Have you received a mailer from Rescue One Financial? Have you received a quote that is lower than your current monthly obligations? What are the reviews?
We will cover all that and more in this article.
Being in a precarious debt situation can be one of the most daunting things ever. It bleeds into every area of your life, making it difficult to focus on other important aspects of your world. If you’re deep into debt and looking for a way out, you may have started researching debt relief companies. Rescue One Financial is one of the companies you may have come across! But what exactly is Rescue One, and what can they do for you? This article will evaluate ROF’s debt relief services, what they cost, and whether or not other people enjoyed working with them.
1. What Is Rescue One Financial?
According to BBB, Rescue One Financial offers debt relief and credit counseling services in addition to a few other services. The two they offer are debt settlement and debt management (also known as Consumer Credit Counseling). Typically, with debt settlement, you can expect anywhere from 10-50% of your debt to be forgiven, leaving you with a more manageable debt amount. With Consumer Credit Counseling, you may work with one of ROF’s Debt Specialists and they will help you organize your debt into manageable payments. If needed, they will also reach out to your creditor to help get you better interest rates, reduce your late fees, or alter your payment plans.
I was the previous CEO of a debt settlement company, and I believe debt settlement can be a good option for some, but not for others.So, debt settlement may be a great option for you, but it’s helpful to understand each of your options.
As such, if you are struggling with debt and wondering what to do next, we built a free, unbiased debt options comparison calculator (not even an email address is required) that provides a wide range of debt options that may be able to fit your budget. The data is personalized to your income and expenses, so you can get accurate costs, pros and cons, and options. Debt settlement may be a great option for you, but it’s helpful to understand each of your options.
Rescue One Financial History
As mentioned above, Rescue One Financial is a debt relief company. Their entire company revolves around offering debt relief services to individuals who need them. According to their BBB page, Rescue One Financial has been operating for over 12 years. They are accredited by the Better Business Bureau and are members of the American Fair Credit Council. They also were recognized in 2021 by Forbes for being one of the top 5,000 most successful companies in America. As of 2018, they had helped over half a million people resolve their debt crises.
I think it’s important to note that Rescue One Financial does not perform its own services in-house. This means that Rescue One Financial’s main business is enrolling clients. Once the client is enrolled, they work with third-party companies who then negotiate on your behalf. While this is not always the case, this might cause some issues down the road. If there is a gap in information between the two companies, it may take a while before you fully know what is going on. It might be hard to get answers right when you want them. However, this also means that each company is focusing on what they do best! ROF is focusing on keeping you happy and informed while the third-party that is over negotiations can focus solely on that!
2. How Much Does It Cost To Work With Rescue One Financial?
At Ascend, we believe that debt settlement may be a good option, but it’s only in the context of understanding all of your options and understanding the cost of that option. This is exactly why we built a free debt relief cost comparison calculator so that you are MOST informed.
Rescue One Financial’s website claims that there will never be any upfront fees. You won’t have to pay for their services until progress has been made. For debt settlement, this means you won’t be charged until a settlement has been reached with your creditors. For credit counseling, it isn’t clear when you will be charged. However, their site boasts no upfront fees, so you can guess that perhaps once a debt repayment plan has been made you might see a charge.
For debt settlement, it is normal for companies to charge anywhere from 18-25% of the total amount of debt you enroll in the program. It appears as though you have to have $10,000 worth of debt to qualify for their program, so this can end up being a rather large fee. It also seems that their typical charge is 21% of the total debt enrolled, which is right in the middle of the range. However, it’s important to know that the fee can change drastically from person to person based on their situation. Because of this, it is best to speak directly with a representative to see what your payment will be.
3. Rescue One Financial Reviews
Overall, there is a rather positive outlook on Rescue One Financial, which is always a good thing. However, as we go through the various review platforms, we will see that it’s likely its reviews aren’t over what would actually be helpful.
BBB Reviews
The BBB might be one of the most recognizable review platforms out there. ROF has a 4.93 out of 5-star average rating from 419 reviews. However, the very first review at the top of their page (at the time this article was written) speaks perfectly to how sometimes, these reviews can be misleading.
Mindy H. leaves a 2-star review and writes that she doesn’t feel as though she can leave a better review. She says that while she felt great talking on the phone with the guy trying to sell her on the service, all he was was a salesman! She wrote that it would be unfair to give a company a high review when they didn’t even do anything for her other than tell her about their program. According to Mindy, she was sent a link to review the company right after she got off the phone with the customer rep.
This is a common problem when reading through reviews. Oftentimes, customers are asked to leave reviews directly after their first phone call with a customer rep. (and of course, that is a great phone call!) However, not many reviews left on any of the review platforms seem to review the actual process of debt settlement.
Trust Pilot Reviews
If you look at Trust Pilot, Rescue One has a 4.9 average rating from almost 600 reviews. However, again, reading through the reviews, it is obvious that most of the people are reviewing the point-of-sale phone call they just had, instead of the actual debt relief process. Even the negative reviews seem to be about the initial phone call.
Google Reviews
The same is true with Google reviews. They have a perfect 5-star rating from 253 reviews. However, almost every review talks about how the person they talked to on the phone was kind and reassuring and answered all their questions.
Because of this, it is clear that Rescue One Financial asks for reviews directly after their first phone call. It is odd how perfect their scores are. Normally, you find a mix of perfect reviews from people who just had their questions answered, average reviews from people who have gone through the process, and low reviews from people who might have tried to go through the process. However, for Rescue One, they almost exclusively only have reviews from people who have been on the point-of-sale phone call. While this does not mean they are not a good company to work with, it does mean that their reviews are not necessarily helpful.
In summary
It appears that they charge a pretty average rate for debt settlement. However, they require you to have $10,000 of debt to enroll. They seem to work with a third-party to do the actual negotiations, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At the end of the day, their job is to help you with your debt. If you would like to hear more about their services, consider calling them! Ask any questions you still have and see if they would be a good fit for your situation. If helpful, please feel fee to take our free debt relief cost calculator below to see the cost and duration and compare debt relief to other options.
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