ComplaintsforAdvantage Credit Counseling Service Inc

• Initial Complaint

  09/06/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This company will NOT file debtors education certificates with the court. This inaction creates a risk that their clients bankruptcy cases will be closed without discharge, and creates excess work for their client's attorney. I specifically recommended my client take their credit counseling course with another agency, through what I assume to be nefarious advertisement my client accidently took the course with these people, and now we are scrambling at the last minute to get her certificate on file before her case closes.

  

  Business response

  09/10/2024

  Advantage Credit Counseling Service, Inc. does not file bankruptcy education certificates with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on behalf of the client.  Agency disclosures clearly state that the completed certificate will be sent to the client.  The agency does not advertise anywhere that it will file the certificate with the court, nor does it do direct advertising to clients who have filed for bankruptcy.  The course in question was completed by the client on August 13, 2024 and Advantage emailed the Debtor Education Certificate to Attorney Pappas and to his client promptly the next business day August 14, 2024.  

• Initial Complaint

  03/14/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This agency was suppose to provide help to ******** ******** in paying off my credit card debt with US Bank. However this agency acting in bad faith withdrew over a $100.00 dollars every month for an entire year never making any payments to ******** ********** two credit cards. I demand to have this agency thoroughly investigated as to why they found it necessary to act in such a fraudlent manner siphoning off my pillage from social security how sad that this credit counseling service agency displays the same behavior as Magellan Public Solutions. That being said, perhaps the office of the Attorney General Jim Petro/Dave Yost needs to peek into how and why this agency riped off ******** with intent to decieve. More over, perhaps the feds should look over Advantage Credit Counseling Services maybe others have been scamed as well. The account in question ******013-***********. See Attached.

  

  Business response

  03/20/2024

  ******** ******** enrolled in a debt management program with Advantage Credit Counseling Service, Inc. on August 20, 2022.  *** ******** signed a debt management program agreement and an Automatic Withdrawal Payment Plan giving Advantage permission to debit her payment from her bank account beginning on September 8.  *** ********’s initial payment was $220, which included a $45 set up fee, $169 payment to her two US Bank creditor accounts and a $6 monthly fee to Advantage CCS. 
  
  For the next 13 months, *** ******** paid $187, which was disbursed to her creditors, less the $6 monthly fee.  *** ******** paid her accounts as agreed until November 8, 2023 when her money was returned by the client’s bank due to insufficient funds.  Agency representatives attempted to contact her via telephone multiple times, but the phone numbers on file were both out of service.  The agency also attempted to mail *** ******** a letter, but the letter was returned as undeliverable.  *** ******** never provided an email address as an additional contact method.  *** ********’s program was terminated by the agency on November 16th, 2023.
  
  On March 19th, after being notified of this complaint, the agency again attempted to contact her via telephone using the number listed on this complaint, but the number was also no longer in service.  *** ******** has been removed from the debt management program.  All payments to her creditors, US Bank, were made as agreed upon up until the agency received notification of insufficient funds from the bank.   At the time of her removal from the program, $2,651 was paid on her accounts.

• Initial Complaint

  06/23/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I enrolled in this credit counseling agency since 3/2022 through 5/2022 and made my payments of $377 that were taking out of my account as ach withdrawal. I have 4 of my creditors PNC Bank, Ashley Home , Victoria Secrets, and Miles stone that have reported me to the credit bureaus as missed payments. When I reached out to them they told me that Milestone di not accept proposal I was never contacted by either Milestone or Advantage my credit was in the 600's now I am 483 this is ridiculous I looked for help and now I have all these missed payments on my credit . I want my 3 payments of 377.00 back to me totaling $1131.00 This has really hurt me financially that this has happened and never notified I put my trust in this agency and look where it got me.

  

  Business response

  07/08/2022

  Advantage provided credit counseling services to this client in March of 2022.  During a counseling session, the counselor reviews with the client the requirements of a debt management program, which includes keeping accounts current until the program is set up and until the client’s creditors have accepted the proposals.  Setting a client’s accounts on a debt management program is a complicated process that requires effective communication between the agency and the client’s creditors.  The agency’s program support team works very hard to correctly set up a client’s accounts on the program in a timely manner, but it is a process that may take multiple weeks.  This is based on the size of the creditor as well as their response time.
  The agency was successful in setting up all but one of the client’s accounts on the program and did make payments on those accounts for three consecutive months starting in March of 2022 and ending in May of 2022.  One creditor did not respond to our multiple attempts to submit a proposal, so the agency was forced to notify the client that this creditor was not willing to participate in the program.  Payments were accepted by this creditor during this process and were applied to the client’s principle balance while trying to get the proposal accepted.  The client decided to cancel the program after the third disbursement cycle, which we executed based on the request.
  The agency apologizes for the client’s dissatisfaction with the program in lieu of our efforts to get all creditors set up and has refunded all fees associated with the debt management program.

  Customer response

  07/08/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********* and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]
  My credit has been terribly affected by this and it was 3 creditors Victoria Secrets, Pnc bank, and milestone that did not agree to the consolidation and has reported as late payments. The creditors told me to take it up with you . So I would like the money back from these three creditors as well as the 50.00 service fee for three months. 
  Regards,
  
  ****** ****

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩