Total household debt hit $16.51 trillion in the third quarter of 2022, and $925 billion of that is credit card debt. A LOT of people are struggling and looking for solutions.
Debt settlement is one strategy that can help you pay off your debts efficiently without risking your other resources. You could even DIY it and negotiate your settlements yourself. If you aren’t a DIY kind of person, companies like New Era Debt Solutions can help. These companies have specialists who do the negotiating and payment management for you (for a fee, of course).
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New Era Debt Solutions: Is it Legit?
New Era Debt Solutions (NEDS) was started in 1999 in Camarillo, California. The company website boasts that they “have settled more than 250,000,000 in debt” for their clients since then. The company seems to pride itself on its “truth and transparency” when dealing with clients.
NEDS’ Mission Statement says:
“New Era Debt Solutions is committed to helping families improve their quality of life by freeing them from the burden of debt. It is our goal to help people eliminate their debt as quickly and inexpensively as possible.”
They accomplish this by taking over the communications and payment processes between you and your creditors. Initially, one of the company’s employees will contact each of your creditors to negotiate a settlement for what you owe. Then, instead of making several smaller payments each month, you’ll make one monthly lump-sum payment to New Era Debt Solutions. They take that lump-sum payment and divvy it up amongst your settlements.
To sum it up, they act as a middleman.
READ MORE: Best debt settlement companies
New Era Debt Solutions at a Glance
| Do they offer a free consultation? | Yes |
| How to get started | Call, email, or use the contact form to set up a free debt analysis |
| Fees | 14%-23% of original amount of debt enrolled |
| How it works | See below for details |
| Who owns New Era Debt Solutions | Dan Smith |
| Company address and phone number | Mailing address: 2150 Pickwick Dr. #2863, Camarillo CA 93011 Customer Service: 1-800-988-4387 Debt Specialist: 1-800-527-4421 |
| BBB rating | A+ |
| Trustpilot rating | 4.9 stars |
| Minimum debt settled | N/A |
| Noteworthy features | No upfront fees. Fees are only charged to accounts that actually get settled. |
What makes New Era Debt Solutions Stand Out
With so many competitors out there, what sets New Era Debt Solutions apart? NEDS is particularly good in the following areas.
Client Onboarding
Your initial consultation (or “debt analysis”) is free. And there are no fees charged during the onboarding process. They even offer a free debt calculator you can use to see how much you might save using their program. When you’ve opted in you’ll have access to a web-based “client dashboard” that will allow you to monitor your progress.
Quick Results
Debt settlement programs usually aim to have client debt completely resolved by 3-5 years. New Era Debt Solutions says that their average program only takes 28 months. This is faster than most debt settlement programs, and it is much faster than debt consolidation programs, where you usually don’t save any money and can spend up to 10 years paying off your debts.
Education Resources
A free debt calculator is available to everyone who is considering debt settlement. New Era Debt Solutions also offers a blog filled with educational resources for people to use.
Even the website is educational — NEDS walks site visitors through the debt settlement process and how it works both if you want to do it yourself and how it will work if you decide to opt-in to their program.
READ MORE: Is debt settlement the best way to get out of debt?
How to Sign Up
To get started with New Era Debt Solutions, you need to sit for a “debt analysis.” This is where a client specialist will go over your debt and financial profiles to see if your circumstances are a good fit for the NEDS program.
You’ll want to have current financial statements for both what you earn and what you owe. Your W-2s, 1099s, tax records, bank statements, credit card statements, loan statements, etc. Have everything ready to go before your analysis appointment.
Pro tip: Be prepared to be very honest with your client specialist. Remember: they work with people in your financial situation every day. They aren’t there to judge you. They are there to help you.
If your specialist thinks your profile will fit well with the NEDS debt settlement program, they will walk you through their onboarding process and help you get set up.
READ MORE: What are the pros and cons of debt settlement?
How Does New Era Debt Solutions Work?
As stated above, New Era Debt Solutions specialists will analyze your current financial situation and determine if you would be best served by their program. If they think you are, you will begin making monthly deposits into an escrow account while your specialist negotiates with your creditors and lenders.
When the escrow account contains enough money to pay a settlement, your specialist will transfer payment from the account to your creditor or lender. Repeat until you’ve paid off all of your debt!
Warning: During this time, you will be instructed to cease all contact and payments with your creditors and lenders. This will cause a temporary hit to your credit score, but you should be able to bring the score back up as the program progresses and you establish a pattern of on-time payments.
Is New Era Debt Solutions a Scam?
No. New Era Debt Solutions is a legitimate company with a stellar reputation. A search of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s complaint database had zero results. That means that no official complaints have been filed with the CFPB.
NEDS was, however, served with a Cease and Desist Order in the state of Oregon in early 2021. The order held that NEDS charged Oregon residents for debt settlement services. Ordinarily, that would be no big deal, but NEDS did not have the proper licensing to do business in that state. The Oregon State Department of Consumer and Business Services Division of Financial Regulation ordered the company to stop doing business and to refund fees charged to consumers in that state.
Pros and Cons
New Era Debt Solutions looks like a pretty great company. However, no company is perfect. Here are the pros and cons of working with NEDS.
Pros
- Initial consultation and analysis is free
- You don’t pay anything until services have been rendered
- Their customer service is exceptional
- Access to an online client dashboard to help you track your progress
- Settles debt in less time than many of its competitors
Cons
- Fees aren’t disclosed
- Not available in Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, and Oregon
- No guarantee of success
- Almost 20% of NEDS clients drop out of their programs
READ MORE: How does debt settlement affect your credit score?
Who Should Consider New Era Debt Solutions
Debt settlement isn’t for everyone. If you meet these criteria you will probably benefit from New Era Debt Solutions’ program:
- Are you overwhelmed by your debt?
- Have you been struggling to keep up with your monthly payments?
- Are you falling behind on your monthly payments?
- Is bankruptcy starting to seem like your only option?
- Do you hate the idea of trying to negotiate your own account settlements?
READ MORE: Is it better to settle a debt or pay it in full?
Who Should Not New Era Debt Solutions
On the other hand, if any of these sound familiar, New Era Debt Solutions likely isn’t for you.
- You don’t want to pay (potentially high fees) for someone else to manage your debt
- Your debt is manageable. There might be more than you’d like, but you’re making your payments just fine (if this is the case, you’re better off considering debt consolidation, a personal loan or balance transfer credit card)
- Are you hoping to buy a new house or a new car soon?
The Website
The website is mostly well-designed, but it could use a code check. Some of the links aren’t actually clickable.
In terms of content, the New Era Debt Solutions website is very educational. Visitors will learn a lot about how debt settlement works. What visitors will not learn, though, are any specifics about NEDS’ approach to the process. There is very little information at all about their fee schedule, exactly how long it takes for them to negotiate settlements, what they do while you’re building up your escrow nest egg, etc.
Presumably all of this is answered during your initial consultation, but it would be nice to know more about the specifics ahead of time.
READ MORE: How to pay off $50,000 in debt fast
Customer Service
New Era Debt Solutions has a reputation for offering awesome customer service. Customers report that NEDS takes a proactive approach to keeping them in the loop. Problems get resolved quickly. Customers felt like their specialists and the customer service agents truly cared about them.
Is New Era Debt Solutions Trustworthy?
The New Era Debt Solutions Privacy Policy is vague, particularly with regard to protecting sensitive client information.
For example, the “When We Share Information Collected” section of the Privacy Policy says this:
“We may share information about you with service providers or agents acting on our behalf in order to perform activities we are permitted to conduct under this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.”
The Privacy Policy does not actually spell out which information is shared or which activities they are permitted to conduct anywhere within the document. There is no “Terms of Service” document published on the website.
Another eyebrow-raiser is that this is their entire security statement:
“The security of your Personal Information is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.”
The policy does not define what “commercially acceptable” means. Given that the company has access to and probably stores a lot of your private and personal information, this is not ideal.
To learn more about New Era Debt Solutions, check out this video from Worldwide Business with Kathy Ireland:
What are Customers Saying?
As previously stated, the Better Business Bureau gives New Era Debt Solutions an A+ rating. TrustPilot gives them 4.9 stars.
What’s notable is how few complaints there are at the BBB or on Trustpilot. There are only four BBB complaints lodged within the last three years, all from the same customer. Over at Trustpilot, there are only three reviews that give NEDS less than three stars! Given how much people love to complain online over even the tiniest of slights, having so few complaints is surprising, and most seem to involve confusion over the debt settlement process.
The Bottom Line
Overall, New Era Debt Solutions seems like a perfectly respectable debt settlement company. If you’re hoping to hire someone to help you settle and manage your unsecured debt, this is a company worthy of consideration.
FAQs
When you begin the debt settlements process, you will be instructed to stop communicating and making payments to your creditors and lenders. This can lead to missed payments or even legal action, both of which will be reflected on your credit report and can have a detrimental effect on your credit score.
New Era Debt Solutions can settle most unsecured debts, like credit cards, student loans, personal loans, etc. It cannot settle secured debts like home loans and auto loans.
It looks better than most of the others that are out there. It even made Credit Summit’s list of best debt settlement companies.