Consumer complaint received 2017-12-04
Company: Equitable Acceptance Corp
State: NJ
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Debt settlement
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Respectable Srs, For some time I have been receiving a number of unwanted emails and calls from agencies offering help with my educational loan. Given that I have been in financial difficulties and it has been impossible for me to finish paying and after hearing so much about them, I decided to return the call to one of the many who contacted me. That 's how I got it contact with XXXX. I was distrustful at first and I was thinking about it but I felt pressured because they said that I needed to act fast before Trump changed the law that Obama had implemented. In the end they made me believe that they had some connection with the Department of Education given the advertisements they use and EMails I received. They really seemed very legitimate and therefore would be a great opportunity to get my debt forgiven. They use the terminology '' relief '' and '' forgiveness '' to attract and deceive by promising help in erasing or forgiving student debt. They started by seeing if I really qualified and after a series of questions I got the surprise that in did I was eligible and that I could benefit by reducing my debt to " XXXX ''. The great detail and error of my part was that the only way to pay for this " Service '' was through my bank, they told me that there would be {$50.00} payments for a year to complete the payment and the result would be " XXXX '' Debt. To start the process they charged me {$150.00}. I continued with the idea that they were working on my case. After three months I realized that a debt report appears in my credit to a certain Equitable Acceptance of which I never heard or knew of and who not only damaged my credit but when I called them they were demanding I pay them in full to withdraw the report, that 's how I knew that they had bought my contract that I did not even sign and which they got from student advisors without my signature because at this point I never visited the page where they told me I had to sign. After researching the Internet and calling the Education Dept. I found out that not only my loan was still there and that all they did was fill out some documents to consolidate my loan, so that I wouldnt have to pay temporarily or pay less, but the interests continues accumulating. The saddest thing is that when this process could be done for free, Student Advisors are charging almost {$2000.00}, which is still an extreme Ripp off of which I have been a victim as many hundreds of others and for which I ask for the support so that Equitable Acceptance stop charges to my bank account immediately and reimburse me back the {$390.00} because they have scammed me. I hope with my report to help and encourage others to investigate before falling into the hands of unscrupulous companies that take advantage of the despair and vulnerability of people. I am now out of work and it gives me a lot of indignation to have to pay them when they have cheated me vilely by making me believe that they could help me get my debt forgiven. If it had not been for that promise, it would never have fallen into their hands. 

A milllion thanks in advance!

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation