Consumer complaint received 2020-01-14
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:
On XX/XX/XXXX I signed on with Freedom Debt Relief. I placed 6 accounts with them. Once I did this I was told they would take over from there and ALL " correspondence '' would go through them. I was promised they would negotiate my debt in half. I continued to be harrassed incessantly by these companies and my credit rating TANKED! Bottom line is they only took care of 2 measley accounts that I actually could have paid on my own. My payments to FDR was {$870.00} a month which I really couldn't afford but thought was my only option. 

Detailed below are the accounts I placed and the outcome. 
-XXXX XXXX - {$860.00} - negotiated down to half of what I owed. Paid by the funds deposited in my FDR account. 

-XXXX - {$2400.00} - negotiated down to half of what I owed. Paid by the funds deposited in my FDR account. -XXXX XXXX - {$2200.00} - I received a reasonable offer in the mail and forwarded this offer to FDR.  NO ACTION TAKEN BY FDR. I called them I told them I wanted to take this offer and had them pay this out of my account. 

-XXXX - {$9800.00} - Received a VERY reasonable offer and forwarded this to FDR . Months passed and the did not respond. I withdrew this account and the funds from my FDR account and paid this off myself. 

-XXXX - {$29000.00} - NO NEGOTIATIONS MADE ON MY BEHALF BY FDR !!!  Received a summons in the mail that a judgment would me made against me if I didn't respond! Sent this over to FDR & the legal department at XXXX XXXX XXXX who sent it over to XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX respresented me ). As far as I know, they answered the summons and came back with a payment of {$740.00} a month until this is paid off. I have 18 more payments to go. Yes ... I signed this agreement because I did NOT want a judgment but again, FDR was supposed to negotiate this down to HALF. XXXX XXXX   XXXX ( legal fees I had to pay extra for ) just answered the summons and told me what I had to pay. They claim that XXXX came back with some offers but they were unreasonable. I simply did not have the funds. 

Bottom line ... I turned to Freedom Debt Relief because after 19 years with my company, I was out of a job and out of work for a while and my debt was out of control. The debt is something I take full responsibility for! Freedom Debt Reilief basically told me they were the anwer to my prayers! Now I'm stuck with a payment of {$740.00} a month which has caused a MAJOR financial hardship! I tried everything to get this reduced! I reached out to Freedom Debt relief who told me I had to reach out to XXXX XXXX XXXX who said this case is closed because I signed the agreement. I reached out to XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX placed the account with them ) to see if they could reach out to XXXX to see if they would lower the payments to {$500.00} a month. They claimed they did but XXXX said " No ''. I'm sure they never even called them. I called XXXX directly and they said because the account was placed with XXXX XXXX XXXX I would have to go through them. I'M DESPERATE!!! Every month I have at least {$100.00} in NSF fees because I just don't make enough in a week after medical benefits, mortgage, taxes, car and insurance payments. I have to take back recyclables just to have money for gas. 

I withdrew my XXXX account from FDR on XX/XX/XXXX so that I could pay XXXX XXXX XXXX directly. This saved me from paying FDR an additional {$30.00} a month just to send the money over to XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

You're my last hope! I'm not sure what I can do legally to get some relief. The thought of going another 18 months, paying {$740.00} a month, brings such depair! You're help would be MOST APPRECIATED! 

Thank you! 

P.S. Please advise if you need copies of any documents and I will happy to get those right over to you!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation