The FTC has filed lawsuits against three companies: Economic Relief Technologies LLC, Dynamic Financial Group (U.
S.
A.
) Inc.
, and JPM Accelerated Services, The lawsuits allege that these companies have been marketing worthless credit card interest rate reduction programs to consumers via automated phone calls, also known as "robo" calls.
The FTC claims that the companies have not only failed to deliver on their rate reduction promises, but also their calls have violated the federal Telemarketing and Do Not Call Rules.
Consumers who responded to one of these robo calls would speak with a telemarketer who would tell them that the interest rate program would allow them to save thousands of dollars in interest within a short period of time and so they would be able to pay off their debts faster.
Consumers were also told that to achieve these benefits they would have to pay as much as $1,495 up-front, but were promised that if they did not save a "guaranteed" amount -- usually $2,500 -- they could get their up-front payment back.
Few consumers ever received a refund however.
Consumers should know that they are just as likely (if not more) of successfully reducing their interest rates with their creditors on their own than if they pay someone to try to do it for them.
If you attempt to do your own negotiating and you hit a brick wall, do not get discouraged.
It may be a different story if you try again a week or two later.
One little tip for those consumers whose high interest rate credit cards may force them to make a payment late: Missing a payment by as a little a week or two will often give your account a different status that will qualify you for interest rate and minimum payment reductions that were curiously unavailable to you prior to your late payment.
However, I must stress that this strategy for getting such reductions is only appropriate for someone who was already unlikely to be able to meet the minimum payment requirement.
To learn about your rights and responsibilities when it comes to pre-recorded telemarketing calls, read the following two FTC alerts: New Rules for Robocalls and Reining in Robocalls, which can be found at http://ftc.
gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt162.
shtm and http://ftc.
gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/alerts/alt161.
shtm.