Thing 1's Journal: Submission: Has anyone tried the "debt elimination" companie

I just submitted the following to Ask Slashdot:

There is a service which purports to eliminate your debt because banks are violating Federal regulations when they issue credit cards. The sales pitch states that all you have to do is write a letter asking them to clarify their compliance with these laws, and they have 90 days to answer or your debt is eliminated.

They then said most banks will write back without answering the inquiry, stating that "you signed the forms, you owe us the money" but they didn't answer the actual question, so you write another letter asking them to clarify and they have an additional 90 days.

They state that you will become debt-free in 6-10 months, and that they've helped 20,000 people do this in the past 5 years. The cost is $2,995 for $40k of debt, and $995 for each $30k of debt above that (so to eliminate $130k of debt, it would cost $995 x 3 + $2995 = $5,980).

This is not a small amount of money, and although they have a money-back guarantee (which they said nobody has ever taken them up on, i.e. they have 100% satisfied customers), I am very skeptical and would like to know if anyone has heard of this, used it, or knows definitely that it's a scam.

They have a few websites with more information: a sparsely-detailed site, a site with more details and links, and a link to the parent company.

I am seriously considering bankruptcy (as I'm sure many of us are after the dot-com crash), and if this "too-good-to-be-true" process actually works then it'll save my credit from being torn to shreds. (They'll also help you fix your credit when you're done.)

Be CAREFUL!

[KMAPSRULE]

My parents recently went bankrupt and they got scammed badly by a company claiming to be able help them...I know nothing about the company you have linked but here are a few Guidelines :

If you have to pay them money to get you a loan...etc/etc its probably a scam

I dont think there is much you can do to improve your credit other than make on time payments, even with the bankruptcy, my parents credit was ok enough after 2 years that they were finally able to buy new cars to replace the 200,000mile junkers t

"If something seems too good to be true...

[drakaan]

It usually is". This age-old statement is true, and probably always will be. There's a reason that those companies charge the amount of money that they do...it's an amount that a fair number of people can afford to pay, and are willing to pay to a lottery-like system in order to potentially wipe out all of that debt. In reality, you're probably better off filing for bankruptcy or going to vegas and putting down $3,000 on the blackjack table. At least in Vegas, you have some idea of what your odds are.

T