Many clients who contact us about Merchant Cash Advance debt have also been telling us that they need help resolving a different kind of debt situation with a company called Debt Savvy. At first, we thought that Debt Savvy was just another debt settlement company that promises to help businesses resolve their Merchant Cash Advance debt and other business debt through their business debt “legal advisors” and “credit experts”. However, after some research and speaking with clients, it seems that they are in fact just another creditor that “consolidates,” MCA and other business debt. Essentially, they are just another creditor that gives a loan to the small business looking for relief from business debt, ultimately becoming another creditor. Clients have told us that they were instructed to stop making their payments to their MCA creditors by Debt Savvy just like most debt settlement companies advise once they sign them up to their program but this ultimately leads to aggressive collection, lawsuits and even judgments against the business. It is hard to say whether any attorneys are involved at any point or what they would be doing as well as whomever the alleged credit experts are. What we have learned from clients is that Debt Savvy takes an extremely high fee for their help. They then wait while their fee is paid out over time which can take months or longer just like debt settlement companies do, eventually leading to lawsuits and then judgments against the business they are representing. They don’t defend their business clients in litigation from our understanding because they are not actually attorneys that can do so.
The strategy of taking on more debt at a very high rate or fee to try to resolve MCA debt doesn’t really make much sense in our opinion. The bigger problem seems to be that Debt Savvy aggressively pursues businesses that can’t afford their so-called program through immediate collection and litigation. This is concerning because it seems quite like the way MCA companies operate. Although we can’t say that Debt Savvy is affiliated or the same as any MCA lender, they certainly seem to be similar. We also cannot confirm whether they are an offshoot of MCA lenders or where that industry may lead to next but they do seem to follow a related model on a slightly different path.
Clients have shown us and told us that Debt Savvy is extremely aggressive if a default occurs or if a potential default is even mentioned. They threaten lawsuits and will proceed with litigation attempting to obtain judgments against businesses just like MCA lenders do so that they can then enforce on the judgment by freezing bank accounts and placing liens against porperty. Clients with MCA and other business debts should be careful when hiring debt settlement companies or taking on more debt with companies like Debt Savvy who are supposedly there to help them resolve their debt as they will likely have to deal with similar behavior that they encountered with aggressive MCA creditors.