Complaint Review: American Debt Counseling

I have been a client of American Debt Counseling for over three years. Initially, they were consistently late for 3 payments to a single creditor, which to this day shows on my credit report as a negative impact. In May, 2013 they did not disperse $440 to a creditor, and then in July did the same for $295 to another creditor. When they wrote this summer to tell of the "switch" to Financial Help Services in Hollywood, FL, I immediately called them to let them know of the payments not received by the two creditors. They said "not to worry" the payments would eventually "catch up". They told me to ignore any further phone calls from these particular creditors. I then contacted Financial Help Services who told me that I would need to send a cashier's check to them directly to cover my monthly payment, as their system would not be able to debit my account for a few months. Bottom line, I don't trust Financial Help Services and have been sending my creditors payments on my own for the months of September and October. I was told that the credit card companies may "drop me" and go back to my original finance charge percentage once they see that I am paying directly rather than through a financial debt service. I'm willing to take my chances and will pay on my own. I will be calling the 2 credit card companies this week to see if I can work out a payment plan for the money owed. If anyone is willing to pursue legal action against American Debt Counseling, I have names of two people who worked there. Elaine Branford, CT