Consumer complaint received 2024-07-21
Product: Debt or credit management — Debt settlement
Issue: Charged upfront or unexpected fees — 
Company: Consumer Financial Services Solutions, Inc. (MA)

I have been working with Beyond Finance since late XXXX. Four credit cards and two student loans were enrolled, and two of the credit cards have been completely settled. One credit card was scheduled to be settled this month ( XX/XX/XXXX ), and the other in XXXX, with the two loans to be settled in XX/XX/XXXX. Until last month, everything had gone according to schedule, though I was always mystified at the lack of communication on some important elements. 

In early XXXX, a large credit was issued to my account -- possibly because they were not able to negotiate a very favorable deal with the student loan people, and I had said that I thought they should give me a break on the settlement fee. Or not -- it was never explained, it just appeared. Several months ago, amounts were withdrawn from my account -- possibly because it was decided that the original credit was an error. Or not -- it also was never explained. 

This meant that the amount that I was paying into the account would be less than the amount needed by them to make payments to the creditors. Again -- this was not communicated to me, I worked it out for myself. Since then, I have called the company each month and the agent and I figured out ( with much difficulty! ) how much extra that I should deposit to cover the shortfall. So far, so good. 

In XXXX -- I believe it was the XXXX -- they sent a very puzzling ( to me ) communication about a settlement (? ) which I assumed to be an error, but I did call and spoke to an agent ; I believe it was on XX/XX/XXXX. She couldn't see any reason for my having received that message, but we worked out how much money needed to be deposited for XXXX, and I arranged to put in an extra {$250.00}. 

A week or so ago when I logged on to the Beyond website, there was a lot of confusing information about settlements that were in progress, and nothing available about the previous and future payments I was making on the remaining 4 accounts. Several calls to Beyond resulted in even more confusion, until the other day, the agent informed me that because there had not been enough funds in the account to cover one of the credit card payments, and because I had not responded within 15 days (!! I did!! ), that account had reverted to delinquency. For reasons that were not explained ( are we seeing a pattern here? ), two other accounts that were paid on time through XXXX also went back into " Settlement negotiation ''. One account was not affected and seems to be continuing on its way to settlement ... at least for the moment. 

I was finally able to log on to the website that is used to track the actual payments ( the " Dedicated Account '' page on Beyond 's website does not give any details on... much ), and discovered that in XXXX, Beyond had assessed another " Settlement Fee '' which not only did I not know about, but apparently the agent that told me to deposit {$250.00} didn't know about either. That Settlement Fee was the reason that there were not enough funds to pay the one creditor. At no time was I ever contacted and asked for a specific amount that would have covered it -- if I had, I would have paid it! 

So now they seem ( I say " seem '' because, again, no communication ) to be re-negotiating settlement agreements on 3 accounts, which look like they will come in at a higher level than what I have been paying. Also, I'm guessing that they will assess a " Settlement Fee '' for each of the three accounts -- the one that was delinquent through no fault of mine, and the two that were not delinquent at all. Meanwhile it also seems that this whole situation is playing havoc with my credit rating. All this after almost 3 years of on-time payments, and good faith, proactive efforts to be sure the account remained in good standing. The whole situation seems like a nightmare ; I only wish it was.