Did a company called New Start Capital send you a mailer similar to the one below that offers you a pre-approved personal loan of up to $75,000? If so, continue reading as we’ll explore the feasibility of this offer and New Start Capital’s background.
The mailer may also claim to offer APRs starting at 5.59%. They even give examples showing how a 20-year debt would be paid off in 5 years, allowing you to save up to $930 a month.
Rightfully, these offers may seem too good to be true. Therefore, we’ve done a sizable amount of research to understand the company’s legitimacy and whether or not an offer like this might be true.
My name is Ben, and I have spent the last five years helping people understand the differences in options to help them eliminate debt cheaper, easier, and faster. I have also uncovered debt consolidation scams. I was also one of the first to write an article covering the unfortunate Litigation Practice Group bankruptcy and have spoken with countless people negatively affected by it.
“Your Debt Relief Pal” was created to help protect you from any debt company that may have deceptive marketing and provide you with realistic estimates of your options for debt freedom.
Read below to learn more about the company’s history, business practices, reviews, and an important distinction between debt services.
What is New Start Capital?
New Start Capital History
After checking online, we found that New Start Capital’s business was incorporated on 3/25/2021. These dates match their website’s registration date (3/17/2021) since both were created around the same time.
The company’s LinkedIn writes that its mission is to help “customers with lower to moderate credit scores obtain loans, consolidate debts, and reduce creditor payments through lower interest rate solutions.” This statement suggests that the company has a variety of products that may help individuals get out of debt.
In this case, since we’re focused on the mailer and the company’s ability to offer a debt consolidation loan, we decided to dig deeper into this aspect of the business. After checking the website’s rates & fees page, we unearthed some interesting information. The first two sentences read: “New Start Capital, LLC provides a matching service to connect visitors to lenders and other marketing partners that offer consumer financial services. While we help facilitate the process of finding a lender, we do not lend money and we are not involved in the lending process”.
This seemingly goes against what New Start Capital wrote in the previously mentioned mailer, where they advertised a “pre-approved” loan of up to $75,000. Or at the very least, the mailer was misleading about what role New Start Capital plays and what services the company offers. We can see that instead of providing personal loans themselves, New Start Capital simply works as a middleman to connect individuals with lenders. It is important to note that oftentimes, these lenders may not guarantee the same terms mentioned on the mailer and might have hidden fees as well.
This notion is corroborated by what we found in the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation since New Start Capital does not have an active lender license.
Check Your Rate and Compare Options!
You may be looking for a debt consolidation loan, but do you qualify? Is your credit score good enough? Is your debt-to-income ratio or credit utilization good enough?
I helped build this free consolidation loan and other options calculator to help you compare your rates across multiple debt consolidation lenders and your options to other options if you cannot qualify for a loan. It’s specific to your financial information, so if you have $10,000 in debt, it will provide an estimate of your situation.
You can then check your rate, which will NOT affect your credit score.
New Start Capital Reviews
Now that we’ve discovered more about New Start Capital’s true business model and the ways they might be misleading customers, we wanted to see what the company’s reviews mentioned. We searched on several websites and compiled reviews from various viewpoints for you to read below.
BBB
We first looked at the Better Business Bureau’s website. Here, we found that New Start Capital is not BBB-accredited. This could mean that the company has not made a commitment to responding to BBB complaints.
On the BBB’s page, we can see that New Start Capital is rated 2.33/5 with 4 customer complaints being closed in the last three years. Below we’ve attached a snapshot of what the reviews look like.
One individual mentioned that they don’t know why they’re receiving emails from New Start Capital and that the emails don’t have an unsubscribe button. Furthermore, it seems that the company has not stopped reaching out, even after the individual reported the communication as spam.
On the other hand, another person praises New Start Capital for its excellent customer service and ability to communicate details about the program offered.
We then checked New Start Capital’s Google Business page, where the company has 225 reviews and a 4.6/5 star rating. Similar to the above, we’ve listed a few reviews that we believe best highlight what individuals are saying about the company.
Fouzia mentions that the New Start Capital representative “took the time to thoroughly understand my financial situation, addressing each of my questions with clear, insightful answers”. This is a great thing to hear as it shows the company has employees who
are invested in the well-being of their potential clients.
However, on the contrary, someone else says that they “switched your account over to LakeView Law Group,” which is indicative of the bait-and-switch tactics we previously discussed. Apparently, this new company also charged the person more money in fees than they removed from their card. This corroborates what we said earlier about debt consolidation program companies often having hidden fees that may come up out of nowhere.
Trustpilot
Lastly, we decided to check Trustpilot to see what reviews were saying about New Start Capital on this website. In total, the company is rated 4.8/5 stars with 183 reviews. We have highlighted several of these reviews below.
Similar to the other reviews we have shown, the reviews on Trustpilot seem to mention more or less the same things. In this case, the vast majority of the reviews are positive, with many people noting that the representatives they worked with were extremely kind and helpful. However, these are also a small majority of reviews that bring up issues such as callers being incredibly rude and hanging up on potential clients after they declined the initial offer.
Important Distinction: Debt Consolidation Loans vs Debt Consolidation Programs
After delving into New Start Capital’s business model and what reviewers have to say about the company, we want to cover another debt-related topic that is important to know about. Now that you know the company may pitch a debt consolidation program in place of a debt consolidation loan, we would like to introduce them both so you will be able to differentiate between the two going forward.
Firstly, we will discuss debt consolidation loans. These loans have a lower interest rate compared to the rest of your current debt. This allows you to combine all your debts into a single payment while also cutting down on the interest you are charged—ultimately decreasing the overall amount you owe. However, a debt consolidation program requires you to allow your debts to fall behind in order to establish leverage against your creditors. Next, a debt consolidation agency will work to settle your debts on your behalf for about half of their total amount. The debt consolidation company will also charge approximately 25% of the total debt amount as a fee. This could potentially help you reduce your total debt by around 25%. Nevertheless, it is crucial to remember that there could be concealed origination fees, balance transfer fees, closing costs, and annual fees associated with this approach. Lastly, even though your monthly payment might decrease, the longer loan term could lead to higher interest payments in the long run.
Being able to know the difference between these options, especially when presented with somewhat unclear programs, is essential to knowing what you’re getting into. Being able to tell a loan from a consolidation program could be the difference between saving money versus paying a hefty sum from hidden fees and costs. It’s important to know how Debt Relief Companies work in order to understand what you could be signing up for.
Closing Thoughts
After now having gone through important points about New Start Capital’s business, we hope that this article gives you more clarity about the services they offer. In short, they are a marketing agent for debt consolidation loan providers and do not actually offer loans themselves. Furthermore, the loan terms you qualify for may differ vastly from what was presented on a mailer. Lastly, several individuals claim that New Start Capital attempts to pitch a debt consolidation program as a bait-and-switch tactic—something to remain aware of.
Ultimately, it is important for potential customers to be aware of these different services and what each entails. As always, we recommend that you do your own due diligence and ensure that you understand exactly what you’re getting yourself into.
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