American Consumers Union

Consumer Advocates			Hours of Operation 6:30 AM - 4:30 PM PST
American Consumers Union (ACU) is a consumer advocacy organization that defends the rights of consumers against unlawful, unfair, and deceptive practices by financial institutions, including creditors and collection agencies.

The American Consumers Union (“ACU”) was formed by experienced consumer finance industry veterans to offer advocacy support and education to customers that are struggling with debts. Our experienced and caring employees are dedicated to educating, protecting and empowering consumers in their dealings with creditors. If you have an unmanageable debt load and want to know what your options are, or if you are being victimized by creditor harassment and want to know what your rights are, ACU is here to help

Educating
Many consumers do not understand their rights, which are granted by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) as well as various state laws. When these laws are violated by under-trained or unscrupulous collectors, consumers are often unaware of their rights and are unable or too frightened to take action. This is where ACU takes over - we start by educating the consumer with respect to their rights, to help the consumer cut through the often misleading (and sometime outright lying!) statements from creditors. We also help consumers understand the options that are available to them for dealing with unmanageable debts. Finally, we provide budgeting and financial educational materials to help consumers make better financial decisions going forward in order to prevent problems from recurring in the future.

Protecting
ACU works to protect our clients' rights by contacting abusive creditors on behalf of our clients. We make it clear to the creditor that you have an advocate who is working on your behalf, and that the creditor will not get away with abusive or harassing behavior. We will send formal cease and desist letters when appropriate, and will help you file a complaint with the relevant state or federal agency if necessary.

ACU is not a law firm and cannot practice law or give legal advice. However, if our methods for reducing creditor harassment and educating you on your rights does not stop a particularly abusive collector, then we will help you find a lawyer who can give legal advice and take legal action on your behalf. We have a relationship with a national network of attorneys, and in many cases, these attorneys will take our clients cases on a contingency basis (meaning no upfront legal fees).

Empowering
Ultimately, our goal is to empower you to feel confident when dealing with creditors and collectors, to be unafraid to fight for your rights, to come up with a plan for getting out of debt, and to make good financial decisions going forward.

How To Join
ACU has relationships with debt settlement, debt resolution, credit counseling, mortgage and other consumer finance organizations that pay us to help their clients with abusive collectors. In this way we are able to provide our services without charging any fees directly to consumers. We currently do not accept consumers directly, only those referred from one of our partners. If you would like to know who our partners are, please call us at 866-516-9228 and we will be happy to recommend a company suited to your particular situation.