Patent ID: 7676410

Claim:
A method for providing a debt consolidation financial service offered by a program provider, the service comprising the steps of: enrolling a customer into a debt settlement program, the customer having an outstanding debt owed to one or more creditors and the debt settlement program being provided by a program provider that is not affiliated with the one or more creditors; qualifying the customer for a debt consolidation loan being provided by a financing entity that is not affiliated with the one or more creditors, the debt consolidation loan being contingent upon the customer making at least one payment into an escrow account associated with the debt consolidation loan; electronically creating the escrow account; receiving at least one payment from the customer into the escrow account; negotiating with the one or more creditors a discounted amount due for at least a portion of the outstanding debt owed; applying at least a portion of the funds from the debt consolidation loan as settlement to the one or more creditors for the discounted amount due; and allocating a portion of the difference between the at least a portion of the outstanding debt and the discounted amount due to at least one of the financing entity and the program provider.