I will not sugar coat this story at all. I'm 29 & my credit history is shaky at best. In Dec when I decided to buy my 1st home I was flat out denied. This was devastating to me. I have a great/stable job, make decent money. I decided it was time for major changes. I spoke w/over 12 Collection Agency's. I decided that if a collection was 5+ yrs I would try to negotiate a lower pay off. Less than 5 yrs I needed to pay off myself in full. Since Dec 2nd 2009 (today is March 9th 2010) I raised my credit score from a 499 to a 643 on my own just simply by paying off the debts & keeping my debt to credit ratio low. I finally line up a mortgage co, Realtor & even find a house I want to make my first home. I feel confident in my credit report as I've paid everything off and teh ONLY thing I owe money on I'm paying monthly (for now) until I'm able to pay it off in full w/my tax refund (6wks). The bank pulls my credit and my score has dropped in one day down to 586 (down 57pts) all bc of this POS, cracker jack company in South Bend called SSI Group. I will now give you my experience w/them.
I had no dental work as a child done & my teeth were awful at 29. I went to afdent (Dr Park) who is THE MOST amazing dentist. I racked up a few thousand in bills there & AFDENT set up a payment plan (thankfully). I made good on all payments until my salary was cut in May 2009. This was better than being laid off/fired but I really only had enough to cover rent/food/transportation. I paid to Afdent what I could & left notes w/my pymts explaining why they were low. Afdent did what they could but eventually had to turn me over to collections. They chose SSI group. Jim from SSI Group began calling and leaving msgs for me. 'This is Jim call me back'. I have no idea who Jim is so I am not calling him back.I call back those who warrant calls by leaving messages. Finally after probably a dozen calls I call Jim back. As I've said I've dealt w/12+ collection agency's in the past 3 months so I know they can be somewhat ruthless. Jim gives an entirely new meaning to ruthlessness. He was downright hateful. He threatened me w/calling my employer, making a bad name for me at work, calling my references I left at Afdent etc etc. I called Afdent to ask about the recent pymts I made which she said she would fwd over to SSI bc I didn't want to ever have to deal w/that hateful man again. It turned out SSI group said 'no, she has to make her pymts here'. I started working w/michelle who was nice until I mentioned how awful Jim was to me on the phone. I explained to Michele I cant receive calls @ work & gave her my cell #. Michele refused to use it. She called me @ work, I was suspended for a day w/o pay. This is our policy.
SSI group is UNWILLING to work w/anyone. Instead they call you names, refer to you as 'low-class' bc you can't pay your bills. They also threaten to tarnish your name w/your employer, friends/family & mortgage lender(s). They are by far the worst group of people
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