SB states they have relationships with the banks you owe money to, making claims such as:
• they send a list to their contact at the bank to get a list of accounts that are about to settle
• they do this day in and day out and have a relationship with each bank
• There is a highly unlikely chance your account will go to collection once under their “umbrella” of protection.

Here is what I learned from my dealing:
• they have no such relationships
• They only call the banks once an “automated” settlement letter has been mailed to “YOU” with an offer to settle.
• You accounts will go to collects at about 90 to 180 days after your last payment
• You will DEFINITELY get sued by Discover Card as they do not settle

There process broken down:
• Pay them 15% of your total outstanding debt as their fee based on their claims that they will get the banks to settle for pennies on the dollar an average of say 25%, so with their fees it ends up costing you about 40% of the total debt.
• Sign a Power of Attorney form that they claim will be sent to each and every bank – WRONG they do not send it, the reason is the second the bank finds out you enrolled in this program your account will go immediately to collects or to legal.
• Change of Information: Change your address to SB office, change/disconnect your phone number, tell collectors they have the wrong number, etc. The reason for this is so that when those offers letters come in the mail no thanks to any of their efforts they can call you to say they negotiated an offer for you and here is the offer amount.
SB does not do anything on your behalf other than charge you all their fees upfront even with their payment plan. The first deposits are their fees, which can take almost 12 months to be paid and on the 13th payment you finally start to poll money for settlement. Unless of course you place extra money in the account they have setup, which ALSO has monthly fees onto of their fees. READ THEIR CONTRACT

If you are planning on settling your credit cards, do it yourself. These companies will just get you in more debt and cause more issues. You can’t settle any accounts unless you have the money aside or plan to allocate the money you were paying to an account to pay off the debt. Their upfront fee is about 33 to 50% of their TOTAL fee. IE you owe $100,000, their fee is $15,000, you pay them upfront $7500 (50%) plus monthly installments. That 7,500 can be used to settle your cards and not pay SB to do nothing other than wait for the same letters you would get automatically if you stop paying.

When you initially stop paying the banks with make it difficult to settle, you have to wait until it goes to the settlement department. Which can take about 60 to 90 days, at this point you should start to get letter’s for settlements. Only do this if you can save the money, if not you will only have more problems. Speaking to an attorney is advised however that may coast you just as much as SB fees.

Here are the ranges I got from my credit cards and the lowest offers where when I settled on my own and explained my hardship. I was unemployed and borrowing money from family and friends. I am not sure what SB stated but I do know for a FACT when they call the banks they do not say they are calling from SB, but rather they are YOU and totally misrepresent who they are.

Bank of America: 20 Cents to 50 Cents on the Dollar

Discover Card: 80 Cents but had to hire an attorney which got it to 60 Cent after being served with court papers, but the fees only made it around 80 Cents anyway plus the 15% I already paid to SB, I pretty much paid the debt in full

Citi Bank: 25 cents on the dollar

Household Bank (has multiple store brand cards) 50 Cents on the dollar

AMEX: 40 to 45 cents on the dollar

Chase: 40 Cents on the dollar

All the account settles by SB settle no less than 40 cents, all the settlements I received below that was because I called the banks directly and explained my situation and was able to get a better settlement.
In the end I learned a hard lesson but I am completely out of debt, outside of student loans.