Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. 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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/13/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I used the debt settlement service, paid monthly, on time, for 11 months and fulfilled my financial obligation however after paying back my loan via Clear Coast, I have 11 negative hits to my credit report, indicating that I had 11 missed payments. This company is deceptive, in that my credit was destroyed by using their services. They need to make restitution by communicating to the creditor that the payments were made, and the late/miss payments need to be removed from my credit report. I spoke with ******************************* regarding this issue, he indicated that he spoke with *********** and resolved the issue. However, a year later, and the issue is still unresolved.***********************

  Business Response

  Date: 03/20/2023

  *******,

  You enrolled with Clear Coast Debt Relief on August 18, 2019 to help you settle in resolve 2 credit cards. *********** and Discover. In a debt settlement program, all clients make a decision to stop making direct monthly payments to their creditors, in turn we work out a low settlement on the balance. You were explained on and agreed to on a recorded call "attached", that you understand that not making payments will result in phone calls and a negative impact to your credit rating. You also agreed and understood that we Do Not make monthly payments to your creditors for you. You signed up for a 48 month program and decided to cancel after 11 months because you were upset your credit was impacted and *********** was reporting your accounts that payments were missed. We explained to to you this was part of the process, but we had already reached a settlemtn and the settlement was paid off, with the account reporting a $0.00 balance "Proof of settlement and completion attached". You still wished to cancel, so we closed your account and you were provided a refund of $2,064.45, which was the money you were setting aside to work on your second account "Discover". When you cancelled, we also gave you all pertinent information with on how to work on Discover on your own. This is not a typical part of our service, but your account  manager went above and beyond to try to help you.

  About a year later, you contacted us still upset about your missed payments, though this was what allowed us to settle saving you thousands, but now you stated in an email on March 13, 2023 4:34 PM. "I expect that you will have the 11 missed payments to *********** removed from my credit score immediately. Moreover, I expect, you will communicate that this has been accomplished.". We replied to you the same day stating, "We do not offer credit repair and never told you we did You are demanding that a 3rd party debt settlement company remove missed payments, that you in fact missed. This was not reported in error. this was not a fraud. The only one the can remove missed payment is the Creditor or credit bureaus of your request it, which you certainly can. Any credit repair company can certainly help you with this, but they certainly cannot make any guarantees." You never replied to us. We did our job for the duration in our program. 
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/07/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I signed an agreement with Clear Coast Debt Relief in September 2022 for a debt consolidation program. I wish I would have contacted my bank, however no options where discussed or offered for financial consultation by Clear Coast. To date Clear Coast has deducted $392.20 a month from my checking account which my social security disability check is deposited into each month. I was told that in 6 months I would be offered a loan. I called them lastnight and asked about the loan. ******** said I could apply for a loan. Only 2 of the 6 debts were negotiated. I questioned how I would have a loan amount if the 4 debts were unknown. All debts should have been negotiated by the 6 month period according to my understanding. I was told that he had the right to cancel my agreement and did so in a matter of minutes sending me the emails of my debts and the 2 accounts which had been negotiated. I asked for proof of where the $392.20 per month was applied and not given any proof of this. I want to see what they did with my money each month and where it was applied. I have no documentation of where my money went to and they cancelled my agreement. After cancelling my agreement, they then deducted another $392.20 from my account this morning which I have the proof. I want my money returned or documentation of the amounts paid to my creditors. I feel very taken advantage of. I have disabilities and I trust that when people are in charge of helping me that I should not be taken advantage of. I hope that you can help me with resolving this issue. As God as my witness, I have suffered greatly from this financially, emotionally and my wellness. ******** asked if I was still making my house and car payment at the end of the conversation which was very hurtful to me. I have ate less every month due to the constraints of the financial burden that clear coast has put on me and I would like my money returned or accounted for. I have rights

  Business Response

  Date: 02/13/2023

  
  Hello ********,
  You signed up with Clear Coast Debt Relief to help you in negotiating settlements on your credit cards, and to have your debt free in a projected 40-month term. This was the program term you selected upon enrollment. In the 6 months enrolled in our program, we reached 2 settlements for you, which you were actively paying off through our program. We see you uploaded those settlement documents and attached them to your complaint. One of the benefits of working with us is the ability to apply for a personal loan through ********** after you have made 6 consecutive on-time payments and if you meet their criteria. However, we offer debt settlement services, not loans. LendingUSAs loan is an option we give to our clients if they choose to speed up their program and become debt free faster.

  Remember, at no point do we ever guarantee you a loan after 6 months or make promises that you would be automatically approved. People's situations change all the time, so we never make those types of promises. Additionally, the loan is not offered through us but rather by our partner **********. You were advised that as long as you meet the criteria, you can apply for a loan that is not credit based,but the approval is 100% up to **********. There are two major qualifiers when applying for this loan, you must be current on your car payment and mortgage payment. This is the reason ******** asked you these qualifying questions. We apologize if you took offense to those questions, but as ******** explained to you, this is a major condition to apply. In fact, he never asked you to answer him, he was only preparing you for what LendingUSAs guidelines are when a client applies.
  During the tail end of the call, and before we submitted your loan for approval, you told ******** that you were misled into our program and that we should have provided you options. You also told him that we forced you to sign up. You then stated you would rather contact your mortgage company to refinance instead. ******** told you that its good to have options and he offered to provide the mortgage company with any information they needed to help get you qualified, as we do for many other clients. And if you chose that route, we would still be able to use those funds to pay off your settlements early if that was something you had wanted to do.
  You then stated that you made a mistake again and are going to take us to the supreme court.After ******** consulted with legal, he was advised to tell the client if they wish to take us to the supreme court, it may be best for the client to not continue with our services. At that point, you told ******** that by law we must help you, even though you wished to take us to the supreme court.
  ******** explained that we do have the right to discontinue services for a client in our Arbitration clause due to the client threatening lawsuit without giving a valid reason for it. You agreed it would be for the best.
  When you had asked about your payment that was pending, ******** told you that we are closing out your account which will stop all future program drafts, and he explained that if the pending payment does clear, you will receive it back, along with any monies in your program savings account. Your pending payment did not process due to you doing a Stop Payment with your bank.
  Also, ******** had sent you a detailed email with information pertaining to your 2 active settlement agreements and explained exactly what you need to do on your end to complete those settlements, as they are still active and in place with the creditors. You were given full program transparency via our client portal which you logged into on a regular basis and as of today, you are still able to see a full accounting of your program.
  We were extremely transparent during your enrollment process in September 2022. We conducted a free credit analysis, explained the difference between our program, bankruptcy,and making your minimum payments. We allowed you time to make an educated choice on how you would like to resolve your debt as we do with all our clients. After you made the choice to enroll with us, you electronically signed our program agreement documents and ******** completed a recorded compliance call where the following information and disclosures were gone over with you:
  1. We do not make your monthly payments to your creditors for you.
  2. By not making your monthly payments to your creditors, this will have a negative impact on your credit rating.
  3. Our program is not designed to stop creditors and collectors from calling you and there is still a chance that you may receive calls.
  4. Your enrolled creditors have the legal right to collect your debts until a settlement has been reached.
  5. Our performance fee is 25% of the total debt enrolled in the program which is already included in the monthly payment. Clear Coast Debt Relief receives no fee from you whatsoever until we have performed our duties and negotiated a settlement on your behalf. This fee will be set aside in your dedicated savings account and is only released to us once a settlement has been reached and a payment has been made to that creditor.

  Thank you,

   

  Clear Coast Debt Relief