Robert Stanley Gitmeid

I needed to clean up my debt and I failed to do more research and used this company. DO NOT RECOMMEND. They started off well, great customer service and now towards the end I'm frustrated and very upset. I paid several thousand dollars for them to work my accounts and I have to call every few days to... make sure they are doing what is needed on my account. You need to be a micromanager and call them to do everything. They never emailed me to confirm an additional settlement was made and I was scheduled to draft a payment that I already paid. Instead they drafted the 2nd payment without letting me know until I called them and the rep stated It was my fault for not calling them to find out THEY made a settlement and did not notify me. Wait, so I have to call you when I'm already paying you to make these settlements and your company failed to notify me this was done? Several thousand dollars that's the wrong answer and that Representative had no right to say that it was my fault for not knowing when they do or don't do their job! Are you serious? I called to close my account and make a final payment to get rid of this company and they tell me it could take 30days for the creditor to agree on a final payment? Why? I paid a lot of money for this company to make things happen and I have been calling every week to make sure they got my payment, sent in the request even though I already asked for that to happen when I made my final payment. I have to call them to make sure they do their job. This is ridiculous. I can't call the creditor directly since I gave them authorization on my behalf to make this happen sooner. So now I have to call Gitmeid back every week until this payment is made. They do not provide paid in full letters, I was told I have to contact the creditors myself for those, which why? That should be provided from Gitmeid. They don't even provide a "graduated" from the program letter to provide a snap shot of everything that was accomplished and completed by the company to show your are done and everything is paid in full. In my experience this is the worst company. Thank you for motivating me to never do get into debt or have to use a company like this again. Life can throw you unfortunate events you may not plan for, but DO NOT EVER USE THIS COMPANY if that happens. I heard of another company that only charged $1000 or less depending on debt, they were transparent, always emailed everything or mailed out letters to let you know what was going on and gave you a close out of the program once completed. If I knew them before this, I would have NEVER used this company. Find anyone else. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

I am very grateful to have my creditors paid off but the process of getting to this point has been nothing short of miraculous. While Robert Gitmeid was able to negotiate with my creditors in reducing my debt, I still could never have paid this off in any kind of timely manner had I not been blessed... by an extremely generous family member. I don't see how this program could possibly work for anyone without a lot of extra money to spend or help from someone else and obviously if you are looking at debt consolidation, your finances are probably already stretched thin. If you are considering this, please allow me to share my story. In 2012 I was in great financial shape with a full-time job, part-time job and excellent credit score. My credit cards were paid off monthly and I had only a few more car payments to make. My house payment was my biggest expense and it was reasonable. Everything changed that year. Within a few months my income was reduced to a part-time salary and small pension and my car totaled by an uninsured maniac driver who was trying to speed around rush hour traffic. I had to foot the bill for another car and medical bills all on a reduced salary. To add insult to injury, I still had to pay the IRS a substantial amount of income taxes each year despite my reduced income. Also, I live in a city where property taxes are the highest in the state. All of these things forced me to become dependent upon my credit cards and the more you charge the higher the interest rates get and don't even think of being a day late or they add an unbelievable charge. I soon maxed out 3 cards and had nothing to show for it. I managed to pay off the car I had to buy in a timely manner and when I did I tried to focus more on paying down my cards, but by this time the debt was out of control. In 2017 I enrolled with Robert Gitmeid. I was very honest and upfront with them about how much I owed and how much I could afford to pay each month. The person that enrolled me seemed very helpful and understanding, unfortunately that was the only time I spoke with him. As instructed, I stopped paying the credit card companies and began paying R.G. a monthly amount suggested by them that was significantly less than what I had been paying my creditors. Needless to say, my phone rang constantly when I stopped paying the card companies, my relatives received calls about me and I was threatened with a lawsuit. It was not until the first lawsuit that R.G. made any attempt at negotiating with my creditors and even then it was only with the suing creditor and I had to increase my monthly payments to cover that. It was a painstakingly slow and embarrassing process waiting for each of my creditors to sue me and for R.G. to negotiate a settlement with them and call me back each time asking for more money. My monthly payment soon doubled and they still asked for more and still had not settled with all of my creditors. Once I made my R.G. payment, house payment, utilities and taxes, I literally did not have enough money left for groceries. In 2019 I was very blessed to have a generous relative who paid off my house. At this time, I called R.G. and told them that I would increase my monthly payment to them the amount of my house payment if they would finish negotiating with my creditors. It was not until then that any real progress was made and yes when you get to the end they do keep a substantial amount for themselves. So if you are thinking about doing this, look at it this way....It took the full amount of my former car payment, house payment and what I had been paying to three credit cards to finally make this work! Sure R.G. negotiated lower pay off amounts from my creditors, but if I hadn't been blessed by the generosity of a family member, I would never have paid this off in three years or thirty for that matter.

I thought doing a debt relief program would be the way to go instead of filing Chapter 13 - I should have filed Chapter 13. I made the call to National Debt Relief initially and ended up with Robert Gitmeid, I'm guessing NDR just passes people to other firms. In the beginning, I thought it was great.... Several accounts were settling fairly quick. However, I have had 4 lawsuits, which has been disappointing and stressful. Those accounts were eventually settled, but it was the point that they were filed in the first place. The money you "think" you are going to save...you really are not. Between their fees and the 1099C you receive at the end of the year from each creditor, you are STILL paying just as much if not more. YOU ARE BETTER OFF FILING CHAPTER 13 than going through this nightmare. IT IS NOT WORTH IT! I keep being contacted to send them a notarized POA for one of my creditors that I have ALREADY completed twice before. Gitmeid keeps coming back to me saying I didn't put something on it, when I wrote everything on that piece of paper that I was told. Here it is, the end of October and they are STILL putting me through this crap. They also give you the option after you have been in the program for awhile to be "qualified for a loan" for the remainder of your accounts. If you choose to do this, yes, all of the creditors will be paid off HOWEVER, it is now a "loan" and you will pay 24% interest for another 4 or 5 years. So however long you have been in the debt relief program will feel like you are starting all over again. NEGOITATE WITH YOUR CREDITORS YOURSELF OR FILE CHPATER 13...this was a HUGE mistake that I cannot undo now.