Debtwave Credit Counseling provides debt consolidation services? I don’t think so. They are a scam. 
Debtwave Credit Counseling is the biggest scam and ripoff you’ll find.
Debtwave Credit Counseling provides debt consolidation services? I don’t think so. They are a scam.
Debtwave Credit Counseling is the biggest scam and ripoff you’ll find.
You are absolutely right! Unfortunately my mother only found out too late. Thanks for the post on outing this rag tag organization.
I don’t know about “Debtwave Credit Counseling”, but from experience I can tell you some of them are absolutely no help at all. Before my husband and I had to declare bankruptcy, we went to a Credit Counseling firm in the town where we live. It was a joke, they did nothing at all. They were unable to be of assistance unless you owed a bunch of credit cards. If you owed other type of creditors and 1 or 2 credit cards, forget it.
It pays you to becareful when you contact any type of service. I’ve heard of there being many bad businesses listed and people being duped. It may come down to the internet haveing sometype of site that list bad businesses.
I just set up business with this company. I can always cancel. I would like to know what were some exact problems with them
Gwen… did u hear anything about them? I am speaking with them now.
I think they are a great company!!! to be honest, im of shocked to of seen this info… they lowered all of my interest rates and all i do is make one monthly payment. what more can you ask for? being a scam….im shocked about that…i dont get it…
I signed up with them in Aug 08. It took them over a month to get letters out to my creditors. Then once they did they worked with my creditors to get a monthly payment my creditors were happy with, not what I was originally told. After 2 months I was informed my monthly payment of $457 was not enough to cover all my creditors and that some of them refused to work with Debtwave. But like a fool I kept it going paying debtwave now $259 to cover the creditors still on the program. After 2 more months I received a call from one of the creditors on the program saying that I was 3 months behind and when were they going to receive payment. I contacted Debtwave and they told me they were paid but would not give me any documentation proving so. I canceled them at the end of Nov 08. Now I am still not done, the cancellation headache has been going on this whole time and it is the end of Jan 09. The lost my cancellation agreement, and they are reporting to the credit bureau that I am late on my payments even though I canceled them in Nov 08. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!
I just signed up with this company today and I am so
worried. Please give me some more feedback.
Thanks
i’ve been with this company for almost a year now.I havn’t had any problems so far.what are the “details” of the problems?I don’t understand.A scam how? Someone plz fill me in.I get statements every month showing how much money they recieved to my creditors.
You should always check the BBB rating of a dedt relief company before you hire them…. Great Blog!
Thank you for this valuable post. Being in the Credit Card industry myself, I always try to keep up with cutting edge info. Your blog is deffinately worth Bookmarking. Cheers!
I just signed up with this company. I’m worried, how do I cancel?
I just got pawned off to this company from Costal Credit Solutions.
Apparently Debtwave and Costal Credit Solutions swap their clients back and forth. They explain the terms over the phone before sending you off to the other company. This is only to distract and confuse the consumer. The consumer receives a bucket of dis-information. This is to hide the fact that they are not really non-profit. Whatever your monthly payment is they will charge you that amount for your first month. Your creditors will receive nothing. In addition, Debtwave will charge you a monthly fee of over 50 dollars.
So if your monthly payment is going to be 500 dollars, they get 500 bucks themselves for the first month in addition to the 50 dollars monthly fee. So if your monthly payment is 50 bucks or 1000 bucks, Debtwave keeps that payment for “drafting a proposal” to your creditors. Your first month theft from them is “non-refundable”.
Basically, Coastal Credit Solutions and Debtwave are owned by The Johnson Law Group. These two entities swap the consumers back and forth each claiming they don’t handle the accounts directly before pawning you off. Each appears that it is simply the finder not the provider. But what is really going on is a shell game by The Johnson Law Group. This is NOT non-profit. They are making tons of money.
If you already have an agreement with them, you will not get any money back. They keep it all. And they will threaten you if you attempt to withdraw from the program.
I am expecting a call from a Representative from Coastal Credit Solutions in about 1 1/2 hours. I thought I would check this company out before doing business with them. I checked with the San Diego BBB and they have an A+ rating and only 3 complaints in the last 36 months. They all were closed as “Resolved”. Either the “Scammed” people are not reporting it to the BBB or this Blog has them all. Since blogs are a “watering hole” for most honest people, I think I will pass on doing business with Coastal Credit Solutions or Debtwave. Thanks for the heads-up. I wish every one would do their homework.
I signed up with debt wave last month and the first payment is to come out this month, should I be worried the letters have already went out to my creditors
I signed up with DW in AUG 08. The letters to creditors are initiated by the client with a template provided by DW. The BBB has a A+ rating for this company, from a scale of A+ – F. I was fully informed before signing up and read all of the documnents carefully. They told me on my first call that they might not be able to work with my Credit Union. They ultimately made that work too.
According to the FTC, a legitimate credit counseling agency should not charge more than $50/month as their fee for a debt repayment plan. It is considered a red flag if they charge more. A $500 “set up” fee, or absorbing the first month’s payment as their start-up fee is absurd! Look elsewhere for real credit counseling. Go to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and search by state to find a member agency. Their website is nfcc.org.
I used this company for about 4 years and never had a problem with them. Customer service was always very helpful and they got my creditors to lower all my interest rates and I was out of debt in no time. I would recommend this company to anyone.
*VERY IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT DEBTWAVE, PLEASE READ*
I wish I had learned the truth about this company before losing over $1200. Keep in mind that if ANY debt consolidation company asks for a huge sum of money up front, then it is almost surely a scam. Debtwave is no exception. Here is the breakdown:
-They claim they are backed by lawyers, and that their lawyers can negotiate your rates and payments down to one convenient monthly payment.
-They claim that your first month’s payment (which will be the equivalent of your new consolidated payment) pays for lawyers’ fees, processing fees, etc.
-From the second month onward, your payments will now go to your creditors, PLUS an additional processing fee of $59 which is added by Debtwave.
Here is the ugly truth:
There is nothing that Debtwave does that you can not do on your own for FREE. That is correct, I said FOR FREE! If you are already a client of Debtwave, here is what to do:
Step 1) For those who are already clients (victims) of Debtwave, I advise you to call all your creditors you have consolidated through Debtwave, and ask them if you need to use Debtwave in order to keep your present rates. You will be surprised at the answer, and you may get a little upset. They will say “no”, and you will find out that you can continue paying your new lower rates personally, WITHOUT going through Debtwave. Guess what? You have been paying that monthly processing fee for nothing! =( I know, it sucks. Time to stop that automatic debit ASAP!!!
Step 2) Ask your creditors if you needed lawyers or debt consolidation companies to “negotiate” your new rates. Once again, the answer will upset you. There is NO negotiation required, because there is an industry standard rate for those suffering financial hardship. This is not common knowledge, but it is the truth and can all be verified with a quick call to your creditors. First, your creditor will tell you that if the debt consolidation company told you that they used lawyers to negotiate your rates, then they outright lied to you. Second, they will say you could have gotten these rates on your own by calling your creditor’s hardship department, explaining in detail your financial situation to them. And that’s it. Believe it or not, these companies do NOT want to lose money or risk their clients filing bankruptcy if they can prevent it, so they will be more than willing to work with you – ESPECIALLY IN THESE ECONOMIC TIMES. =(
Step 3) Here is where you ponder where your first month’s payment went. Debtwave claims they are non-profit. But by now you are realizing the lawyer’s fees are fake, lawyers did NOT negotiate your rates, you could have done all of this on your own with the exact same results FOR FREE, so in turn you just got scammed. Happy day! =( Welcome to the club. But all is not lost. Keep reading.
Step 4) Contact the Better Business Bureau of San Diego, CA and file a formal complaint. It is quick and easy. Here is where you go:
http://sandiego.bbb.org/consumers
Click on “Check Out a Business or Charity” and then search for “Debtwave”.
Once you find their page, you will have the option to “file a complaint” near the top of the page.
And here is where you take it away on your own. I strongly advise that you contact all your creditors and get as much information as possible. The more information you have, the harder it will be for Debtwave to come back with any credible argument. And yes, they will try to squirm out of this and discredit anything you say. I have already had experience with this, and I found out they will even resort to lying to try and disprove your claim.
A few tips:
-Make sure you know exactly who it was you first initially talked to over the phone when setting up your program with Debtwave. They may try to say you did NOT call Debtwave, but instead called an affiliate of JLG (Johnson Law Group – the law firm who owns both Debtwave and Coastal Credit solutions).
-Have all the e-mails ever sent to you from reps of Debtwave, and even Coastal Credit Solutions. It seems they are notorious for having reps from both companies working on the same debt programs. Pay close attention to the domains in your reps e-mails, as well as any signatures showing who they work for. You can easily forward these e-mails to the BBB for their viewing.
-Try to keep track of all dates of all conversations you may have had over the phone with their reps. Try to remember any details of any conversations you may have had, and any information the rep may have told you over the phone. Remember, the more information you have, the better.
-Have copies of all paperwork, agreements and contracts you have for the debt consolidation program you signed up for. They should all still be in your e-mail inbox somewhere if you did not trash them. Let’s hope that you didn’t. The BBB will ask for any and all paperwork to prove your agreement, as well as any and all information you may have. The more prepared you are, the better your case.
-Decide on the outcome you would like to have in order to resolve this case. I’d assume getting back that first month’s payment would be a good start. It was mine. Remember, this company solicits services under false pretenses and misleading information. No negotiations are required, no lawyers are used, and they do not disclose exactly where your first month’s payment goes. They also state that if you do no use this program or opt out of it, you will lose your current rates. Trust me, once you start looking, you will start uncovering plenty of lies to shine a spotlight on.
It was just stated on the news recently that the FTC is about to do a huge crackdown on these type business due to their abundant complaints being received. First I’d suggest going through the BBB. The FTC would be your next step if Debtwave does not show any interest in resolving your case.
Good luck!
I have been on the program for 4years and have one more year to go to being debt free.I will have paid off close to $60,000. In all cases all creditors lowered the interest rare in half on my major debts they lowered it to zero.I receive a statement every month by e-mail and I log on to their website and review my account myself. I log on to all my creditors and make sure my account has been credited with the payment and I also receive a paper statement from all my creditors. I continue to have good credit because all payments are paid on time. I have learn my lesson and no longer use credit to live. i pay cash.
If you have been scammed by debt wave I don’t know how. for me it was all straight forward.
I maybe the only satisfied customer.