Has anyone dealt with Christian Debt Consultants?

With your situation settlement may be a great option for you just understand all the risk. As far as CDC, I don't know much about them but numbers seem right on par w/ a 13% fee and they seem to have good accreditations. On a personal note I've never understood companies who use the Christian card and IMO have ethical issues with it. I understand people having faith, but can a "business" really be Christian? Probably a topic for another thread though.

I know it seems fishy playing the Christian card; however, if I am lucky the good rating and lack of complaints does show that they were a little more ethical in their customer service...still scary though.

The other thing I liked was that the fee was pretty easy to understand....straight 13%. No monthly maintenance fees, etc. But then again, why do they need a maintenance fee if they are taking out $458 per month for 24 months.....

Is this common in this industry? I mean to take almost 50% of my monthly payment for their fee?

It depends on your payment. Since the fees are set, your monthly program is based upon how much on top of the fees you can accumulate. It can be higher than 50% if you're not accumulating that much each month. Hope that made sense.

I've been considering CDC too. I'll run out of my savings within 3 months and wil have to do something soon. As of yet I have not heard on the net hide nor hair of anyone who has used them, I can't find any feedback from a customer anywhere. My situation is getting desperate but I don't want to fall into scam and make my situation even worse. TADAMS: have you started the prorgram yet? I've been talking to a "Benny" about it, and yes they have been patient and have not hounded me, I've been talking to them for about 3 months now and I am very hesitant. I did ask them about their customers and success getting them out of debt and they said they have helped many, but have only ben in business 3 years. Please someone if you have used them please post a review of them.

Hi tadams14,

Quote:

I agree on the chapter 13. With these debt settlement companies, there is no guarantee that the lenders wont sue you will you are saving up for the settlements. At least with chap 13 you know that wont hapen.

Have you tried calling your lenders for hardship programs?

458? a month? thats alot in my opinion. I believe my fees were 15.00 a month(account maintenence) then they got a % of what they saved me during a settlement. I would seriously rethink this that is alot of money to pay them for thier services. Im glad they were upfront and honest with you. That is very important, but i honestly would check around some more that is alot to pay for thier services and something that you could do yourself through settlement. Not saying that you should do it on your own your debt is very high, but I think you can do much better.

Actually I am going to try it myself with all the info I have found on this website.........$11K is way too much money.

That is a lot of money, I think you should reconsider this. In your case even I feel chapter 13 may be a better bet.

I went with them in 2007 they told me to stop paying on the Credit cards .. The Christian debt charged me 1,600 and did not contact the Credit card people so I asked for a refund I did not get one .. The total fee was to be about 3,000..
If you go with them set up a separate bank account as they will try and keep taking out the money long after you have quit them ... I closed the bank account I set up just for them as that was the only way they wanted to do business I have since found out that was a lie ...

Yes even I have a friend who has a bad experience with them. They go on charging your bank account, and the only my friend put an end to it was to close that bank account of his as well.

Thanks for the input. I am going to do it myself....glad to get some actual reviews.

Keep us in the loop of the steps you take and how it has made a difference. All the best!

Yes I am familiar with Christian Debt Consultants. What I have have found is that many people confuse them with Christian Debt Consolidation. I was blessed enough by the grace of God to complete their program in 22 months. I did have to settle some of my accounts before I expected to, however I did not mind considering I settled a Bank of America account for 16 cents on the dollar. What I can tell you is that I came to their program after leaving another. I too was leary about the Christian in the name but if you work with the people there you will see that it is not just "using the name of Christ," I can only speak of my experience but I can say that I am satisfied. I "gratuated" the program sooner than expected and in the end I go out for about 50% of what I started with. I worked with Rick and Irvin and have no complaints. God Bless you All!!!

I just read these after speaking with Christian Debt Consultants. Can anyone give an update? One person said they were very happy etc. Did we confirm that the negative press above ewas based on anthother company? Kevin
email removed per forum rules---mobile

Update!

I decided to do it myself and just about an hour ago received a fax from Bank of America settling my debt at 30%. I know I could have gone lower, but I have been saving and had the money. My goal has been with all my creditors is to settle for 40%...so I got within that. So one down, 3 to go. Glad I didn't go with a Debt Settlement Company right now. Hopefully the rest of the creditors are as easy to deal with.

Excellent! Great news! A 30% settlement is awesome!! :D :!:

I have been using Christian Debt Consultants for six months now. I have settled on two accounts and am saving for the remaining accounts I have. At the moment, one credit card company is "suing" me (a pretrial conference/mediation thing)
and they referred me to a low cost legal services company to help with the legal aspect. We'll see how that turns out. I have been very pleased so far as they have been right up front with me and have responded to all of my e-mails and calls right away. I am also working with Irvin and Becky. So far no complaints!!!

Also, be aware that you can also negotiate a settlement or payment arrangement at that hearing. It is a lot easier because you are dealing with the attorney face-to-face, and not only that - when you get a satisfactory arrangement it will suspend any possible judgment (you do NOT want a judgment if you can help it).

Another update......
I just settled with CHASE today. I had missed 4 payments to date. My current balance was almost $28K....originally $24K. I settled at 40% which was $10,900.

I definitely recommend to everyone......try it on your own first. Just be patient and have thick skin. Get past the first few months of harrassing and mean phone calls and they actually get less frequent and the account managers become nicer.

Now I got to save up a little more and work on two more creditors.

Good luck to you all.

how much did you owned and what was your monthly.

Christian Debt Consultants (CDC) promised they could help with our existing mounting unsecured debts by contacting our creditors and working out a suitable plan of repayment that would satisfy both parties. They claimed this would prevent legal actions against me and give me an honest, fair and Christian way of settling these issues. I turned to them so I could do the honorable, Christian thing and repay my debts that were incurred due to my employer closing its business and stealing all of our benefits and pay.

I paid CDC over $2,400.00 in a six month period for nothing more than one letter sent out to my creditors stating I was working with CDC. The harassing phone calls and letters from the creditors never let up and all of them said they had no agreement with CDC. Every once in a while a creditor would offer CDC a lump sum settlement that all parties concerned knew I could not pay. CDC's answer was always the same: "don't worry about it as it can be settled at a later date". CDC still continued to draw their fee from my bank account.

Finally a sheriff showed up at my front door serving me a warrant to appear in court from one of my creditors. I immediately contact CDC and they had me fax them the warrant and they said they would send it over to their law department. That was the last I ever heard from CDC.

The end results was I was out over $2,400.00, still ended up filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy which cost another $2,000.00 and had to close by bank account to prevent CDC from drawing even more from it. Their last draw was after the warrant was served.

I send Mr. Rick Hall (Managing Partner) a Priority letter requesting a full refund for funds they had taken from me and not earned. As following CDC normal communications guidelines, I have not heard one word from them and this has been over a several week period of time.

The very sad part about this entire ordeal is that this company conducts business as a Christian Organization and deals in "Christ Name"

I am disinclined to believe that this is a bad company.

There is only 1 complaint on Complaints Board (a copy/paste of this exact post).

There is only 1 (Resolved) complaint on the BBB.
"http://www.bbb.org/southeast-texas/business-reviews/credit-and-debt-counseling/christian-debt-consultants-llp-in-jasper-tx-90021053"

It sounds to me as if this a great company to work with and I am impressed by their record. The only complaints against them seem to be anonymous posters on this board.

If you have a legitimate complaint, file it with the BBB, the FTC, and your State Attorney General's office (where you'll have to provide your name and *prove* that you were ripped off).

i gave these guys a call and they promise the world to me and it was only going to cost 35.00 a month to manage the account. then i got my contract on they forgot to tell me about the 1800.00 up front fee and the the monthly service fee spot was blank so they can fill it in with the new price after i sign the papers. never do bussiness with christain debt consolidation..

tadams14 - did you have the money in lump sum to settle with the credit card companies? I'm not sure if I can hold off not paying a credit card company for 4 or more months.

I have not worked with the group in question but I believe in debt settlement. It reduced 50k in debt to $26k and saved my marriage quite honestly. I was denied a chapter 7 by the judge and thought I was out of luck. My wife and I worked with a guy by the name of Steve Collins at OnPar Debt Relief. It took them just over two years and we are now out of debt. My credit did not worsen and now I can rebuild with their help. God Bless them.

I just read that..man, I sound like a commercial for debt settlement.

We went this company and please I warn you do not do it. They took over $7000. and did not help us. We still had to come up with the money to settle 1 debt, they did pay off 1 small debt and this was in a years time. They wouldnt answer calls, emails or respond to faxes. We finally got frustrated after court people would come to the door with hearing and law suit papers,threats of of taking our wages. We are negotiating on our own. This is best.

I personally just settled my last card through CDC. If you don't plan on any large purchases like a car or house while you're in their program then it's a great option. You WILL get bombarded with calls from creditors, and when you tell people that your going through CDC, they will say negative things. Don't let that discourage you. It's so worth it in the end. I had $10K in CC debt and it only took me one year to pay it off through them even though I signed up for three years. Now, my credit has improved enough to get approved for a credit card to I can start to rebuild my credit wisely. It would have litterally taken me the rest of my life to pay off my debt on my own. $10K is considerably lower than your debt but I also only make a modest living. Also, since I "graduated" the program early, they knocked off the last two fee payments. I saved money monthly by paying their fee instead of my credit cards. I paid off one at 40%, one at 35% and one at 55%. I did have to pay for one in full because they sued me but that was explained to me up front as a possibility. Overall, I saved thousands and the best part is being debt free!

Run Forrest Run, as far and as fast as you can from these leaches! Consultants, consolidation...I think they are one in the same and totally screwed us! The money I wasted on them I could have put on a credit card account and not listened to their BS! Oh, I've a story to tell!!!

I wish I had read this, but we started with them in Nov. 2009 and I have all the same complaints. They wouldn't pay the bills, told us not to answer the phone, that the phone calls would stop in a month. Told us not to pay on them, not to try to work with them. They paid one small bill for me and took 35% of the difference they saved. (they got $800!) and they only paid so they could look good. I got a frantic call..."gotta do this in the next 20 minutes, what do you say?"
Now that we canceled them and are trying to pay on our own, they sent all of our private info to the credit card companies and we have just had our savings and checking accounts garnished (court order). BTW, the new credit laws allow for this so don't think they can't do it on unsecured credit cards.
Sadly, I cannot work due to a stroke, but I am diabetic. I had only a little money in my bank account which was to pay for my insulin...the credit card lawyers took. Guess they'll get nothing more if I die!:(
Anyhow, I am sorry this happened to you, but glad that I am not losing my mind and making these things up!
May we all be blessed. I think a call to your state attorney generals are merited by all! There is strength in numbers. :rolleyes:

I was told by Christian Debt Consolidators (not Consultants) that their fee was tax deductible. Has anyone dealt with them and know this to be true?

Well, I began a consolidation through Christian Debt Consolidators in June of 2010 for a total of 17,000. They were wonderful. I paid them 10 per month and was transferred to "A New Horizon" who handled all the negotiations and payments. I paid a total of 446 per month for 4 years.....50 to " A New Horizon" and 10 to Christian Debt Con. I was fortunate to run into a large sum of money and paid out early, but everything went as planned. Payments were made on time, no phone calls, great credit report, monthly calls and emails. I guess what someone is needing to do determines the amount for fees and such. I would NEVER do debt settlement. I'll stick to my 752 credit score. I just got fed up when interest rates went up to nearly 30%. I would highly recommend them and A New Horizon (who actually did the work).

Yes I have been in the program for a year. Following their advise i have been sued and now have a judgment aganist me and I haven't been able to contact anybody at CDC since then. I have left messages after message and still no one has contacted me. If I was you I would do it yourself and save money. BEWARE BEWARE

I have been woring with a company out of kentucky called The Firm. They have treated me fair and I would really recommend their services

I dealt with CDC for several years believing they were doing me a favor. Their fees are extremely high and they claim they can settle with creditors at a better rate but I found out almost too late that I could get the same settlement amount or better directly from my creditors without having to pay CDC the fee they charge you for "helping" to settle which for us was 35% of the amount they were "saving" us plus the $50.00 monthly maintenance fee for keeping our account with them.
Their customer service is terrible and their supervisors are even worse than the customer representatives. If I could do it all over again I will never choose CDC to settle any debt neither I will recommend them to anybody. It was a nightmare, they lied, they stole my money and their services was beyond "worse" ever! They are base in Boca Raton FL and I am in TX, not that that should make any difference but just to make sure you know the exact company I am talking about, (CDC Christian Debt Consolidation) which BTW they don't have any Christian in it besides the name!