New Beginnings, LLC Consumer Fraud Alert!!! Please don’t do business with this company. You will only regret.
I got laid off from my job last week. All my little savings I had I made monthly payments in the amount of more than $4000 to New Beginnings. You only issued me a refund for $1250.00 after literally begging you for days.
I don’t have money for food. So I am filing a claim with Federal Trade Commission against New Beginnings, LLC for Consumer Fraud!
I have also issued a Fraud Alert with my bank on all the debit payments and transactions over a period of 12 months. Every debit transaction would be listed as a “Fraudulent business transaction”.
You violated my consumer rights and failed to act on agreement between us for debt settlement. You only collected your fees during this period. December 2007 until January 2009.
Response from New Beginnings, LLC:
On Fri, 1/23/09, Bob Michaels wrote
The fact that you paid us $4,500 is irrelevant. The lawsuit balance is $22,000 plus. Divide that figure by 36 and you get $611/month, exclusive of interest. That is assuming they accept that. Can you afford that? You won’t be able to settle for less than 100% AND get a long payment plan. I don’t know where Joe Chase came up with that number. That would be roughly a 36% settlement. I can GUARANTEE that will not happen. Not once it is in legal.
Hello Bob, lets say assuming 36 months settlement, how much do I have to shell each month? I was talking to Joe Chase a few weeks ago and he was hinting me for a $8000 settlement. is this still on? Can you give me a ballpark figure?
I have already paid you guys $4500. Have you taken that into consideration?
My intentions are only to inform you that you signed a waiver letter which releases us from any wrong dealings. Please refer back to the waiver letter that you signed in regards to said damages. Have you made your attorney aware that you have signed said release at this point? Please make sure that your agreement provides that litigation of this will be in Palm Beach County Florida.
Regards
Joel T. Norton
ACCOUNT MANAGER
Your Account Specialist
866.531.5552 ext. 3114
jnorton@newbeginningsonline.com
Direct facsimile: 561.526.7881
This post was submitted by Raj Sehgal.
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:01 am
New Beginnings LLC is NOT a fraud.
First of all you are supposed to pay your bills. The creditors lent you money in good faith. You promised that you would pay them back and you did not. I tell people that you are better off getting a job on the weekends or selling their car, do anything you can to pay your creditors. Our program is a true hardship program. If something has happened to you, causing you an inability to make payments, we can help. Remember, creditors are not happy to only get half their money over the next three years or so. They have the right to call you and they will destroy your credit score. No one can stop them from doing all they can to collect the money you promised to pay them.
Still if you enter my program and do exactly what we instruct you to do, we will get you out of debt. Guaranteed! If we do not we offer a full 100% money back guarantee. I promise you will be in for a real fight, but you will get out of debt. The problem occurs when people bail out of the program before it is finished. Don’t make settlements that we set up or violate the contract that they signed. If you do, you will be in a much worse financial position than before you began our program. We explain this to all clients before they enter this program over and over and over.
Debt settlement is a good alternative to bankruptcy. It is not meant to be an alternative to paying your bills. Done properly, debt settlement helps the client get out of debt and on with their life, it helps the creditor to get at least part of what they are owed, it even helps the economy because these clients can get on with their lives without filing bk.
But remember, nothing is better than paying your creditors as agreed upon. If there is ANY way you can do that, there is no better option than that.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Company Profile
New Beginnings Debt Settlement, LLC
675 W. Indiantown Road, Suite 205
Jupiter, FL 33458
Tel: (866) 531-5551
Fax: (561) 277-2406
http://www.newbeginningsonline.com/
Contact: Ed Lopes – CEO
Business Start Date: 8/8/2006
Company ID: 27004468
Nature of Business:
This company’s nature of business is Credit Counseling and Management Services
Complaint Experience
Bureau Summary and Analysis of customer complaints and company responses:
Our complaint history for this company shows the company gave proper consideration to complaints presented by the Bureau.
Accreditation
This company has been accredited since 06/30/2008 and we are satisfied that it honors its commitment. The company has agreed to uphold our accreditation standards, which include a commitment to act in accordance with ethical business practices and to respond to customer complaints.
BBB Comments and Analysis
Bureau’s Comments and Analysis of Company’s Business:
We have no further comment about this company’s business practices or analysis of its offer that may assist you in your consideration of this company.
June 17th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
To those who are interested,
Maybe this company has helped a few people, but what about those like my wife who had over $400 taken from her bank account without any permission(other than her giving this company her bank account number for “verification”) and she had just rcieved her contracts for this program. Over a weekend they took money from her account and drove her over $600 in the negative. We are currently trying to contact this “legitimate” company and haven’t had any success. Now we are in the process of contacting the state attorney general’s office, better business bureau, federal trade commision and speaking with an attorney about what actions we can take. The bank has also been made aware of this and they are taking actions against this fraudulent activity. What else is there to do?
September 10th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Jon Clay don’t lose heart. We have to expose this morally corrupt company, New Beginnings, LLC based in Jupiter, FL. I am actually filing a small claim against them. Please do the same.
Please contact Clark Howard on CNN. He has been able to resolve a number of consumer complaints.
Consumer Action Center:
Ask Team Clark on CNN
Call 10am-7pm ET
(404) 892-8227
September 10th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I met all these conditions on the contract that I signed, yet was denied a refund! They reneged on their Guarantee Clause on the contract.
Quotes from New Beginnings Contract that I signed:
_________________________________________________
SETTLEMENT GUARANTEE: New Beginnings offers a Money Back Guarantee for each individual contracted Client account that is not settled at fifty-five percent (55%) or less of the debt’s current face value, subject to all of the following terms and conditions:
a) Client must act in complete compliance with this contract and shall cooperate with New Beginnings and its effort to provide such services;
b) Client must not default on any payment obligations under an agreed-upon settlement for any contracted account prior to requesting a refund under this Guarantee;
c) Client must send a written request for refund under this guarantee to New Beginnings no later than thirty (30) calendar days after this contract is fully performed by New Beginnings and Client has made all required payments to New Beginnings on all settled accounts. All written
requests must be transmitted and received to New Beginnings at their designated mailing address and/or facsimile number;
d) If for any reason, Client is unwilling or is unable to accept the proposed settlement on a contracted account, or otherwise fails or refuses to accept any such settlement, this Guarantee shall be null and void, and shall have no further force or effect;
e) Should New Beginnings be unable to settle one or more of Client’s contracted accounts, any refund under this Guarantee shall be prorated based on the amount of the account as to which Client is entitled to such refund as compared with the total amount of all accounts subject to this contract;
f) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary set forth in this Section 7, this Settlement Guarantee does not apply to any Client’s contracted account that has balance transfers or cash advances, or where Client has not responded to a thirty (30) day letter from a collector; in these
circumstances, accounts will generally be settled for higher than fifty-five percent (55%) of the debt’s current face value, and as such, the settlement guarantee shall not apply.
________________________________________
September 10th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
For all those who have been misled or ripped off by debt settlement companies, please share your stories. I am including a link to speak to Clark Howard on CNN. Please do.
http://clarkhoward.com/cac/
October 29th, 2009 at 3:27 am
Yes –Indeed it is a scam. So many poor and ederly people are getting scammed. I would also contact the better business bureau if I were you. There is a right way to do things and then there are shady ways of doing things and yes they are shady. I was looking for a company to get me out of debt and made up a fake name and social and they infact did not contact any of my creditors because if they had they would have found out that there was no such person as I. I was investigating them and I was right–so please beware. They are indeed being investigated
November 8th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
I froze my account over the weekend and spoke with my banker. I settled with my creditors myself after 5 long months of sleepless nights, fear of getting my mail, my phone? Forget it. My “payment” is due in a few days.