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CB Credit Cards Review of Golden Financial Services
Golden Financial Services

Golden Financial Services review: failure of debt negotiation to fullfill promised obligation 19

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Author of the review
1:16 pm EST
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Company advertising on-line to negotiate credit card debt. After 3 months of automatic withdrawal from my checking account $387, plus initial "set up" fee of $99.00, company had never notified any creditors with proposals. I had been told not to negotiate or even speak to creditors, which I did anyway and found this company had never called any of them.Attempts at calling "customer service" always resulted in a "hold" period of anywhere from 15-30 minutes, in which case one"s frustration level kicked in and I would hang up. No messages left on their voice mail were ever returned.

19 comments
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EConsumer
Tampa , US
Aug 03, 2009 11:20 am EDT

Same thing with me. Was not informed how the program really works how they hold your money until you have enough to neogiate. They do not send letters letting your creditors know you are in their program. This was my hard earned 401k money now they are telling me I can't get it back. NOT FAIR! The customer fee so everyone knows is $375.00 plus the 99.00. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY IT IS A TOTAL SCAM! BEWARE!

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jenny rodriguez
US
Sep 05, 2009 1:13 am EDT

Hi, I am shocked to see this because Golden Financial Services saved my life. I joined the service with my husband. I was told that we would be on a plan that would have us completely debt free in less than 36 months. It has been 13 months and they managed to have me completely debt free. The saved me more that 70 percent on a few of my cards. After seeing this complaint, I feel this is insanity that someone could put down such a wonderfull service. I currently referred my son and also two of his friends are enjoying the benefits of this service. If you ever have any difficulty with paying your bills then your stress can be taken away by making a simple phone call to this company. They saved my life and I am sure they have saved others. Thank you, Jenny Rodriguez.

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Fizz
Barrington, US
Dec 03, 2009 4:01 pm EST

Ok...I am getting ready to have this company withdraw my first payment and am getting nervous. I'm starting to rethink my decision...any thoughts?

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PreferNotBK
San Diego, US
Mar 13, 2010 11:26 pm EST

ok how debt settlement works is the following which will explain why you cant settle an unsecured debt in 3 months. The debt holder is a debt collector and anything you say or do may be used to collect that debt. People calling to find out if the company has been working with them will always get "No, of course not, your attorney, your debt settlement company or whomever you think is working on your behalf has not contacted us". you must know that by enrolling in any debt settlement program to eliminate debt outside of bankruptcy that it will NOT happen in less than 90 -120 days at minimum. And when you call the debt collector on day 90, and you talk to a debt collector, don't be surprised when they lie to you to collect a debt and use what you say against you, and mislead you into thinking the for-profit company or attorney who has a great track record and can give you testimonials HAS DONE NOTHING FOR YOU BECAUSE THE TIMING IS NOT RIGHT FOR A SETTLEMENT. I can promise you that any debt settlement process takes at least 6-12 months. I did my own and i did one through golden financial. It takes at least 3 months for a settlement to be offered, and you must not be paying the debt. If you pay the debt, then you art not a LOSS RISK to the creditor or the bank who lied to you when they gave you the crappy credit card with hidden fees and overdraft charges that you didn't know about. When the bank has to charge off the loan or credit card debt or anything not tied to something you can sell to get cash, like a home or a car, then they sell that debt for 5% of the loan, so for a $100, 000 credit card, the debt is sold to a collection company for $5, 000. This is at least 4-6 months because of the current wave of people trying to get out of debt and stay out of bankruptcy. Of course staying out of BK is not cheaper than bankruptcy. The fee is at least 15% of the $100, 000 in my example, so $15, 000 is the fee to settle $100, 000 debt for $30, 000. So plus the fee, the total you paid back is $45, 000 plus additional fees for servicing, amounting to $50, 000 to $55, 000. So to stay out of bankruptcy, it is not cheap and it requires your maintaining the cash flow to settle the debt for $30, 000 and have some skill in taking payments for up to 5 years to settle this debt without going to court. All this being said, if you lose your job after month 7 or have an increase in expenses or both, dont come looking for refund and then blame the people who ar the members of the United States Organization of Bankruptcy Alternatives, http://www.usoba.org/. They helped me save 63% on my debt with my credit union unsecured car debt when the car was taken back for repo, and i paid good money to settle my debts and stay out of bankruptcy. i was lucky enough not to lose too much income for too long, nor gain too much expenses for too long to stay out of bankruptcy. And i never once thought that i would be out of debt in 90 days, or believed the crappy bank that lied to me and didn't help me while i was current on my obligation. only after i went late did they try to "help" me. IT took me 22 months to be debt free when i thought it would take me 43 months in my setup. yes they take fees, this is not a non-profit! show me a non-profiit that does what these legitimate guys do.

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Charles Behan
US
Mar 22, 2010 5:52 pm EDT

In response to this post, I would like it to be known that the name of the agent Victoria McGinnis has been terminated and no longer is associated nor affiliated with our company. This individual is a sorry excuse for human beings and as a Senior Managing Debt Director I would like to extend my deepest sincerest apologies for that is absolutely not the way we operate. To address your discrepancies they did not understand the program and did not care that their clients did have the full disclosure. They were caught and terminated quickly because all of our calls are recorded for the FTC, and monitored daily for quality assurance purposes.
Again we sincerely apologize and did not want this to be a stain on our outstanding performance.
And we look forward to assisting folks in their time of need. With over 100 agents and over 25, 000 clients, unfortunately bad apples slip into the process. Quality assurance insures they're caught and terminated quickly so that our clients can receive only success.
Thank you
Senior Chief negotiator
Charles Behan

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Danny J Richard
Sulphur, US
Jun 17, 2010 2:10 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

They also post a notice of cancellation that you will recieve a full refund if submitted before 5 days after agreement. They lie and keep most of it as cost and enrollment fees. Of $550, I recieved only $168 and have had months of double talk

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Danny J Richard
Sulphur, US
Jun 17, 2010 2:12 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Golden Financial Services is a smooth talking ripoff. They also let me believe they were from the company I was workning with that they were credible

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Danny J Richard
Sulphur, US
Jun 17, 2010 2:15 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Fizz, please find a more reputable company. BEWARE

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Rich Schussl
San Diego, US
Aug 20, 2010 4:15 pm EDT

Don't you ever trust Golden Financial for paying off anything.
Never allow Paul Paquin to scam any of you for anything
All they do is lie and steal every cent they can
I was guarenteed service and they lied
I was told I get a full refund in 90 days and they stole every cent for a made up service that never existed
They transfer you to numerous reps who change their lies all the way up their bogus company chain of scammers until you have no choice but to sue and cost you 10 times more for litigation while they leave you alone against your creditors
You credit score will be destroyed and take years to recover if at all
I had to arrainge a withdraw from my bank so I could not stop them from stealing my money
I talked with Amber Wheeler after catching many other women telling me lies and when I caught her I had to deal with their biggest scammer Lynn Chidakwa
Lynn ripped off one last payment when I confronted her and then canceled my account with no refund again for lies about non existant bogus services

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Ruth Adorno
Imperial Beach, US
Aug 26, 2010 10:58 am EDT

Hi,
My name is Ruth Adorno. I am one of the managers at Golden Financial Services. I have worked at this company for over 8 years and we work very hard in order to help all of our clients in successfully graduating from the program. We take pride in providing consumers the care they need and support they need while going through difficult times.
Every major organization in the United States that helps people has complaints. I mean obviously Red Cross helps and saves millions of people’s lives, but if you look below I found complaints on them. The same for blue cross, Wachovia Bank and for St. Luke’s hospital who helps children with cancer. I mean for crying out loud, look at what we do for people on the positive side. We have helped over 36, 000 clients this year alone to avoid Bankruptcy and giving consumers the fresh start that they deserve. I mean, there is never an easy road to becoming debt free. When you compare all your options, you have Bankruptcy and that is basically putting you financial well being into the hands of a judge for the next 5-10 years where your credit rating and your public records will be negatively impacted with no chance of resolution for a long time frame. You also have debt consolidation where your credit will show a 3rd party notation for up to 7 years and that is almost as negative as a chapter 13 BK.
Now I would like to get back to the issue of good companies getting complaints. I can name 100s of banks, hospitals and all types of other institutions that we all know and trust to make my point, but you probably can see my point already.
St. Luke's Hospital is an organization that I donate to every month because they help children with cancer. Does it get better than that? The answer is no! Are there still complaints about St. Luke’s Hospital? The answer is YES. Why? The answer is because that's just how it is when people have stress and problems and the outcome is less than perfect for them; someone has to be there to blame. We are here to help consumers. Hopefully people read this message seeing the facts. I would love to hear from any consumers that are in need and hopefully this message that I am writing today helps you to feel comfortable and contact us for help so that we can spread the help throughout this nation. The other alternatives are much more painful, such as Bk.
Here are examples of what I was referring to and there are lots more, but hopefully this helps to make my point shining light on the truth:

snopes.com: Red Cross Charges for Assistance

Health Insurance consumer complaints, reviews and more...

• [PDF]
Settlement Agreement: United States and St. Luke's Hospital and ...

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
Between the United States of America and. St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network, . Department of Justice Complaint Number DJ [protected] ...
www.ada.gov/slukehos.pdf
1. Consumer Complaints about Wachovia
Oct 1, 2009 ... According to Wachovia Bank, they did. Is this a joint account? No. ... All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are ...
www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/wachovia.html - Cached - Similar

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Rich S.
La Mesa, US
Nov 26, 2010 1:00 am EST

My wife and I are making a class action complaint with the Texas and California Attorney Generals for these criminals lying and ripping off all of us.
The excuses are totally bogus and just more lies
I real debt repair company takes care of credit cards in one month very easy, A real credit repair company does not refer to other rip off agencies to justify their own scams and lies and a real credit repair company will never have only account withdraws for payments when checks, money orders, credit cards or online bill paying are much better and safer from real scammers and rip off scam shops like Golden Financial.

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Ze Shrike
Miami, US
Mar 14, 2011 11:14 pm EDT

Furthermore, these scammers are using robocalls to drum up service. So you all know, it is against the law to call a home with an automated system. The cool part about this is that unlike the federal do not call list, violating this law means they owe you $500 per call. You simply have to file a claim in small claims court. Here is how it works:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/06/11/01/1316231/How-To-Sue-the-Auto-Dialers
The Law:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/policy/TCPA-Rules.pdf

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Lien V
San Diego, US
Apr 11, 2011 3:46 am EDT

I just tried with now success to file a complaint with the BBB in 4 states and an agent named Bradley (Florida BBB) refused to accept every attempt and every piece of evidence I sent.
Another victim also failed with the BBB before me.
This shows me that the BBB is either supporting only those who pay them to be members or this Bradley might have a perosonal interest in this corrupt rip off organization.
Everybody needs to file a complaint to the attorney generals office in your states and with the Florida BBB.
All the agents and organizations mentioned above in Ruth Adorno's lies have been sued, fired and are being sued as well as being ordered by their courts to pay the money back.
So Ruth is admitting her company steals and lies as well as Charles Behan (above) also admitting that at least one of his agents lied and stold money and fired that agent but not one refund has been given.
Pretty damn lousy.
Even Jenny Rodriguez above has no Idea that she has been scammed for thousands of dollars and far too many months of bad credit reporting. Anybody with any real debt experience knows that even a rank amature can rengotiate a credit card debt in 2 weeks.
Is there anyone who knows the [censor] in charge of the rip off scam ring?

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Oakland, CA
Oakland, US
Mar 12, 2012 9:16 am EDT

Hello. I am currently signed up with Golden Financial Service, and they turned me over to World Law Group as my legal rep. I have been paying into an account every month $600 to build up my reserve of funds. This is what was explained to me. I have no idea yet if these people are legit or not. I have only been a member for 4 months. I have a big sum of credit card debt that is a huge burden for me. Reading all these comments makes me worried. I don't know if this is a legit company or not. One thing that totally puzzled me is that they make you save up all this money before they take any action. In the meantime, my creditors have plenty of time to sue me. It seems like asking for trouble. Waiting to get sued. When I asked these questions I haven't gotten an explanation that satisfies me. They say I will be given the legal support I need. Well, even when I try to call my legal rep to ask him a general question, it has been difficult to actually reach him by phone. So if at some future time I really need to reach him because of a legal issue, will he be readily available? I'm not feeling so trusting. I do think there is no easy solution to a problem like large credit card debt. I would be paying this debt indefinitely, so that's why I was searching for another solution. Is there one? I don't want to file for bankruptcy. Maybe I'll try that web site someone mentioned: U.S. Organization of Bankruptcy Alternatives. I wish you all good luck. It's very difficult to make the right decision in these cases because you can't tell who is trustworthy and who isn't.

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Rich S.
La Mesa, US
Mar 18, 2012 1:32 pm EDT

Oakland
Don't trust these liars and thieves as far as you can throw a grand piano. Run as far and as fast as you can away from this scam racket. Kiss your hard earned money good bye forever.
These liars wait until the credit agency is ready to either sue you or charge off your account. Mean while your credit is devistated for the whole first year and then God knows how long after that. You will never pass a Government background check until you get this bad credit fixed.
Go right now to a reputable credit repair service (NOT ON ANY COMPLAINT SIGHTS) and your problems will be off your record in 2 weeks to a month at 10% of Golden Financial's rip off price, guarenteed.
Golden Financial is ripping you off and over charging you way too much for thier nonexistant services. All they are really doing is stealing your money and over charging you thousands for just depositing in their own bank and stealing commissions for no work at all while you credit is being totally destroyed.
I got conned by a scammer nemed Paul Paquin who is a sales rep for Golden Financial and works for an attorney named Mo Haffar and associats. They are now being sued by the California State Bar for Illegal Malpractice.
Read the other complaints above yours and in other rip off sights. Golden Fianancial is all over the internet as a big huge RIP OFF. Don't trust the BBB either. All they do is hide scams of the company who pays them to hide their illegal acts.
In the past year I have been contacted by many other A+ BBB rated scam companies and saved hundreds of dollars by trused the RIP OFF sights more than the BBB.

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Margaret from San Diego
San Diego, US
Mar 30, 2012 11:31 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Golden Financial made us sign up for World Law Debt, they charged us every month and didn't do anything. We paid them $3200 and they didn't contact our creditors at all. Now they wouldn't return the money.

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doowahditty
US
Nov 18, 2014 10:27 pm EST

I also got scammed. Was turned over to WORLD LAW GROUP and they just took my hard earned money and didn't do a damn thing for me. Got taken to court by Capital One and the judge told me that WORLD LAW GROUP has an injunction against them for Colorado residents. My calls were NEVER returned nor were my emails. I was constantly harassed by creditors that WORLD LAW GROUP told me they were handling. They told me not to pay the creditors and that I had to pay them monthly for 2 years before they could settle any accounts. I ended up calling my bank to block them from debiting my account. The same night I went to court I got a call from a guy named Edward, no last name, saying he was from Golden Financial and he asked me if I received a check reimbursing me for the money I paid. Now why, all of a sudden, would he call me to ask me that? Then he's trying to convince me to have a LEGITIMATE debt company take over. I told him that I'm not doing anything with them and that I want all of my money refunded. $2740.00 so far. I knew it sounded too good to be true. JERKS!

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Jason F. Whitney III
US
Sep 27, 2016 11:56 am EDT

I used to work for a Debt Settlement Company years ago. These negative complaints appear to be from consumers who were not fully educated about the program and/or how debt settlement works prior to being enrolled in such a program. Debt Settlement IS truly the alternative to Bankruptcy and is an effective means by which to get out of debt. It's easy to get into debt but far more difficult to get out!

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David Linogian
US
Jul 20, 2018 2:03 pm EDT

BEWARE OF Golden Financial Services keeps erasing my yelp bad reviews to warn the public BEWARE. THEY POST FAKE GOOD REVIEWS ON YELP and OTHER SITES. Beware. They also post many fake reviews including infiltrating this site. I ENDED UP IN BANKRUPTCY. THAT WAS BEFORE I WAS SUED TWICE, and that becomes a public record forever, it cost me a job, this happened AFTER Golden Financial took my money, promised to pay debtors and promised that my already 710 credit score would not change. THEY CHANGED MY ADDRESS ON MY CREDIT REPORT WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. ROB ARELLANO IS A CROOK. They were sued in small claims court in San Diego LOST to the tune of the maximum of $10, 000 and had to ARRANGE PAYMENTS because t hey could not afford to pay the judgment -t hat is Golden Financial Services NO SERVICE. Also they advertised to be Better Business Bureau Certified THEY ARE NOT. Crooks, ruining lives. Rob, you and your company will pay in the end. $387 a month and THEY DO NOTHING. They hand you over to Clearinghouse Solutions and they collect your money and hide what they are doing.