Lately, my clients have been successful getting a refund of their money paid to illegal debt settlement companies. In the past, requests for refunds to these mostly out-of-state operators were ignored.
The key to our success, I suspect, is changing my demand letter to include a report to the Office of the Kansas Bank Commissioner. It is illegal to engage in debt management services with a Kansas consumer unless you are a Kansas attorney or an approved creditor services organization.
I posted about this important Kansas consumer protection law on the Credit Law Network. You can get a list of 32 credit services organizations approved by Kansas regulators on that site.
Getting money back from this ill-advised attempt to pay debts can be welcome relief for my clients to get caught up on necessities and it is a way to pay for their bankruptcy fees. Frequently, the debt settlement plan is not affordable, but since funded by automatic withdrawal from the bank account, it causes a shortage of funds for housing, transportation and food.
You must log in to post a comment.