Credit repair companies are not legal in Georgia, but debt consolidation companies are. These types of services negotiate with creditors on your behalf and consolidate your bills into one monthly payment. Normally, you hire a company like this to reduce the amount that you’re paying toward debt every month in order to lower your risk of defaulting. However, not all debt consolidation companies are the real deal.
Recently, we received a letter from a debt consolidation company that raised a number of red flags. Clearly, the letter was written to readers into calling them. This smacks of bad business ethics right off the bat. Then, after looking for United Debt Services online, it was clear that Georgia consumers should avoid this company like the plague if they want to protect their credit scores.
Why Georgia Consumers should Avoid United Debt Services
The letter we received from United Debt Services is typed out on pink paper and looks official. Although, it’s really a mass-produced and cheaply printed thing. Yet, there are parts of the letter that might induce panic in Georgians who are struggling with debt and worried about being contacted by debt collection agencies.
At the top of this “notice” from United Debt Services are the words “RE: Bank of America, Discover, Capital One, American Express, Wells Fargo.” This could easily lead someone to believe that this is a letter that pertains to an account that belongs to them. Next, there is an address labeled “Department of Negotiations.” Sounds official, doesn’t it? It isn’t.
The body of this letter starts with “This is our second attempt to contact you,” which is clearly meant to induce a sense of urgency in the reader. Finally, any Georgian reading the letter will find their eyes drawn to the **Failure to Call** warning located dead center on the page. This could prompt a busy consumer to just call the number provided without reading the rest of the flyer – and that’s all that this nasty little letter really is. It’s a flyer that promotes a service. While there’s nothing WRONG with sending out flyers to promote a business, it is shameful to trick Georgia residents into calling the company – ANY company.
Proof that United Debt Services isn’t the Company it Claims to Be
So, what about this company? Is United Debt Services (UDS) a legitimate company that just uses unsavory means to get customers in the door? No. By most accounts, this is an unscrupulous organization that has been exploiting indebted consumers nationwide, for over six years. After pouring over dozens of complaints and reviews, three major details stood out.
- UDS sends letters to consumers in states where they are NOT licensed to operate.
- The company has urged past clients to stop paying their credit card bills so that they would default. UDS then negotiated with debt collectors in order to reduce the amount owed by the consumers, but at the price of their credit scores.
- Several consumers have complained that UDS collected money from them, but paid nothing to their creditors.
Honestly, if you need debt consolidation services, there are plenty of good companies out there. We can even recommend a few.
If, on the other hand, you want to improve your credit score, request copies of your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus; TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. Look over your credit reports and circle any errors that you find. Unfortunately, lot of Georgia consumers don’t realize that about 80% of consumer credit reports contain inaccuracies of some type. Also, these mistakes can hurt your credit score.
The Free and Legal way to Get Better Credit
Once you’ve discovered errors on your credit reports, you can send dispute letters out to the credit bureau(s) OR you can get a FREE credit repair lawyer to help you with the entire process.
Don’t let errors on your credit reports bring your credit score down. At Credit Repair Lawyers of America, we’ve been cleaning up credit reports for consumers since 2008 for free. How do we do it? All of our fees come from the defendants in settled cases. This is why our clients pay nothing for the work we do.
Let’s start the conversation about what we can do for your credit. Set up your free consultation today by calling Attorney Gary Nitzkin at (404)591-6680 or sending him a message through our contact page.
