Debt Relief Counseling and Help
If you are struggling to make your credit card payments, mortgage or medical bills and are considering working with a debt counseling agency the information on this page may be useful to you. At Debt Shield, we help individuals deal with unmanageable debt loads resulting from financial and personal hardships. To that end we believe it is important to educate individuals about the many debt and credit relief services such as consumer credit counseling.
Debt Counseling Agency:
If you are considering a debt counseling agency, there are a few things you should know before selecting a debt relief counseling service. Counseling agencies are non-profit organizations that are supposed to provide debt counseling help to consumers. Counselors are supposed to help consumers manage their money and their debt at no charge. In addition, they are supposed to provide credit or debt relief counseling to educate individuals on budgeting and other financial issues. Unfortunately, many of them fail to provide these services at all.
Debt Relief Counseling - How it Should Work
During your debt relief counseling session, the credit counselor assigned to work with you should do the following:
- Review all your financial documents, including payroll slips, monthly bills, checking account statements, mortgage statements and tax forms.
- Review your living expenses, and gain an understanding of your living situation.
- Determine, with you, how much of your debt you can afford to repay each month.
Once the credit counselor has a good understanding of your existing debt and financial situation, he/she should contact your creditors to try to secure a lower interest rate or better terms for repayment of your debt. As part of the debt counseling help you should receive from the debt counseling agency, you will receive a single bill each month. The payments you make should go toward paying off your debts as efficiently as possible. Good debt counseling help should ensure that you are putting all the money beyond your credit card minimum payments towards paying off the highest interest debts first.
Finally, debt relief counseling should help you to set up and stick to a budget each month through credit or debt counseling.
What to Watch Out for
- Don’t be pressured into paying high fees to a non-profit credit counseling agency for services they are required to provide under their tax exempt status. Ask to see a copy of their non-profit tax status and a copy of their fee structure before paying any fees.
- Check the legitimacy of the debt counseling agency you are considering by contacting Bureau of Consumer Protection . There are scam artists out there who will act as credit counselors and take your money without paying your creditors at all.
- Be aware that signing up for a credit counseling program will show up on your credit report and will remain there for seven years. Working with a credit counseling program does not affect your credit score but many creditors will steer clear of consumers who have shown issues with their ability to pay their debt.
- Be aware that many creditors refuse to negotiate with credit counselors and as a result offer you little help in terms of lowering your interest rate or payment.
Credit counseling can be helpful in the right situation if it is provided by a reputable company and meets the specifications we have outlined for you on this page. If you have excessive credit card debt, we urge you to contact one of our debt consultants and learn about our program before you choose credit counseling. Our debt consultants will review your situation, explain our debt settlement program and help you determine if our program is right for you. Call us toll-free at 1-888-397-7546 today.
