Consumer Credit Counseling or Debt Relief
Posted by: Tina Gold Post date: December 10th, 2009
Consumer Credit Counseling or Debt Relief
All over the country people are finding themselves suffering from the debts they were encouraged and persuaded to take on when credit was so simple to obtain. With hindsight it may look foolish but it was an easy mistake to make. We were all getting credit card invitations in the mail and it should come as no surprise that some of the people who took up that credit could not afford it while others now find their jobs have gone and they are suffocating in debts. People never expected the jobs to just disappear and now they are having trouble paying off credit cards and loans because their monthly payments are too high for them to manage.
There is some help available that could prevent you having to file for bankruptcy. One of the things you could do is to seek some help from either a counseling agency or a debt relief company. Consumer Credit Counseling and debt relief companies both offer useful services you should look at.
Consumer Credit Counseling is a nonprofit organization which has offices all over the country and you should make an appointment at your local office and take documentation for all your debts showing how much you owe and the contact details for your creditors. One thing that often comes as a surprise to people using their services is that they will ask you to hand over your credit cards and you will watch as they cut them in half. I have heard of some offices using the pieces to produce some wall art of the old cut up credit cards their customers brought in. Once the shock of the credit card destruction is over you will sit down with your counselor and through all the details of each one of your debts. They will try to contact each of your creditors to discus the debt and try to renegotiate the repayments. You can expect this appointment to take anything up to several hours as they go through your debts trying to sort out more manageable repayments. When you have done this they will work out a monthly payment deal that requires you to pay the CCC a specific payment every month, which they then share up between your different creditors.
You will find debt relief companies work in a very similar way and the big difference is that they are profit-making organizations and they are in business to make money from supplying their services to you. You will find that they probably won’t require you to cut up your credit cards but you should consider doing this yourself. You may not get the personalized levels of service and counseling as you would at CCC. Just because they make a profit does not mean you will get a bad deal but a debt relief company will need to make a profit somewhere on the arrangement. If you have no Consumer Credit Counseling office in your area, a debt relief company may be the best option for you.
If you compare the Consumer Credit Counseling service and the debt relief agencies, CCC is the clear winner simply because they do not need to profit from their services to you. However, debt relief agencies can often offer many benefits. When you need help with your debts, any knowledgeable and experienced advice will be helpful and well worth listening to. You should always consider getting some help to deal with your debts before you consider filing for bankruptcy. Going bankrupt can be a devastating thing to happen to you and to your credit rating. Getting debt management advice may make the difference so that a bankruptcy can be avoided.
Tina Gold
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