  Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 3119 Registered: 01-2006 |
Anyone know anything about this company? A search, on the Better Business Bureau website, yielded no results. The company has a website, but then, who the hell doesn't? I told a computer-less neighbor I would look into it. So far, it looks like I should tell her to ignore the letter, but I don't want to mislead her into blowing off a possibly-legit opportunity. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19342 Registered: 11-2006 |
The title is not so great. "counseling"?? How about live within your means, renting is not a bad thing while you build up to being a homeowner. There you go, all set. What more counseling is needed? | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 3983 Registered: 01-2005 |
I've heard a lot of stories recently about "Foreclosure counseling firms", all bad. They want money up front, usually around two, three thousand bucks, and they say they will negotiate with your mortgage holder for you. Half the time they just disappear with your money. The other half, they just initiate dialogue with your mortgage holder that you could have done yourself....without putting bucks up front. Suze Orman, superb financial advisor on CNBC, devoted a large portion of her show to this topic last Saturday. She said: "BEWARE." (Message edited by Ray1936 on March 11, 2009) | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19345 Registered: 11-2006 |
Figures. Who owns these operations? Madoff? Barney Frank? | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 2949 Registered: 08-2007 |
Right, there are free services available to counsel people on bringing their spending under control and getting the bills re-negotiated. You could do it yourself, but somehow, it does seem more legit to have someone who "knows what they are doing" tell you what to do. http://www.greenpath.com/ http://www.ibudget.org/ And in Detroit, for foreclosures: Detroit residents can call the toll-free telephone number 888-995-HOPE. All calls are confidential and the free service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The counseling services will be offered immediately, beginning April 18 [2005]. Telephone counseling will be provided through Credit Counseling Resource Center (CCRC), made possible through a grant from the Homeownership Preservation Foundation. The counseling services will focus on private mortgage foreclosure and not on tax foreclosure. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19353 Registered: 11-2006 |
Services? To not spend more than you can afford? | ||
Benfield Member Username: Benfield Post Number: 128 Registered: 06-2008 |
quote: Really? You have a problem with credit counseling? Really? I don't know anything about this particular outfit but legitimate credit counseling is an extremely good thing. It allows a dispassionate outside person review one's financial situation, offer lifestyle changes, and advice on negotiating with creditors. Credit counselors help people craft a plan to get out of debt and ensure obligations get paid. What the hell is wrong with that, exactly? The only possible reason someone would dismiss credit counseling as some kind of airy-fairy do-goodery is ignorance. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19357 Registered: 11-2006 |
Uneccessary. A system that requires individual responsibility (capitalism) takes care of this "issue" naturally. | ||
Benfield Member Username: Benfield Post Number: 129 Registered: 06-2008 |
Credit counseling is about individual responsibility. It's about helping someone who has completely fucked up their personal finances and helping them devise a plan to PAY THEIR BILLS. I fail to understand your hostility to a process that helps people who have made financial mistakes take responsibility for their situation. The alternative is, as Harry Dean Stanton suggested in Repo Man, is Soviet Russia where nobody pays their bills because they don't matter. | ||
Johnnny5 Member Username: Johnnny5 Post Number: 724 Registered: 06-2005 |
CC, Even those who had been living within their means are facing issues with foreclosure. There are plenty of things that can go wrong no matter the amount of preparedness involved (Health issues, job losses, falling property values and tightening credit being just a few.)Many of those who purchased near the market peak are faced with upside down mortgages even if they had 30% or higher down payments. Back to the original topic: As Gazhekwe has mentioned there are plenty of free services available for those facing foreclosure issues. I'd shy away from anyone calling or advertising their services on television. They're in it for the money first and helping the homeowner second (or not at all). | ||
Johnnny5 Member Username: Johnnny5 Post Number: 725 Registered: 06-2005 |
Ravine, This thread caught my attention so I did a little digging. It turns out that "American Foreclosure Counseling Center" and "National Foreclosure Counseling Services" share the same exact address in Jacksonville, Florida (7954 Bay Meadows Way, Building #7). Furthermore the company formally known as "National Foreclosure Counseling Services" was just shut down after dozens of lawsuits and actions by the Attorney Generals in several states. They simply changed their name and are back in business within days! Tell your neighbor to avoid these con artists no matter how tempting their sales pitch might sound. http://wcco.com/local/foreclos ure.consultants.sued.2.921232. html http://www.consumeraffairs.com /news04/2009/02/fl_rescue.html http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news /ags_offices_warn_against_morg age_ploy (Message edited by Johnnny5 on March 12, 2009) | ||
Pam Member Username: Pam Post Number: 5108 Registered: 11-2005 |
Don't you guys know by now that CC is a superior god-like being? Anyone else who is not exactly like him deserves to starve and live in a tent. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 3120 Registered: 01-2006 |
My heartfelt thanks to Johnnny5. Ten responses, from a group of five people (I'm not counting Pam, who pretty much has carte blanche to drop in on any thread I initiate,) and only one of the responses-- Johnnny5's second-- directly addresses the question I posed, although Gaz's comments and links were, as usual, helpful & considerate, so thanks to you too, Gaz. Cc, of course, while better ignored entirely, predictably stopped by-- repeatedly and insistently-- to fulfill his manifest destiny trip, pushing on forward in his quest to perpetually interfere while (almost) never contributing anything illuminating or worth reading. Thanks for stopping in, Cc; now, don't you have another thread to inundate with irrelevant, non-productive one-sentence offerings from your Crayola 8-pack of opinions? (Message edited by ravine on March 12, 2009) | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 9607 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Awesome, then you can stop posting! We no longer need your "counseling" on how to live. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19365 Registered: 11-2006 |
Yes, if by "we" you mean citizens and how they live day to day. However, if you consider that "we" vote for these politicians, it is clear that some serious counseling is needed for the left side of the aisle. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 3127 Registered: 01-2006 |
Hhmm, Cc, I dunno; that depends. Are we walking from north to south, or from south to north? | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19386 Registered: 11-2006 |
As in the Zax? | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 3130 Registered: 01-2006 |
Why yes, Cc, quite so, and thumbs-up on your deference to my unconscious reference. But let's not stand here for fifty-nine days. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19428 Registered: 11-2006 |
Clever and obscure. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 3134 Registered: 01-2006 |
The problem with that book was the excessively-dark green pages of "What Was I Scared Of?" (you know... the pants with no body inside them) made bedtime reading very difficult for ol' Papa Bear, here. And that was when I was in my thirties. I'd need a goddam spotlight, now. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19457 Registered: 11-2006 |
I skipped that one when reading to the kids after it spooked them. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 3136 Registered: 01-2006 |
I think mine were a little creeped out by that one, too. Guilty Secret: Voluminous collection of Berenstain Bear books. My two-- boys-- used to love to hate the petulant and generally annoying Sister Bear, while I ground my teeth at the smugly all-knowing Mama Bear. Papa Bear, of course, was portrayed as a clueless lug who was good only for bringing home a paycheck and lifting heavy objects. | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 3469 Registered: 02-2007 |
Quote: "Papa Bear, of course, was portrayed as a clueless lug who was good only for bringing home a paycheck and lifting heavy objects." Of course, the way all men are depicted nowadays. I wonder what is the driving force behind this campaign to smear the American male. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 9629 Registered: 10-2003 |
Easy, all the advertising agencies know they are the only group you can still make fun of. | ||
Rb336 Member Username: Rb336 Post Number: 8690 Registered: 02-2007 |
ya know, i prefer the all men are dolts comedies to the all-wise dads of the 50s & 60s. to paraphrase bill cosby, fatherhood causes brain damage | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 3470 Registered: 02-2007 |
Quote: "ya know, i prefer the all men are dolts" To each his own  | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 3471 Registered: 02-2007 |
Quote: "fatherhood causes brain damage" Didn't Mark Twain say something along the lines: When he was 15 he determined his father was the dumbest man on earth, and when he turned 18, he couldn't believe how much his father had learned in just 3 years? | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 3138 Registered: 01-2006 |
Y'know, I wonder if the "all men are clueless, butt-scratching dolts" image, now so universally popular and widely disseminated, has ANYTHING to do with the proliferation of commercials regarding erectile dysfunction on sports-talk radio. | ||
Rb336 Member Username: Rb336 Post Number: 8695 Registered: 02-2007 |
no, it has to do with the proliferation of sports-talk radio itself | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 3473 Registered: 02-2007 |
Bravo. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19468 Registered: 11-2006 |
Bill Cosby also describes the planned stupidity of many men for the purposes of getting out of mundane tasks by virtue of falsely leaving the impression that they are incapable...crazy like a fox. |
