A woman called me yesterday for a consultation because a debt settlement “program” company (I call them DSCs) had overdrawn her bank account.  This nice lady had no assets, bad credit, and poverty level income.  However, the DSC had told her that bankruptcy was not the right option for her.  Instead, they convinced her to start making automatic $425 per month payments toward a “settlement fund” and to pay the DSC three installments of $425 so they could start negotiating payments on her debts (these companies set up automatic withdrawals for these payments for their own benefit, not the consumer’s convenience).  She called the DSC at the end of January to stop the February automatic withdrawal from her account because she had no money to cover it.  However, she was told “oh, I’m sorry, you only gave us 6 days notice and we can’t stop the payment.  She also tried to stop the March payment, but the DCS took it anyway.  When she tried to cancel the service, she was told that, even though the DSC had only written ONE LETTER on her behalf, she still owed all three fee payments of $425.  When I told her that when my firm sends a simple introductory letter to a debt collector our clients are only charged $16, she was shocked.