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You may be numerous calls from unknown numbers such as Capital One from 8009556600 or Transworld Systems from 8552457098 on unpaid debt. The debt is behind, but there’s nothing you can do about it. You are searching for debt relief, and come across ClearOne Advantage. Let’s go through the ClearOne Advantages reviews that we found.
Also, you may realize from my blog that I love budgeting and helping people get out of debt. What you may not know is that I was the CEO of a debt settlement/debt relief company similar to ClearOne Advantage.
We had started the debt settlement company because we did not feel that many debt settlement companies were reputable or had fair fees. We now focus on helping folks understand their options, but I realized it would be helpful to share my knowledge of my time in debt settlement.
The purpose of this article is to cover ClearOne Advantage reviews. I will also highlight what I care about when deciding upon a debt settlement firm: 1) Reputation. 2) Fees 3) Alternatives.
We will cover each of those in the 3 sections below
- What are ClearOne Advantage reviews? (Reputation)
- What are alternatives to ClearOne Advantage? (Fees + Alternatives)
- What are the alternatives to debt relief/settlement/consolidation? (Alternatives)
1. What are ClearOne Advantage reviews?
If you type in “Top Debt Settlement companies”, you may see a list of reviews ranking different debt settlement companies. Many of these might be ads where the debt settlement company pays the company that produces the ranking to be ranked.
It’s not to say that these are always less accurate, but it is important to note that many of these require that you pay. So, when you look at reviews, it’s important to try to understand whether there is bias in the reviews.
To do this for ClearOne Advantage, I wanted to highlight a few different review companies that I have found less biased over the years.
ClearOne Advantage Yelp Reviews
I understand that Yelp may have a say in which reviews they show, but I do like the integrity overall with its review system. At the time of this writing, ClearOne Advantage currently has a 1.5 rating on Yelp based on 20 reviews
ClearOne Advantage Google Reviews
For the most part, I like Google reviews because it’s not clear to me that they receive any compensation for the rankings. At the time of this writing, ClearOne Advantage currently has a 4.0 rating on Google based on 521 reviews.
BBB reviews of ClearOne Advantage
BBB appears to charge for its accreditation, and I do not know what goes into that grade. Thus, I spend less time focusing on the actual grade that the debt settlement company receives and the reviews section on BBB.
At the time of this writing, ClearOne Advantage currently has a 3.53 rating on BBB based on 372 reviews with 220 complaints closed in the last 3 years.
ClearOne Advantage Reviews Best Company
Again, I am not sure exactly how Best Company makes its money. I know that Best Company will grade a debt settlement company, and users can also submit its own reviews. When this happens, I like to trust the user reviews more in this situation.
At the time of this writing, ClearOne Advantage has a rating of 3.1 based on 68 reviews.
Total ClearOne Advantage Review
You will get the following blended rating when adding up the views above. Check my math. :0)
3.71 based on 981 reviews.
2. What are alternatives to ClearOne Advantage?
So, you may be reading the reviews above and thinking, “What are my debt settlement company alternatives?”
As I said above, after reputation, I look at fees. How much are you paying the debt settlement company to get you out of debt? Traditional debt settlement companies charge between 15% and 25% of debt enrolled.
Is that a substantial difference? YES!
Before I give an example, debt settlement companies do a lot of work to get you out of debt, so although the fees are expensive, it’s quite a bit of logistical work including negotiations, payment operations, creditor communications, etc.
Let’s quickly take for example $50,000 in enrolled debt. If the fee is 25% of the enrolled debt, your total fee is $12,500. If the fee is 15%, your total fee is now just $7,500. That is a $5,000 savings just on the fee.
How does that now relate to you? Either you get out of debt faster or your monthly payment is smaller. For the above example, you may have a plan of $781.25 vs $677.08 for 48 months. That’s an astounding $104.17 back in YOUR POCKET each month.
Okay. Okay. So, who do I like? I have three companies I would recommend to friends. I’ll provide one of them because of their rating/reviews and they have the lowest fees, but if you are interested in the others, feel free to email me at savedbythecents@gmail.com. For example, one of the options I recommend has slightly higher fees, but I am your point person for questions throughout the program, etc.
So, the one I like is this one. Why? Because Oak View Law Group reviews are solid (more below) and the fee is 15% of the enrolled debt. Oak View also has a legal arm that can assist if necessary.
Let’s quickly talk about reputation. Using the same metrics as I used above, Oak View Law Group has the following reviews based on the same sources: Yelp, BBB, Best Company, Google.
4.82 based on 192 reviews
For Oak View Law Group, you can get the free evaluation here. What I would ask in that free evaluation is about the estimated monthly payment as well as how the law group portion of the business can help in debt settlement.
3. What are the alternatives to debt relief/settlement/consolidation?
Okay, this article is quite long. I do want to end the article covering debt settlement / debt relief / debt consolidation program alternatives. There’s a lot of names for this industry.
The primary alternatives to debt settlement are:
- Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
- Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
- Debt Payoff Planning
- Debt Management
Each option has it’s own set of costs and pros and cons, so the #1 thing I recommend people is to take Ascend’s free debt relief calculator and request for someone to analyze your data on the final page before the results.
The Ascend team does great, free reviews of your data and will provide insights. Ascend makes its revenue through partnerships and donations, meaning that they can provide their services for free (think Credit Karma).
Also, I am happy to answer any of your questions on pros and cons of debt settlement. As a previous CEO of a debt settlement, you can be sure that I have thought through the nuances in great detail.
