do when you agree to give up your right to file bankruptcy in exchange for the mere hope that the debt consolidation guys and the credit card companies will reward you with good credit.

They will try to scare you with the usual, "bankruptcy on your record for 10 years" routine. They will imply that your credit will get better but they will not put it in writing. They will tell you that your debts have been re-indexed, whatever that means, but they will not enter a new contract or bind themselves legally. Like the parents of a toddler, they ask for your blind faith.

Seriously. Call them up and ask them to give you a written guarantee that your credit will not be trashed after you enter the debt consolidation program and see what they say.

Do Not Press This Button
Do not press this button if you have made up your mind to try debt consolidation, because, what you will find will disturb you. Everyone else can press this button for an eye opener.	Pressing this button will take you out of this site. We do not endorse, recommend or disapprove any product, web site or company. In particular, we do not imply that the companies cited in the external site have done anything wrong. We are merely passing a pointer to material users might find useful.

Do you Know Where Your Consolidation
Payments are Going?

Unless you are looking for it, you will not know that there are lots of reports in the news and in government publications detailing the abuses that debtors face at the hands of many debt consolidation companies. It reads like a horror story. Except for a few states, the credit counseling industry is unregulated and rife with consumer exploitation. As a result, the industry is full of unethical practices.

Many debt counseling companies...

• Do not send your payment in to the credit card companies and when they do, it is very late.
   
• They deposit your payment in interest bearing accounts and pocket the interest while your creditors wait and wait.
   
• They often keep the first $1000 to $3000 of your payments for themselves before they start to pay the credit card companies. Meanwhile, the credit card companies are trashing your credit because they got nothing.
   
• They charge all sorts of hidden fees in addition to their commission. They may say it is free, but watch out. Free could mean as much as $3,000 in hidden charges.
   
• Do not let their non-profit status fool you. Many of them run other commercial companies on the side that enable them to profit very handsomely from your misery. What good is their non-profit status if they take you to the cleaners?
   

To make matters worse, many of them keep changing their name as they ruin one name after the other with their greed. So, the bottom-line is that you never know which one of them is on the up and up. 

If you read that 1st-XYZ Debt Counseling Company is in trouble with the authorities, and decide to use ABCEFG Debt Consolidation Company which has a clean name, they could quite possibly be the same people. The only thing that has changed is their name. In fact, the company that comes up when you press the "Do Not Press This Button" link have operated under several different names and are still one of the big players in the industry.

Even Many of The Biggest Names
in The Counseling Business Cannot Be Trusted

Do not think for a moment that we are just talking about the little guys. On the contrary, the smallest debt counseling outfits in your neighborhood are probably the best. Some of the biggest debt counseling companies in America are among the most to be watched.

The biggest credit counseling company in the country which runs ads on TV day and night recently had to refund up to $2 million and pay the government thousands in fines for abusing consumer trust. This has been covered in the major press but with the many names they possibly go under and the numerous affiliates that recruit customers for them under other names, you will never know for sure that it is them.

We cannot name them directly, but we can give you a link to government and outside sources who will identify them.

USA Today - Debt Counseling News

Report on One of The Biggest Counseling Companies

Report on Another Big Consolidation Company

One of The Biggest Debt Counseling - Government action to protect the public

Another One of The Big Outfits (You have seen their ad) - Special External Report
 

If you are considering debt negotiation or credit counseling, you are taking a huge risk. With bankruptcy, all you risk is the one time fee that your lawyer or bankruptcy preparer will charge you, but with credit counseling, you are turning over all your finances for the next 2 to 5 years to somebody you do not know or trust. So much has been written in the press regarding predators in the credit counseling industry, but chances are that until now, you had no idea.

Well, let us fix that right now. Here are several external links to more information on the matter. These links and the text around them are taken from the articles unedited.

Debt consolidators can add to the problem
Some services can lead consumers into even deeper financial woes, experts warn
By Karen Alexander
NEW YORK TIMES

How To Tell If Credit Counseling Service Is Legit
By Robert K. Heady
Bank Rate Monitor

Does Credit Counseling Hurt Your Credit?
By Robert K. Heady
Bank Rate Monitor

Debt Consolidation: Beware Big Fees and Big Promises
What’s a nonprofit credit-counseling agency? And can you trust them?
By Jennifer Barrett
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

Massachusetts study shows fraud
among credit counseling firms
More than 75 percent of the credit counseling services operating in Massachusetts are doing so illegally, according to a report from a Senate committee scheduled to be released today.
By Office of Sen. Cheryl Jacques (D-Needham),
Chairwoman of the Senate Post Audit Committee.

Man charged with stealing thousands in credit counseling scam
Suspect instructed people in how to cancel credit cards, allegedly used their account information to steal up to $150,000
Reported by: Doug Aronson

What About Debt Negotiation?
Is it Any Different?

With the competition for credit counseling customers heating up, a number of credit counselors have come up with a new ploy to set themselves apart from the pack. They do this by calling themselves, Debt Negotiators, not credit counselors.

They point out that while credit counselors work for the credit card companies and get paid a commission, they work for you instead, by actually negotiating down the actual debt you owe, not just the interest rate. In fact, these guys are some of the strongest critics of the credit counseling industry.

The bottom line is that debt negotiation is mostly in theory, not the reality they claim. As we said earlier, credit card companies have set up the whole consolidation business on a formula, pure and simple. The credit card companies stick to their formula strictly because it works. If they say that they will reduce the interest rate from 20% to %9, that is all they will do and no amount of negotiating will change that.

The same applies to just about all of the other types of creditors such as car loans and mortgages. These guys do not even lower the interest rate. If you cannot pay them, they repossess your car or foreclose on your house.  Here is what one of them had to say about this..

"One big myth, says Gormley, is how most credit counseling agencies work with creditors. "Consumers think we negotiate everything. Not true. Virtually all the major creditors have pre-existing terms and conditions that apply to all of the agency's clients. Typically, between 1 and 4 percent of total amount owed becomes the monthly payment. So if a consumer owes $10,000 in bills, his monthly payment is between $100 and $400."
However, the terms can vary by creditor. Reportedly, Bank of America sometimes will reduce a credit card interest rate to zero while Sears won't budge on its original rate. Citibank and Chase Manhattan also were said to be among the most lenient to deal with. And MBNA, the credit card giant, now wants to see consumer's entire financial profile before it arbitrarily decides on a payback arrangement."
By John C. Gormley III
Consumer Credit Management Services in Delray Beach, FL
http://www.thebullandbear.com/articles/2001/0601-heady3.html