Consumer complaint received 2020-01-30
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Debt settlement
Issue: Confusing or missing disclosures — 
Company: United Debt Counselors, LLC (AZ)

i enrolled with united debt counsellors, llc ( udc ) to help me settle my credit card debts with five credit card companies on XX/XX/2019 promising to be upfront without hidden fees. 

i was told it would charge 18 % negotiation fee on the original balance of the credit card upon enrollment ; a monthly udc management fee of {$18.00} ; a monthly global client solutions ( gcs ) of {$9.00} ; and a non-refundable fee of {$290.00} ; that there will be no hidden fees. the disclosed service fee total was {$4900.00} ( i just calculated this disclosed fee and it is 19.12 % excluding monthly udc fee and gcs fee ). on that count alone, it was dishonest in declaring it will only charge 18 % and there are no other fees ( on the phone the monthly udc and gcs fees were not mentioned ). 

at first i was just dissatisfied with their services and wrote to them on XX/XX/2019 asking to terminate the contract and be refunded with all excess the {$7600.00} i have deposited from XX/XX/2019 till XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX. after deducting the 18 % negotiation fee for the only company negotiated after 10 months of enrollment, the {$290.00} non-refundable enrollment fee, the {$18.00} x10 months udc management fee ; the $ XXXXx10 months gcs fee ; the $ XXXXx1 month to start repaying the balance of the negotiated credit card ; the excess amount to be refunded to me totaled {$4100.00}. 

on XXXX i followed up the call and only got voice message and so i left voice message. i called several times still only able to leave a voice message. finally got connected to a " XXXX '' who told me none of the funds i already submitted will be refunded. i told XXXX it is not legal for them to retain what they have not earned. then last week i received a call from a " XXXX '' saying i can be refunded around {$2000.00}. 

i should have done this earlier, but when i added all the service fee that was part of the monthly deposits i am to deposit if i stayed with them for the 36-month term of the program, udc would have collected {$11000.00}, not {$4900.00}. as the total 18 % of the balance of all the credit card enrolled will only be {$4600.00}, udc hid {$7100.00} additional fees not discernable unless looked into very closely. it was presented as " so many months, of their service fee would be so much, and so many months, so much etc., but no sum total. i thought that that column that showed their " service fee '' was their 18 %. i was wrong. the total of that column for " service fees '' is 48 % including the " 18 % '' negotiation fee and if including udc and gcs monthly charges, that adds to 50 %. this is not right. 

this is the most devious of all the debt counseling services i ever experienced. 

please note in the attached image that the settlement estimated cost show a service total service fee of {$4900.00}. however, in the page that showed what udc will collect as service fee was broken down into 15 months with varying amounts for different number of months, it does not show the total and gives the impression that this is the 18 % estimated negotiation fee but would start to be collected way in advance of negotiating anything. in my case, the negotiation started XXXX XXXX. it already collected more than half of its total calculated negotiation fee.