CFS2 is a family-owned company. They understand "bad things can happen to good people" and have been exactly where you are today. We understand. Bill and Kathy Bartmann, the founders of the company, were deeply in debt due to the failure of an oil-related business after the price of oil plummeted in the 1980s. Because they personally had been hounded by predatory debt collectors, Bill and Kathy vowed to find a better way. Believing they could make a difference, Bill and Kathy started a small agency. True to their promise, Bill and Kathy never treated customers the same way they had been mis-treated. They treated customers with dignity and respect, and quickly discovered that most of those customers wanted to find a way to pay back their debts if only someone would work with them instead of hounding. In the years since 1986, Bill, Kathy, & their team have successfully used debt discounting to help more than 4.5 million American families get rid of the debt that so often tears the family apart. They even won the Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Ethics. Imagine that – a collection agency winning awards from the Better Business Bureau. Though the world has changed a lot in the last quarter century, the family-owned approach to helping people out of their debt problems has not changed. It's still firmly rooted in the insistence that customers must always be treated with dignity and respect and in the belief that giving customers a chance is a rewarding proposition.