Credit Counseling Services

My son and a friend of mine both looked into these services as advertised on tv. BOTH of them found services that do the same thing FREE locally. My son did well and with the execption of Sears everyone worked with him and he got it sorted out over time and is debt free. My girlfriend is still working on it.

If this info is for you, good luck,

Liz

 

From what I heard (no personal experience), you want to look for local non-profit version of credit counseling just like previous poster suggested. Find right place and it can be good way to second chance without bankruptcy.

 

I just read a rather long artice on credit counselors. I wish I could remember where it was at. Seems there are good, no cost, services out there. But there are some that are rip offs. If they want you to pay anything to them, look to someone else. I wish you luck. I have known people to use reputable services and are very glad they did.

 

Many of the credit counseling services on TV (unless its a PSA) is nothing more than a loan company wanting to consolidate loans. Check your yellow pages for free counseling services.

 

Common sense will tell you that anything advertised on television is somewhat of a ripoff. Television commercials are not free. Somebody has to pay for them. The customer ultimately pays for the tv commercials, along with the salaries of the employees that furnish information that can be received gratis elsewhere. I really get a kick out of the ripoff credit counseling company that advertises "you'll get money back, just for paying your bills on time". That alone should convince you these outfits are scams.
As others have indicated, local non-profit credit counseling services do exactly the same thing free or nearly free. http://www.consumercounseling.org

 

Yep been there, done that. Don't.. the ones on TV are scams. You can do most of what they do yourself. Call the cc companies tell them to close the account and ask them if they can lower your interest rates so you don't have to declare bankrupcy. Most will work with you. Sears definately will not.

 

Credit counseling services can be a bad mark on your credit rating. Make them tell you what it does to your credit rating. Even though you pay everything off, the fact that you went to a service is a bad mark when it comes to getting a mortgage. I have not ever done this, but have known mortgage brokers and they cringe when someone goes to credit counseling because it's hard to get them financed.

 

Going to a counseling service is NOT going to affect your credit. The bad credit you have that caused you to go to a service will affect it.

 

deb, Depends on how good of a come back you make. We got a mortgage less than 2 years after canceling the "service". We used it for about 6-8 months. Got everything caught up and figured out that they flat out lied to me then cancelled it and paid off over half of our debt in a year and a half. Then got a mortgage with little down.