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Consumer Credit Counseling Services

CCCS • Consumer complaints • Insider's report

Anita of Virginia Beach VA (9/19/03):
In October 1999 I enrolled in the debt reduction program with Ms. Hansbarger. At that time I destroyed all of the credit cards associated with the accounts. I was informed in 5 years I would be debt free. This sounded great, so I signed up. None of my accounts were behind in payment at this time. I had a total balance of approximately $7983.00.

I made the scheduled monthly payments of $200, sometimes paying more. There were occasionally calls received from one creditor stating they had not received a payment, I would make a payment over the phone and later contact "CCCS" informing them of the situation. I was informed by "CCCS" not to make outside payments to the creditor. Doing this could jeopardize the program.

This particular creditor contacted me almost monthly for a payment, eventually I ended the phone payments and directed them to contact CCCS. The creditor didn't stop contacting me and the calls and conversations got ugly. Irritated with this I attempted to contact Joselyn by telephone and mail. She would respond to neither. Instead I received a print out of the balances for my accounts which were substantially lower than the statements received by the creditors. Soon I was being contacted by other creditors requesting payments. Again I attempted to contact Joselyn with no response.

Than I got a letter in the mail informing me of an increase in my payment and a customer service contact number. Everytime I contected this number I was told I needed to speak with a counselor, my telephone number was taken and no return call was received.

In February 2003 I requested a credit report to apply for an apartment. There, I found every last account with CCCS in a severly delinquent status. Very upset I made every attempt to contact Ms. Hanbarger, with no luck. I terminated my service with this company. In April 2003 I received a letter from one of the creditors requesting $600 stating they had not received payments for nearly 1 year. I could not believe this. I contacted this company and the representative explained how they had failed in attempts to contact CCCS.

I was given 5 days to make the $600 payment or face court preceedings. They meant just that because April 11, 2003 I received a warrent in debt to appear in court May 13, 2003. Frantic I again attempted to contact Ms. Hanbarger with no luck. I contacted the customer service department explaining the seriousness of my situation and told they would have the supervisor return my call the same day. That next morning I received a call from Ms. Carolyn Spohrer, the area director. I explained the situation to her and she in turn sent me a copy of my payment history which showed I paid a total of $7,130 to this company.

According to the creditors statements and my credit report I still had a debt total of $7,000. When I enrolled in this program I was informed my interest rate would be lowered and balances cut in half with 5 years of payments to be debt free. It's 4 years later my balances on closed accounts are twice the original amount and severly delinquent AND the total account balance is still over $7,000. What happened to the $7,130 I paid to CCCS? Recently I went to the S. Independence office and found it to have been replaced with another business.

Damage Resulting: Chapter 7 bankruptcy! I have a child I have to provide for. My credit is now destroyed.

Juan of Yuma AZ (2/28/03):
When I originally signed up with C.C.C.S, Houston, 2.5 years ago, I was given a report stating that American Express would waive my interest if I enrolled with the plan and paid the balance in full (at at that time the balance was at $5100.00). I recently called American Express to request something in writing, as according to my calculations, my debt with Amex was now cut in half; but little to my surprise American Express argues that they never agreed to any waivers of interest and that I was stuck with paying the full balance with interest and all. According to Amex, after 2.5 years of payments, my balance has only gone down $300.00.

I feel pressured and stressed out because of my current financial situation for having to pay off a high interest credit card that, for the last 2.5 years, I was told, on numerous occassions, by CCCS, that American Express would waive the interest. I feel that this situation has affected my health and my long term financial goals.

Kevin of Virginia Beach VA (2/18/03):
In September 2001, I was going through a divorce and I made an appointment with Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS), Chesapeake, VA, in an attempt to lower my monthy payment for credit card debt. I turned five accounts over to them at that time and was not delinquent on any of the accounts. After using thier service for some eleven months, I used bonus money from my employment to pay four accounts off and reduced the remaining account by half.

Later I applied for a loan and was turned down. The disapproval letter listed Equifax as the credit reporting service. I requested a copy of my credit report through Euifax and discoverd that three of the five accounts that was turned over to CCCS had numerous delinquent marks toward them. I immediately called CCCS and complained. There only attempt to resolve the matter was to write a letter to the creditors stating that the error "occurred due to CCCS' disbursement date and that they reconsider what has been reported and update my account not to show past due". The creditors denied the request. In turn, I called the creditors myself and they explained that CCCS' disbursement date had no bearing on the account due date. Upon calling CCCS again, they explained that there was nothing they could do about it.

The consequence now is that my credit is flawed. I had outstanding credit prior to using CCCS' service and now I don't. When applying for loans, I am now looked at as being a risk when it turns out that trusting CCCS with your bills is the risk.

Heather of Metairie LA (7/19/02):
In September 2000, I sent in extra funds ($225.00 total-normal payment is $190.00) with a note that said the funds were to go to a particular creditor for that month. CCCS raised my monthly payment PERMANENTLY, but did not send me a letter or verify anything by phone. I was never contacted. The next month that I sent in my payment the computer did not have enough funds to make the payment to ANY of my creditors- thus resulting in late fees and 2 of my creditors kicked me off the program.

My counselor advised me to continue making my payments to CCCS, because she would resend out proposals and everything would be straightened out. Needless to say, it wasn't. I made on-time, in full payments to CCCS from December 2000- March 2001, but I have negative marks on my credit from all of my creditors during this time. There must be something that can be done. As a result of CCCS not making this payment, troubles just snowballed. I have record of my timely payment to CCCS. My credit was good when I joined CCCS. I joined because I thought the lower intrest rates would help me to pay my accounts off faster. Now, my credit is in ruins.

Gabriel of Miami Beach (11/27/03):
I signed up with this service (CCCS, Miami) to assist in a debt management program. I sent money to them monthly to pay creditors. The creditors were paid except for one -- The Associates. This creditor began hounding me claiming to not have been paid for the past 8 months. I have contacted the counselor and apparently the counselor has no idea where the money I have been sending the CCCS service has gone. They cannot find canceled checks or trace the payments to the creditor. Since this time, the account has been sold to Citi-Financial.

I have filed a BBB complaint and have faxed documentation to the counseling service time and again. They still do not know what happened to the money I sent to them. They have indicated this is not their problem although I have paid them over $1000 and the statement CCCS keeps mailing says the account has been paid. The creditor is adding legal and late fees.

Citi-Financial has placed derogatory items in my credit report which is what I signed on to the program to avoid happening. They are threatening to sue me as a result. They call day and night and the counseling service refuses to offer me a refund so I can Citi-Financial directly or handle the situation themselves.

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