Complaint Review: Family Credit Counseling Corp

In June 2005, I spoke with Jonathan ---- at FCCC who promised me that my monthly payment to FCCC would be lower than if I were to pay the minimum amount due directly to my creditors. He said that debt management companies such as FCCC were able to get lower interest rates from their clients' creditors, that they'd halt all late and over-limit fees, and that my debt of nearly $12K would be paid off within 4 years.

I'd been having no problems paying the minimum amount due before the due date to all my creditors on a monthly basis. The lowering of interest rates Mr. ----- and FCCC promised me is what sold me on the program. I was not then nor am I now considering filing for bankruptcy.

However, after enrolling in the program, one of my creditors informed me that, "debt management is a step away from bankruptcy, and it negatively affects your credit". If FCCC had been forthcoming with this information, I never would have enrolled in their program. I also made an up-front payment of about $345 for "attorney's fees" before I could be enrolled in the program.

I cancelled enrollment with FCCC in October 2005 after learning that they hadn't received acceptance letters from several of my creditors for payment proposals and had never bothered to resubmit the proposals, that a couple of my accounts' interest rates had not been lowered, and that I was being charged late and over-limit fees on some accounts because FCCC was making late payments.

Despite receiving my cancellation notice, FCCC debited my checking account for $390.00 for the next 2 months, and despite these debits, FCCC did not forward payment for November or December 2005 to any of my creditors. I filed "fradulent debit" claims with my bank, and fortunately, they reversed the charges.

At the end of November 2005, I received a call from one of my creditors informing me that they had received a letter from FCCC on stating that FCCC had cancelled my enrollment with them due to non-payment. I believe that because I was being a "troubkle-maker", FCCC was maliciously doing all it could to completely ruin my credit.

These people know exactly what they're doing. They are bottom-feeding scum who prey on the financially unstable, knowing that when they screw us, chances are we won't have the means to seek legal recourse against them. However, I filed complaints against them with the Better Business Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Affairs, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and also sent letters to all my creditors informing them of the problems I was having with FCCC along with copies of my cancellation notice to FCCC and all the complaints I'd filed.

With the exception of Capital One (they're bottom-feeding scum, too), all my creditors were willing to work with me, and I'm happy to say that despite FCCC's worst efforts, my credit is back on track again.

DO NOT LET FCCC GET YOU DOWN! Fight back! Report them to the same agencies I did! Leave your bad experience on sites like this to warn others of these leeches! Hopefully, one day we'll all be plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the scum at FCCC! =)

Therese
Flushing, New York
U.S.A.

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