Consumer complaint received 2024-04-07
Product: Debt or credit management — Debt settlement
Issue: Charged upfront or unexpected fees — 
Company: Strategic Financial Solutions, LLC (NJ)

Strategic Financial Solutions working under the name XXXX XXXX XXXX collected {$18000.00} from me over the course of XXXX  months ( XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX ) as a part of their debt relief scheme. Of that amount, {$15000.00} was for fees. After being targeted for many months by mailers from several different companies offering special " loans '' to help with debt relief, I responded to XXXX from XXXX XXXX  and was connected to a man named XXXX XXXX with a different company with the email handle ofXXXX. His initial email lays out terms for a loan. I then spoke with him over the phone where he never explicitly stated that this was not a loan process. It was not until I met with the notary to sign the paperwork that I started to understand that this was something different. Also, throughout the entire set up process, both XXXX and the notary downplayed the effect this would have on my credit, which was excellent prior to this due to my good payment history and length of time ; I was just getting to a point where the payments were really high and becoming a problem. The meeting with the notary was very rushed and did not give me any time to actually review what I was signing. When I did have questions, he gave either no answer or a very vague answer. I was also contacted by a " lawyer '' from XXXX with whom I spoke with exactly XXXX time and was never able to get in contact with ever again. I also never heard from XXXX after this point. I did receive an email asking that I do an annual check in this person ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) in XX/XX/XXXX, which I called to do but could not get in contact with him and was told by customer service that he would call me, which he never did. 
I made all of my payments to XXXX on time and with no issue. They negotiated settlements for XXXX of the XXXX accounts within the first XXXX months and began making those payments as scheduled. Things changed when I was sued by one of my creditors. I was no longer able to get any straight answers from anyone on the situation. My case was always " under review '' with unnamed lawyers. I was not assigned a lawyer by XXXX until after my court date, which I practically had to beg them to do. The lawyer assigned was XXXX XXXX XXXX. From her, I received an initial email asking for information about me and my situation to which I responded, followed up, and called and did not hear anything back until XX/XX/XXXX when she lied in email saying that she discussed adding money to my escrow account in order to settle the debt. I never spoke with her or anyone at her firm. It was at this point that I finally was connected with a competent customer service person at XXXX who advised me to pull this account from the program and settle it myself, which I did immediately. This person then was supposed to have restructured my monthly payment to XXXX to remove any amounts that could be allocated to this debt ( payment was supposed to go from {$1000.00} per month to {$740.00} ). I voice recorded this request with them twice, but when I asked why an additional amount was still showing in my future withdrawals, I was told that the legal team said I could not adjust the amount because it would jeopardize my current settlements. That did not make sense based on what I was told the fee structure should have been and the math I ran on my end. At this point ( early XX/XX/XXXX ), I decided to pull all of my accounts from the program and settle everything myself. One of the companies that already had a settlement in the works allowed me to keep with the same payment plan that was started when I was in the program, but the second one made me renegotiate for over {$3000.00} more than the original settlement. Because of this, and the timing I was told at one point for the other XXXX to be settled, I suspect that XXXX was planning to default on this account. If I had kept all accounts in the program with the settlement plans they laid out and continued paying the {$1000.00} per month, they either would have been asking me for more money by XX/XX/XXXX or defaulted on one or both accounts. 
After much back and forth, XXXX did send me a check for the amount remaining in my escrow account ( {$2600.00} ) in XXXX of XXXX. However, I believe that I should refunded for all fees collected. 
This company preyed on me, took advantage of my situation and ruined my credit which I am still trying to re-build.