No Debt Relief for Debt Relief USA

Found an interesting article in the Dallas Morning News today, “Debt Relief USA in Addison files for bankruptcy.” It just goes to show you that even when your in the business of helping people out of debt, you can still be hit by debt.

In the article it says that all customers will be provided with instructions on just how to go about protecting your interests. This just sounds way to vague for me, I have a sinking feeling that all their current customers are just gonna be hung out to dry. They go on to say that their goal is to refund these people “as much as possible”. That doesn’t sound too convincing for me.

I feel really bad for these customers. Here are people who are trying to be pro-active and do something about their debt problem, and now their left hanging by the proffessionals that they employed to help them with this.

I know that in these hard times no buisness is immune to the economic crunch, but I would expect some more safeguards to be in place for a company that specializes in the problem.

This company though was obviously not one of the good companies. They we’re the target of multiple investigations by both state and federal authorities. I don’t think this should be a black eye for the whole debt settlement or relief industry. Its just like any other industry out there, there’s gonna be some bad apples. This just goes to show how careful you have to be when choosing which company to deal with.

If your going to use a debt settlement company, my suggesstion is to make sure that they operate under the self held funds model. This means that the money that the company is going to use to settle your debt is placed into a bank account under your own name. This is as opposed to all the money for the company in one big trust account. By having the money in your own the name you are protected no matter what happens to the company. It’s your money.

Sadly, for the customers of Debt Relief USA, there’s not much that can be done. There’s no telling if these customers will ever see all or any of their money back. This is crippling for someone who was already in debt to begin with.

Research and information is your weapon, remember that. Not just in the world of debt, but in any of your ventures always be sure to know exactly what your getting into beforehand. If Debt Relief USA had operated under the self held funds model, they’d still probably be declaring bankruptcy, but at least their customers would be covered.