Consumer complaint received 2021-10-05
Company: FREEDOM FINANCIAL NETWORK
State: NY
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Debt settlement
Issue: Confusing or misleading advertising or marketing

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I entered a contract with Freedom Debt Relief. I had 2 credit cards to consolidate. It was explained that once I sign on I would pay a monthly deposit into my account and once a certain amount had accumulated, FDR would negotiate with the creditor and typically reach a settlement of 50-60 % of the debt. With the fee they charge for that service, the client would still come out paying less than the full balance. 
The original balance for the XXXX card, I enrolled with was XXXX. When I inquired after close to 3 years and with over $ XXXX in my deposit account with FDR why no settlement had been reached, I didnt receive an answer other than It will happen.

FDR has failed to mention that while I was paying in my monthly deposits and while they were not negotiating, the Bank would still charge me interest, which added over XXXX in the 3+ years of non-negotiating. Had I talked to the bank myself, they would have frozen the account, we would have agreed on how much I would pay over an agreed period of time, but since the account would be frozen, no new interest would accumulate. Last week FDR announced that a settlement of {$7300.00} had been reached. At first, it looks like I only have to pay 50 % of the debt and their fee and I would save a substantial amount of money thanks to their service. But when I look at the numbers, I will end up paying a total of {$9800.00} ( the settlement, FDRs fee, service fees ) FDR 's fees were calculated from the interest-inflated debt of over {$14000.00}, not the original {$11000.00}. In total and after over 3 years I save {$1400.00} ( 13 %, not 50 % as FDR portraits it in their breakdown ), whereas FDR gets {$2300.00} in fees. Furthermore the {$9800.00} i will have paid by XX/XX/XXXX, the rep last Friday told me would take care of the settlements and fees and I would not have to pay anything else as the case will be settled. The following day I got an email stating that in addition to the 2 payments ( {$700.00} on XXXX and {$660.00} on XX/XX/XXXX I had agreed on with said rep to settle my case, I still need to make 11 monthly payments of {$140.00}!!! When I disputed the additional payments, I got the following reply : FDR-reply : Once we have all funds needed for the payoff amount, and to cover two months of the monthly service charges, we can begin the payoff process. 
Reviewing the account notes I see XXXX went over this with you on XX/XX/XXXX when the funds were scheduled. The program does not end the day funds are added, we would need time for the funds to clear into the dedicated account, to reach out to the creditor amend the settlement, payoff the settlement, then await to hear back from the creditor the payments cleared. At times this process can be completed in a few days if the creditor is responsive, other times it can be up to 30 days. We will be moving forward as quickly as possible. 
Once all payments have been made and cleared with the creditor, we will then begin the Account Closure process, this will take up to 30 business days to complete. In this process we go through a final review to make sure there are no unknown issues the creditors had not previously advised us of. Deposits are left on during this process to assure no delays if issues are found.

Once the Account Closure is completed we would then turn off all deposits and send back any leftover funds this can take up to 15 business days to process though normally is processed faster. - end FDR reply This looks like red flags to me, to buy more time and extract more money from me and Im quite alarmed at this point. 
I read up on the lawsuit CFPB against FDR and the 4 main points listed absolutely apply to my case. I also saw that there was a settlement of the said lawsuit in XXXX and FDR paid XXXX. However, nothing seems to have changed in their way to deceive their clients, not negotiate with the creditors in a timely manner, and not being transparent about their fees. I feel just as harmed and misled by FDRs immoral conduct as prior to the lawsuit. Are they not being held accountable after a lawsuit like that? 
The second debt I enrolled with FDR in XX/XX/XXXX, was about {$22000.00} I owed XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX XXXX mailed me a court order. I thought the law firm XXXX would represent me in court as FDR had told me it would. In exchange, they charged a mandatory fee for said service by XXXX. However when I sent the court order to FDR, they dropped me like a hot potato, telling me, XXXX would not negotiate with 3rd party reps anymore, XXXX would not rep me because I had notified them too late about the court order. So I had to hire a lawyer at the 11th hour to negotiate with XXXX. The lawyer got me a 33 % reduction of my debt, a monthly payment arrangement was negotiated and no interest would be added after the settlement. This I consider a real settlement as opposed to the convoluted opaque way FDR constructed their services.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation