I got a call over the weekend from a company called Consumer Services who said they represent a bunch of banks who will allow you to consolidate all of your visa and mastercards into one credit card account with an apr of 7.99 for life no matter what your balances are. They said I qualified because I don't make late payments on my accounts and they see I have some accounts with interest rates as high as 19.99%. They charge a $395.00 holding fee for the information and refund the $395.00 once you have transferred your balances. I told them I thought they were too good to be true. The company says they work for the consumer because all banks want to do is milk you to death in interest charges. I'd like to know if anyone is familiar with this company. Thanks for your responses.
Be extremely careful. This sounds like an advance fee scheme. Thats where they promise you a loan if you pay an advance fee. No one ever gets a loan. It used to be only on big loans with big fees. But, some con men have found it profitable to charge small fees to thousands of people. One group in Orlando a few years back had hundreds of thousands of customers at $29 each with no one getting a loan. Here's how the refund works. You are promised a refund if you do not get the loan. One possibility is that they fold up and disconnect the phones. Then there is no one for you to contact as to a refund. A second possibility (and their favorite) is to have you sign a statement in the beginning that says you will furnish them with all information they request. If you fail to cooperate, they will not have to pay you a refund. Sounds reasonable. But then they ask you for information that you do not have or cannot get. For example, what is the account number on your Macys's charge card when you do not have a Macy's charge card. When you tell them this, they say you failed to give them information they needed to complete the loan so you are not entitled to a refund. Its your fault, not theirs. I understand there are a lot of these operations in Canada now dealing with US citizens. The dual country jurisdiction makes it hard to catch them. Common sense should prevail.
