Debt Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About

by Kevin Trudeau

Are you getting deeper and deeper into debt while they make bigger and bigger profits? Not after you read...Debt Cure$ "They" Don't Want You To Know About! In this new book, Kevin Trudeau blows the lid off the banking and credit card industries, exposing the greatest rip off of our citizens in this nation's history. The credit card industry is one of the most profitable industries in this country, but they don't want you to know it. You can fight back! You can apply Kevin's solutions to your debt problems, and keep more money in your pocket today. You can learn how to use credit to build wealth! Read Debt Cure$ and cure your debt forever. You will How the credit lending business is rigged against you!
How the financial industry wants to keep you in debt!
How the banks and credit card companies are making obscene profits off of you and how you can change that!
How to reduce or possible totally eliminate your debt!
How you could cut your payments in half!
How to correct your credit with two magic words!
How to improve your credit virtually overnight!
How to get free money that you never have to pay back!
Find out why the financial industry wants to keep you in debt.
Turn bad debt into good credit.
Create wealth through financial health.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Self Help, Money, Business, Economics, Personal Finance

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Kevin Trudeau is an American author, salesman, and television personality known for promotion of his books and resulting legal cases involving the US Federal Trade Commission. His ubiquitous late-night infomercials, which promoted unsubstantiated health, diet, and financial advice, earned him a fortune but resulted in civil and criminal penalties for fraud, larceny, and contempt of court.
In the early 1990s, Trudeau was convicted of larceny and credit card fraud. In 2007, he was accused of grossly misrepresenting the contents of his book, The Weight-Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You to Know About. In a 2004 settlement, he agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and cease marketing all products except his books, which are protected under the First Amendment. In 2011, he was fined $37.6 million for violating the 2004 settlement, and ordered to post a $2 million bond before engaging in any future infomercial advertising.
In 2013, facing consequences for non-payment of the $37 million judgment, Trudeau filed for bankruptcy protection. His claims of insolvency were challenged by FTC lawyers, who maintained that he was hiding money in shell companies, and cited examples of continued lavish spending, such as $359 for a haircut. In November 2013, Trudeau was convicted of criminal contempt, and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in March 2014. The Chicago Tribune reported in April 2014 that infomercials starring Trudeau and promoting his books continued to air regularly on United States television stations even though he was in jail at the time. Trudeau left federal custody in 2022 after 8 years, after which the FTC continued to pursue the unpaid $37 million fine.

Reviews

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would have been a good book if Kevin cut out all of his opinions and stuck to the information on how to reduce your debt. I can sum the book up in once sentence. First call your credit cards and ask to reduce your rate, split your loan payment (mortgage, student loan, car...) into weekly installments and send the payment in weekly, do not pay debt that is pasted your states statue of limitation and if you want to raise your fico score increase your credit card limit and do not charge more that 30% of your limit.

[Desiree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike some of his previous books, this one is jam packed with great info! Every other sentence is definitely NOT, see my web site for more details.... I got 3 free credit reports with one phone call! He offers plenty of practical advice on how to improve your score and tons of resources at the end for "free" stuff from the government, etc on grants and other programs that could be very helpful. I still haven't gone through all the links yet as there are so many of them. Just by raising your credit score a little bit can save you thousands of dollars on your next car loan, mortgage or credit card...

Would definitely recommend this one to just about anyone.... If you are a multi-millionaire already and have the best credit score possible, well maybe not you, except that you should probably have credit monitoring on your accounts just in case someone tries to rip you off!

[Adrienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audio CD for this book. There is redundancy throughout all the chapters, he is funny as a narrator, and wants to drill it in our heads. I do not agree that we can piggyback on someone else credit like family or friends, not in a black family to establish credit. Credit scores is important to get lesser interest rates and pay less for mortgages. Most of the things he spoke about, I was aware after having credit cards for so long. Free money, grants, I am wondering if this is possible with the sites he gave at the end of his book.

3 stars

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book didn't have alot of information that I didn't already know. I did feel motivated by it to get out of debt faster though. I did learn a few new insights into the credit card industry, not that I ever thought they were the good guys LOL. This book would be very informative for someone who has no clue about how credit card companies really work, or about their own finances and debt.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, I'm adding a Kevin Trudeau book to my list! Is the royal "we" on a self-improvement kick, methinks? My debt has been out of control since staring my own business in 2004. As I near my 5th anniversary of freelancing, I owe it to myself to kick that pile to the curb. And, what can I say. His cheeky, "Isn't the world full of crooks and idiots?" style entertains me. Hard to do while covering topics like credit reports.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful and useful book by Kevin Trudeau. Now that I have read the book and checked all of the updates to the laws. I am taking action to raise my credit limit on my credit cards, get rid of old debt, add one credit card from my credit union, refinance my car to a better rate as opposed to and have it reported as gone to the credit agencies, and pay off my cars and pay down my house soonest!

[Jen Jenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this read. The material was fascinating, informative, and entertaining. I felt that it was well compiled and presented. I've found the information within helpful and helping propel me forward as well. I have the print & audio version of this, the audio was definitely more entertaining as Mr. Trudeau expounds extra information, and makes funny commentary. Great read, and helpful. Highly recommend. :)

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know a lot of people hate on this guy because he is "charging" people for advice.. This makes me laugh because for some reason it socially acceptable for others(doctors, lawyers)to do it but not him.????? But actually this book has some great tips on how to save your own ass by fighting your own battle instead of dealing with yet another 3rd party. GO get it from the library.

[Keith Flint · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is geared more toward people who are heavily in debt but there is definitely good information that anyone can use. The key with books like these is to actually DO the things recommended, not just read the book and then sit and complain.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the tips were for people being chased by debt collectors, not much practical advice for someone who still pays their bills.

[John Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sales pitch aside good, not great, book overall. Some people consider Trudeau an a**hat and I don't blame them as often he pitches Debt Cures throughout the material as if you're still watching an informercial in 2006 out of high school with no clue what he's talking about. The repetition is good enough to not only get you to take action against who we, the people, put in office and permit to ruin our own governing into the ground - by focusing on what you have to do with your own debts; but also to get into muscle memory. I'd suggest taking notes making an Excel spreadsheet for SOL's and a PDF for all the links with Word templates for the letters at the end in the appendix.

Most things you may already know. However, the secrets at least some of them you may not. You may learn things you didn't quite know on FICO and the difference between reports and scores, how to challenge credit card companies, when and when not use bankruptcy, how to limit what can be biased against you in pursuing new credit, mortgage options to use like checking accounts if you're thinking about buying a home, and may even be a debt collector awhile until things works out for you after reading his book.

Other than sales pitch aside only other dislike is the links to free money. Where I differ from his take on things is just that - he believes the best things are free and I disagree in belief that nothing GREAT is free. However, after reading this, as in some other situations we all can relate to social class aside, this is one free treasure of information. You're going to be looking for hours (assuming the links are still valid from early century) and MAY FIND NOTHING for your situation. However, he gets you in the direction on where to start looking. Only other dislike is not really much to do about student loans. But you can always apply the mortgage weekly principle to your own when you're ready to start paying down them with a higher income and career you hope to choose.

The strongest disadvantage is no new social security numbers, alias names, or cheat out of paying ex-patriate fees to forfeit citizenship from debt off-grid to overcome them at one point out of country where you can't be defaulted or garnished until you have an abundant career of choice the country and freedom of choice doesn't give you. Was hoping for some CIA under-the-radar out -of-sight and out-of-mind way to a new identity and not to keep being a number - huge disappointment. The rich can afford 5 grand to forfeit citizenship and survive out of country on a few buses around another continent to disappear - everyone else to run from our debts entirely or to compensate them? No chance.

[Natasha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried so hard to be very open minded to this book but it took me almost two years to read this and I typically read 13 books a year and this took me almost two just to get through it. I respect that it is trying to help others but I personally found it very challenging to read. It was very repetitive and what I consider basic/ common knowledge. It also took a very long time to get to the point which I found also made it challenging to read. I'm happy that I finished it but I personally just wasn't a fan. It's also an older book now so many sites & information are outdate which is normal and happens. It also had multiple advertisements to the author's site itself which was unnecessary I think. I hope this genuinely has helped some people but this I didn't find helpful. I've never given such a harsh review for a book before but it was just really difficult. And I understand that sometimes it's nice to add larger vocabulary words here and there to make a book more enticing but I spent more time looking some up than I did just reading the page. It was also biased in so many ways, highly opinionated instead of objective. I think it just wasn't a book meant for me.

[Nabela · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's some good advice here...and some not so good advice. I agree with what another reader commented in that he could probably have summarized his points in a much, much shorter book. The audiobook version was nearly 10 hours long, a lot of it was opinionated and rather repetitive. Did I come away with some knowledge about debt? Yes, although thankfully a lot of that doesn't apply directly to me, but he gets you fired up and ready to make changes in your life either way. I liked that. However, as I said, it could have been much more concise and focused with citations to back up the claims he makes here.

Just so-so.

[Cara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spends half the book trying to sell the book I was already reading. Incredibly redundant. Writing style is distracting to any actual information given.

[Jacqueline]

Audio

[Yasir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. The only reason I'm giving it a 4 and not a 5 is because it was a little repetitive. Other than that, it has given me a lot of new info.

[Oleander · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had a few good tips.

[Carmen Alfaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. At times gets slow but good info.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kevin Trudeau's new book Debt Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About first came to my attention when my Mom told me about an informercial that Trudeau was doing for the book. We're both always a bit wary of anything advertised via informercial, but Trudeau's book sounded like something different. In the advertisement (and the book's introduction), he says that he can lead readers to free money in the form of government grants. I'm a graduate student trying very hard to maintain my debt-free streak through graduation, so I was of course intrigued and procured a copy of the book from my library.

Some books, when they make claims about free money and the like, are full of hot air with most of the author's promises falling very short of reality. I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case with Debt Cures.

True to his word, Trudeau provides a variety of sites leading readers to government grants and loan options. Even if the free money available isn't always the best option for you, it will certainly provide some needed encouragement in the search for funding. I know it did for me. As the book says, half the battle is just finding grants, scholarships, or fellowships to apply for. Debt Cures does some of that work for you.

The rest of the book provides guidance on how to lower debt and improve your credit score. Having trouble dealing with a high interest rate on your credit card? Call the company and ask them to lower it.Brilliant. This book is filled with advice, links and suggestions. Even if you don't use all of them (for instance a lot of the information is for business owners), some are bound to be helpful in some aspect of your life be it reducing debt, building credit, or finding some needed extra cash.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me start by acknowledging that Kevin Trudeau does present a small core of useful information in this book. However, there are so many negatives associated with the presentation and delivery of that information that I cannot recommend this book. The author is a self-styled whistle blower dedicated to exposing banks that issue credit cards thereby enslaving unsuspecting credit card holders through outrageous interest rates and fees, which are sanctioned by the US Federal government. The presentation of this message feels endlessly repetitive and saturated with hyperbole, while the author's self-congratulatory tone throughout is annoying. Unfortunately for me, I listened to a libary audiobook instead of reading a hardcover or paperback. Mr Trudeau chose to read the audiobook himself and sadly he's an inadequate reader. The audiobook edition includes many obvious unscripted "ad libs" and the recording's production quality is poor; for example, there is intrusive background noise and the sounds of pages being shuffled. At least if I had read the hard cover, instead of the audiobook, I could have easily skipped large sections of text that were repetitive rehashings of information previously presented.

[Kitt-e-kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

I Watched in Informercal about this book one time and made me really interesting in ordering it (paying for it). Luckily I had no money to, so I got it as a swap year later. He basically tells you like it is about the evil Credit card people and all their fees to make us go into debt. Which we all know they do. I really didn't find but one thing that really could help me in the book and was informational enough to know. But when your reading it, expect credit card companies bashing thru out the whole book. I was just expecting alittle more information about "Debt Cures" like the title of the book. There was only a very few information that was helpful to me. The infomercials make it sound like you can collect money and get out of debt instantly but all the book talks about is stuff common sense stuff we alreasy know. Credit cards companies over charging you so dont use them if you don't have to..Dah! He repeats himself all thru the book just to have pages to make a book. Save your money from buying this book would save you money.

[LuAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book to compare it to the one I just reviewed for Deborah Dennis (The Road to Credit Repair). Although many of the ideas were the same between the books, I learned from both of them and have already put these ideas to play in reducing debt and cutting expenses. Ya gotta love that! No matter what you think about Kevin Trudeau and his infomercials, what matters is that the actual writer (yes, I do mean to hint that this book was written by someone else because it was!) knows what he is talking about and using just a few of these strategies can help you save money on interest rates for loans and your credit cards, and perhaps even cancel some bills for you altogether. Here's one way to save $26 immediately---check this book out from the library rather than ordering a copy of your own.

[Tracy Carbone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt this book complained about the credit card companies who lied to consumers and took their money and got them into trouble. It was a lot of blaming the banks instead of the consumer taking responsiblity for getting themselves into debt. Job loss etc are valid reasons but many of us, me included, can only blame financial irreponsibility for our debt.

Many of the "cures" were unscrupulous and involved lying to creditors or using loopholes that hurt the banks.

I realize that banks can be unfair when it comes to interest rate hikes but at the end of the day, no one forces a credit card on someone.

Since this book was written, the gov't has cleaned up some of the practices the banks were using.

I think there are better books out there for honestly digging yourself out after you first recongnize you got yourself into it, and agree to change your behavior.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carpe diem, though a smooth piece of rhetoric the book must be viewed with a critical eye. A search on the internet for the author's name will provide the story of a man with reoccurring legal problems from the 90's through to last year for charges of fraud.

If nothing else, the book can be read with pleasure as a fine example of rhetoric. I believe the man could charm the birds out of the trees. On the face of it his financial advice sounds good. But, it is odd to read some of the author's claims about himself, the glaring omissions to the story of his life, and to see his persona of self-righteous indignation on behalf of the citizens of the United States.

At look at book reviews from academic publishers indicate that the financial advice in the book is usually good, but everything the author says can be found elsewhere from reputable sources.

[MFJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

written and edited so poorly, we destroyed our copy -- one less 'gift' for the world to tolerate ... and as people who cherish books, admire writers, and who value the nonrefundable time investment we make to write n read them, that's saying something.

the trees are weeping over the use to which you put their pulp when printing this.

in a word, sad. :(

[Vicki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book to be redundant from beginning to end. Most of the tips he provides are things that are just basic commen sense. Maybe because I'm not in dire "debt" straights this book seemed annoying to me. It's encourages people to not be responsible for their own debt and tells them it's okay to shirk their responsibility because the credit card companies are robbing them blind with fees. I think the author is a grandstander just looking to make money off people with his book. In his book he says you can go to his website if you want more helpful tips, so I did, only to find that you need to pay a "fee". Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black.

[Francis Dostie · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, it's feel like the book is complaining a lot against the "system"... Yes it's true that the Banks and Credits companies are really corrupted and closely linked with Gouvernements but I wanted to find out more about how to pay back my student loan faster and to continue to increase my credit score. Kevin is giving from the 2/3 part of the book some common and original tips to help us.

Overall it's a good book. Might have been better if he would have insisted a bit more about the fact of "taking responsibility" and blaming less the "system".

[Chelsea Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love anything that encourages self-thinking and helps me question why I do what I do, especially if it's about medicine/health, parenting, and money matters! This conspiracy theorist motivates me to go against the herd!! He uncovers some interesting facts about our consumer lending habits here in America what we can do to get out of the traps of it!

[Nitewriter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is full of fairly basic financial info, if you have read a lot of other finance books don't bother. Also, he sort of over-promises on what he can deliver on the whole get-you-out-of-debt-thing (I mean unless you've been REALLLY stupid) so, I guess I would skip it unless you have no personal finance knowlege.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kevin Trudeau does a good job of taking common sense advice and marketing it as revolutionary, unheard of, life changing advice. He could probably even sell shit to a hog.

Overall, the book consisted of advice I'd already heard of. Some people disagree with his advice of sending a letter to creditors listing all your assets. Even if you are judgment proof, you could still get sued.