Was with NEWPATH FINANCIAL for almost a year. They did negotiate 1 of my smaller collection debts. But, the “big companies” Chase, Citi, and Discover took me to court for lack of payment. When I contacted NEWPATH FINANCIAL, they told me “Maybe you should consider bankruptcy. Once creditors take you to court, there is NOTHING we can do”. After almost 2 years of paying NEWPATH FINANCIAL, we did end up filing a chapter 7. Looking back, I wish we would have done that earlier rather than wasting time with debt negotiations. Our credit rating was in the toilet with NEWPATH FINANCIAL, but now, even though we have the bankruptcy on our record, we have a much better credit rating than we did while with NEWPATH FINANCIAL. I had spoke to several of NEWPATH FINANCIALS “customer service agents: Haley, Amber, Maria, Josephine, one who claims she handles all summons Melissa and supposedly my TOP negotiator Krista – when I finally was able to speak to their Manager Boris Stricevic Direct (714) 361-4385 Fax (714) 352-8685 it sounded like I was transferred to India – he has a very heavy accent and like his employees was unable to answer any of my questions directly yet politely answered around the each question. THIS COMPANY IS A COMPLETE FRAUD – THEY HAVE NO IDEA OF THE NEGATIVE IMPACT THAT THEY ARE CONTRIBUTING IN TO OUR SOCIETY – THEY ALL SOUND LIKE YOUNG NAÏVE CHILDREN TRAINED TO LURE PEOPLE IN – TAKE THEIR MONEY AND ONCE ALL FEES ARE COLLECTED SUGGEST BK OR “ANOTHER AVENUE” OF RESOLUTION.

I was a client with this company beginning in November of 2008 and enrolled in their program to settle two credit card accounts. I was very nervous about signing a contract and having a company handle my finances however, at the time, I felt it was my only option. My interest rates had gone through the roof and even though I wasn't using the cards and was making regular payments I kept getting over limit fees because of outrageous finance charges. Preferred Financial settled one of the accounts at about 50% and very fast. I was impressed by how fast they were able to settle the accounts and began to relax a little. I thought they were taking care of everything. In March I received a letter from a lawfirm about my second account. I immediately forwarded it to PFS, as I was very scared and was afraid of getting sued. They assured me that it was just a standard collection letter and not to worry. I asked my advisor to please call the lawfirm and let them know that I was making payments, that I was willing to do whatever it took so that I wouldn't be sued. I even borrowed $2000 from a family member, hoping that this creditor would also settle. My advisor told me that he called and spoke to them but they wanted the balance in full. He said not to worry, they were just playing "hardball" and he would be able to get them to settle. I asked if I could call and set up payments with the lawfirm, for the full balance. He told me that would be the worst case scenario and just to hold out for a little while. I told him again that I was scared of getting sued and he assured me not to worry. I didn't hear anything for a couple of months, made my payments to PFS and assumed that no news was good news. This was very stupid on my part. Last week I got a summons to appear in court, I was being sued for the balance of my account. I again called PFS and told them what happened. I told him that I wanted to call the lawfirm, see if they would settle out of court. When I asked him what he thought of this and if he thought they would be willing to let me make payments on the balance he said "oh sure, I deal with summons all the time, all they want is their money." Great! I thought that "rarely ever happened" but now your telling me you deal with this all the time? I now realize that they were stringing me along so that they could get as much money out of me ass possible. I called the lawfirm and I was able to set up payments without having to go to court. When I explained my situation to the lawyer he said, "you were lied to. We never spoke with PFS, in fact we refuse to work with debt settlement companies. We had advised them to tell you to call us and set up payments." I feel very stupid that I believed their lies and the moral of this story is that if you find yourself in the same kind of situation always, always, always communicate with the law firm or with your creditors. If I would have listened to my gut and called the law firm I would have been able to make payments at 0% interest. Because I listened to PFS and trusted that they were handling things, I get to make payments but at 9% interest and I have to pay court costs. I'm not blaming everything on them, in some ways they did do their job but listen to your gut, if it seems shady it probably is.