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The West Virginia Attorney General's office has reached settlements with three debt-settlement companies that have agreed to discontinue debt-settlement services in the state and refund more than $375,000 in fees to consumers, state Attorney General Darrell McGraw announced today. McGraw alleges that North Andover, Mass.-based Consumer Credit Counseling of America Inc., Addison, Texas-based Debt Relief USA Inc. and Las Vegas-based Acushield Financial Services charged consumers excessive fees while providing credit-repair services without a state license and practicing law illegally. The agreements are not admissions that the companies were violating the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act. "We didn't sue them, but we opened an investigation and issued an investigative subpoena to find out the extent of their operations," Norman Googel, assistant attorney general, tells CardLine sister publication Collections & Credit Risk. "In all three of these cases we reached resolution with the companies, so it was not necessary to file a lawsuit," he says, adding that formal complaints filed by consumers prompted the attorney general's investigation.
