Product: Debt or credit management

Due to various personal hardships, I found myself in a lot of credit card debt late in XXXX. I was naive and tried to ignore the problem until it became too glaring. I tried to negotiate the interest rate on my credit card from 25 % to something more reasonable and the bank that I'd been with for 15 years was not having it. That's when I found out about debt consolidation companies who help out with that kind of thing. I found a company while doing research that had good reviews and was local. They were called Northstar Legal Group and they promised to make the process easy. All I had to do was pay a fixed amount to them and they would take care of the rest. So I signed up in XXXX of XXXX. 

Initially I spoke to many helpful people, including an attorney assigned to me specifically! I felt like I was doing the right thing and that I was in good hands. I was told that all the debts would be settled within 9 months - a year at the very most. After the initial document signing and conversations, I felt relived and confident in the people I spoke with. For months I watched my credit score tank none of the three debts I enrolled in the program get settled. But, I was told that that was part of the program and that it would all be okay in the end. Eventually after eight months or so they did settle one of the debts. It was the smallest one, accounting for about 5 % of the total monies owed. In XXXX, I believe they did that to keep me complacent. 

In XXXX of XXXX I was contacted by Northstar and told that since I was so good at paying my monthly fee on time every month I had an opportunity to sign on with another company called XXXX that would front the money to pay off the remaining debts, thus allowing my credit score to bounce back far more quickly. I was confused because I thought that that was what Northstar was doing. However, I again spoke to many people who convinced me that it was the right thing to do. So, I signed another contract. I showed it to my dad who was appalled. The new contract was charging me 20 % interest on what I've basically come to understand was a predatory loan. When I was whisked through all the paperwork with a representative from XXXX, I did ask about that specifically. I was told that the interest was " not the kind of interest like a credit card. It compounds differently and is actually more like 4 % ''. Not understanding any of that I just took his word for it. All in all, I was told that nothing was going to change, except that I would be paying XXXX now instead of Northstar, but the program was the same. I did find it weird that the payment was going to the exact same company, XXXX XXXX. When I started to look into the billing statements I could never figure out why there was never a balance listed. I gave money every month, and of course some went to fees ( which did seem quite extravagant ) but the rest just disappeared. 

Around the beginning of XX/XX/XXXX I started to get annoyed that the two other large debts still hadn't been settled. In fact, they'd accrued thousands of dollars in interest because, of course, I hadn't been making any payments towards them, I'd only been paying Northstar and XXXX. So, I called Northstar to check up and that's when the scales fell from my eyes. I spent hours and hours trying to get someone on the phone, was hung up on, got wildly different stories from people that I did talk to. I tried to call all of the contacts I'd had over the past year, including my " attorney '' and all of the lines ( six people that were supposedly directly assigned to be my touch point person ) were disconnected or rang and rang forever. I was terrified and utterly taken by surprise.

That's when I did a little research on the internet and found an article released by the office of the Attorney General in my state that stated that he, along with six other states ' AG 's and the CFPB, were suing the parent company of XXXX and Northstar. I had never heard of the company, called XXXX XXXX XXXX, but it was all coming together in my mind... it was all a giant fraud! Then it all made sense. I have since settled the debts myself, but am still receiving communication from both companies. I don't exactly know what to do about that. 

Overall, both companies were malicious, predatory and false. They promised to do something and take a big headache off my plate when I was in a very bad place, but they did worse than nothing because I gave them so much money and my credit is absolutely dismal. While they settled one debt for {$1000.00} or so, I've given them {$7500.00} over the 13 months, and I believe they had no intention of ever settling the two important debts. I began recording conversations I had with them at the beginning of the year and when I listened to them again it was all so obvious.