What is Credit Counseling?

It is essentially a financial service that educates consumers about the possible options for paying off their debt and potentially avoid debt in the future. This process begins with a thorough analysis of their current financial condition. It then involves a discussion with certified debt counselors on the suitable debt reduction strategies to pay off and manage your financials. Further, this process will provide you a thorough education about future money management to stay away from falling into debt.  So, who is credit counseling intended to help, and how?

How Can Credit Counseling Help Me?

If you are struggling with debt and trying to methodically pay them off this is potentially for you. The process can overall help you repair the credit rating and learn how to manage finances more effectively for effective financial management. People of all ages and all income levels can benefit from credit counseling.

The debt relief counseling process is more about education and offering assistance in finding the best path out of debt. If you have a lot of unsecured credit card debt, credit counseling can help you make a plan to pay it off over time. Once you connect with a reliable nonprofit credit counseling agency such as American Consumer Credit Counseling, they will guide you through a methodical process to review all of your options for dealing with credit card debt. They will also take you through the advantages and disadvantages of each option. Eventually, they can help you create a budget for yourself that will allow you to pay down your debt each month.

The critical thing to understand when you are involved in the debt relief process is that it is entirely different from debt settlement and debt negotiation services that are typically offered by for-profit organizations. The solutions offered by these organizations can more often leave you with even more debt and potentially damage your credit rating.

Credit Counseling Can Help You Get Out of Debt Faster:

The aim of an effective credit counseling program is to offer you an effective way of managing your debt and paying it off as quickly as possible. Some profit-focused organizations may offer the easy way out with options such as Bankruptcy or online debt consolidation. These may either end up doing two things. It will either end up hurting your credit rating or leave you with newer loans making it even harder to get out of the mess.

Credit debt counseling however builds a solution from the ground up by first putting together a budget and plan to pay down your debt over time. The process offered by organizations such as ACCC has close monitoring and follow up to help you stick with the plan. The commitment to help you by the organization you choose is key to continuation. Preferably you must go with a nonprofit that’s dedicated to your financial well-being rather than to making a profit. That’s why so many individuals and families turn to credit debt counseling from American Consumer Credit Counseling (ACCC).

ACCC’s Role:

ACCC is a leading non-profit organization that specializes in credit and debt relief and management. ACCC offers free credit counseling and a debt management program with fees that are among the lowest in the industry. When you reach out to a certified credit counselor at ACCC, they will help you analyze your current situation. Then they will provide a list of options to help you get out of debt. They will focus on your financial goals and seek recommendations for the problem. These solutions are customized to you and your financial situation and needs.  If they see a debt management program makes sense, they will then start the process thereon. The first analysis session is free of charge for the customers and your fees will be determined based on the plan you are enrolled with thereafter. again, the fees associated with this program are the lowest in the industry.

Whilst the basic program is structured that way, the counselors are also resourceful in providing you any information and education about handling debt. They will work with you to arrive at conclusions for questions such as “What are the pros and cons of debt settlement?” and is “Debt consolidation: good or bad?”. In addition, the programs will take you through a series of educational programs and materials. This will help you learn to manage money more effectively in the future.

How Does ACCC’s Debt Management Programs Work?

The detailed discussions are focused on creating a plan to pay off your debt and a manageable budget you can live with while you’re on the road to a debt-free future. ACCC’s program includes proposals to your creditors to lower monthly interest rates, to re-age your accounts, or to accept a lower monthly payment.

This program helps you manage your debt more methodically by you having to only make a single monthly payment to ACCC. ACCC will disburse these payments to the due creditors upon agreed lower rates. Therefore, credit counseling with ACCC is also a means to simplify your finances and also reduce stress. When you pay your creditors dues on time it eventually cuts back on the interest and other fees helping you eliminate debt faster.

The cost of this process depends on the type of credit debt counseling agency and the services it offers. Nonprofit credit counseling firms will tend to cost less than for-profit agencies.

Choosing The Right Credit Counseling Agency to Help

You have now decided to move ahead with credit counseling and debt management. First, you must ensure you choose the right organization to deal with. It is best you choose a non-profit firm. Their priority will always be to help you get out of debt. Profitability and money-making is not their priority. You also need to do thorough research on the agency’s good standing in the industry and its history. It is best if these organizations to have been in business for at least seven years. Also, it is important that it is accredited with one of the major credit counseling associations.