MOUNT VERNON — The failure of a local credit counseling agency to send client payments to creditors has hurt at least 15 people who had sought out the organization in the hopes of getting their finances back on track.
The agency’s owner is moving back to New Orleans, but said she plans to reimburse each of the clients.
The Better Business Bureau recently closed four complaints against the agency, Financial & Debt Management Solutions. The complaints were closed as “unresolved.” Two of the complainants, Scott Burden and Katie Silvis, both of Mount Vernon and both former clients enrolled in a debt management plan through the agency, told the News they have suffered great financial hardship because of the mishandling of their payments and the nonpayments to creditors.
Gwen Jackson, executive director of Financial & Debt Management Services, said she estimates that of 15 clients involved, 98 payments did not reach creditors. She attributes part of the problem to her being out of the office for about a three-month period for medical reasons, and also to internal problems within the local office.
Jackson has filed a report in February with the Mount Vernon Police Department against two of her employees. The complaint is under investigation.
Jackson, who opened the agency in 2006, said she is in the process of moving back to New Orleans. She moved to Mount Vernon shortly after Hurricane Katrina. She recently apologized to the clients whose creditors were not paid.
“I don’t want people to think I am just skipping town,” Jackson said. “I would have had to make the move back anyway, because I still have equity in my home.”
Consumer credit counseling agencies offer debt-ridden borrowers the chance to enter into a debt management plan, a program through which interest rates and monthly payments are renegotiated with creditors.
Jackson said she is reviewing all of the accounts and plans to reimburse all of the individuals affected. She is seeking to get the funds from her insurance company. She said she plans to operate out of her office in New Orleans, and will work with Vanco Services, a firm based in Minnetonka, Minn., that specializes in payment transfer services, to distribute the payments of her remaining clients to creditors. The angency’s phone number will remain the same. Jackson added that she has about 10 remaining clients to creditors. The agency’s phone number will remain the same. Jackson added that she has about 10 remaining clients, with whom she communicates regularly.
The BBB report states that Jackson’s agency failed to provide current information for a BBB charity review evaluation.
“The report is not intended to recommend or deprecate, and is furnished solely to assist you in exercising your own judgement,” the report states.
The report further states “ ... Jackson provided initial repsonse to BBB regarding the complaints but did not further respond when some of the consumers continued to disagree with her postion regarding their disputes.”
Jackson said she did not have time to provide all of the information the BBB requested, due in part to her upcoming move.
