What is Credit Counseling All About?

Many people who are suffering from extreme financial troubles due to debt have successfully made use of credit counseling services. While it is often spoken of in the same breath with debt negotiation it is really quite different.

Many people who are suffering from extreme financial troubles due to debt have successfully made use of credit counseling services. While it is often spoken of in the same breath with debt negotiation it is really quite different. If you work with a credit counseling service you will have your own personal credit counselor who will help you to get out from beneath your debt. They can help get your debts consolidated so that it is easier for you to make your monthly payments. You will only be paying one lump sum each month and it should be smaller than the sum of the payments you were making previously.If you are sick and tired of bill collectors calling you as well as terrified of the collection agency letters you keep receiving, then credit counseling just might be for you.

There is a right way and a wrong way to deal with credit counselors though. First of all, you need to be able to tell the good from the bad. Not all of these services are reputable. Millions of people have been taken in by credit repair scams, don’t you let yourself become one of these victims.

Any offer that tries to sell you a quick fix should be discarded immediately. There is no overnight fix for bad credit. It is going to take some time before you are back on top. You want to look for reliable companies that have been accredited by Consumer Credit Counseling Services.

Once you have found a good service you will have to make an appointment so that you can meet with them. The counselor will need documentation of all of your debts, you need to show the counselor everything because that is the only way they will be able to work out a solid repayment plan for you.

Now it is up to the credit counselor. They will then let your creditors know what is what and explain to them that you are having problems and they are there to fix it. They will work with the lenders to come up with a plan that you can live with, one that comes with smaller payments and lower interest rates.

If you want, most credit counseling services will allow you to send them a lump sum payment that they will make sure gets to the creditors each month. This is what is known as a debt management system. While this is a handy tool, these services have been known to be late occasionally with the payments and this is something that you want to avoid. Late or missed payments will do even more damage to your credit report. What you need to do to avoid this problem is really check out the service and find out what dates they plan on mailing out any payments.

A credit counseling service that is running a scam will ask you for huge fees up front before they do anything at all whereas a reputable company will only charge you about 14 bucks a month. That is one of the best ways to tell the true services from the greedy scammers.

While dealing with credit counselors may not be perfect, if you are in serious trouble due to your debt and you just can’t deal with it anymore, it might just save your life.

Melissa Clark

Melissa Clark is a personal finance reporter at Creditmergency. She has earned a master’s degree in business and economic reporting from New York University. Clark has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University and grew up in Miami, Fl.