Credit Card Counseling Can Help You Be Debt Free
You may have seen the commercials on TV for “Freedom Debt Relief” and credit card counseling. These services claim to help you regain control of your life by offering credit card debt reduction. In some cases, they may even be able to repair your credit to a certain extent. In fact, debt counseling has become a $7 billion a year industry, yet how do you know if these are debt/credit repair scams or legitimate businesses?
Ten years ago, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and their affiliates at Consumer Credit Counseling Services dominated the credit card counseling scene. They worked with creditors to negotiate payment plans, debt settlements and lower interest rates for people who were slipping behind. However, the rise in consumer debt prompted hundreds of start-ups who were as savvy in the world of advertising as they were credit repair scams.
Some of the competitors, which were often called “debt settlement specialists,” charged big upfront fees to pay off multiple creditors for mere pennies on the dollar. Often, people would pay as much as $3,000 off-the-bat to get their accounts up-to-date, only to find that the debt settlers were not paying off their creditors at all! To find a legitimate business, it is recommended that you verify their identity through the Better Business Bureau and stick with one of the well-known, non-profit organizations, like the aforementioned NFCC and CCCS.
You may have heard rumors that credit card counseling may trash your credit and be worse than bankruptcy. However, bankruptcy will be the worst kind of hit on your credit score for ten years. By contrast, a credit counselor will add a notation to your files saying you’re enrolled in credit counseling. Sometimes, a debt settlement will be reached with creditors, which never looks as good as if you had paid off the full amount. Some loans may even require you to go back and pay off the remainder of your old settlements before lending to you. Even though you’re paying down your debt, it’s unlikely that you’ll see that low credit score improve. To really repair your credit, you’ll need to create a new, responsible payment history and begin re-establishing good credit.
You may be able to bypass credit card counseling by working on your own to create more responsible spending habits. Limit your impulse buys and begin keeping track of where each dime gets spent. You may be surprised! Treat credit card purchases like debit, subtracting from your savings each time you use it. Don’t promise yourself you’ll “pay it off next month” because you won’t. If you feel like you need a friend, then you may still want to look for a credit card debt reduction company.