Posted on 06/14/2009 12:34:13 PM PDT by NoPrisoners
Having lost my job several months ago due to *downsizing*, I'm just wondering if anyone has had any experience with those credit counseling services.
I've been using my savings, but this resource is now exhausted. I just got hired by another firm, but I'm a month behind in bills and won't get paid for another month.
Anyone know anything useful about credit counselors, or which ones to stay away from?
Thanks in advance for those leaving constructive messages!
I’ll chime in with an agreemnent to the others. You don’t need one of those services, especially if you have a new job and you’ll only a month behind. You may find yourself paying more interest charges than you’d like in the short term, but you can handle this yourself.
I've done that before and usually if you pay what you say you will when you say you will not too damage is done. Just don't wait and wait till they call you.
Do NOT use any agency that charges you a dime. There are real credit counseling agencies that can help renegotiate your bills, but they don’t cost any money.
Remember that for any assistance you get — never pay a fee.
Well, student loans are another matter, but as I continue in school they keep deferring them. As I still have several years to go, that monster can wait.
I know someone who was helped by a non-profit credit counseling service. I think they were called “Consumer Credit Counseling” or something like that. Someone who had worked in the collection business told me that all the others are scams.
I’m sorry to hear about your situation. This is a big fear of mine too. I was literally thinking about that today—what happens if my husband’s job disappears? Thinking about it more and more with the destruction that is being done. I second the other recommendations about Dave Ramsey. Also, we have a Consumer Credit Counselling organization here in Denver. I don’t know where you are in the country, but you may be able to get some advice from their site:
Good luck to you and congratulations on your new job.
Agree to only that which you realistically can do. If you can't keep any part of an agreement, let them know and they will revise it. It is absolutely important that you keep in contact.
Good luck on your credit woes - but you are not going to be alone...late in Q4, 2008, the revelations of TARP funds not being spent as advertised first appeared and was disorienting and maddening to us all, but to small business especially. As operating capital, cash and credit was frozen, and the help on the way became known as “shovel ready projects” overseen by government supervised “czars,” manufacturing in the US stopped most new projects dead in their tracks.
These manufacturers, the people who actually make things, are the customer base of our company and they are not stupid. That base, anyone that made or manufactured, by hand or by automation, anything that required joining one or more objects together, covers a broad range of American productivity and entrepreneurship, large and small. And they knew that “shovel ready projects” was code for massive unregulated pork barrel spending.
For many years, as I have told friends, family and others, our equipment is used to improve throughput and increase productivity. In good years, that means helping smaller companies who are ramping production up. In lean years, when their buys might be down, it means helping other manufacturers looking for a way to increase production while reducing costs. In either event, we have done well through some very slow times and some very good years. The only time that we would not be doing well, I explained to those who were interested, was when hit by an economic calamity. Well, it hit and we are not doing well. The calamity was OBAMA.
Many creditors will only do business with them.
Buy “Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey. Best $20 I ever spent. I was laid off in October of 2008. Didn’t find a job until April of 2009. Got on the Ramsey program in December. We were in better shape after the 7-month layoff than before it.
Credit counseling services are typically unhelpful. They don’t do anything you can’t do on your own, and your credit is just as damaged.
SnakeDoc
Stay away from credit services, they ruin your credit and lately they have been going out of business and leaving you in worse shape than when you started.
I hope it helps!
Please do give Dave a listen- he has really made an impact on my financial life, and he’s a joy to listen to. People call in with some really awful situations, and he’ll come up with a good, solid, sensible framework of a solution for them to implement, to get themselves out of it.
Only a month behind? Call everyone and ask for payment plan to catch up i.e. You have car payment: ask for an interest only payment. You will pay $30(approx) and then have one extra payment at the end of your lease.
Credit cards: Ditto. Also, ask if you can pay an extra $25 or whatever untill you catch back up while you continue to make your regular payment.
Food (grocery store stuff for cooking), rent/mortgage, utilities, then car....all the rest like credit cards and other personal debt stop paying....build up a small emergency fund in cash......then if you start to get ahead, tackle the smallest bill you dropped and work it till it’s paid, then move on to the next...Like the guy on the radio said, this works.
You don’t need a credit rating for anything but a house...if you save up a damn nice downpayment and have a job and don’t owe and have a job that’s consistent with the payments, you can get a loan.
Skip those credit counseling centers. They are debt collectors and in your case, being only one month behind you are not in any real danger. Sure, your credit score will be impacted but, you have a new job and over the next year you will be able demonstrate you are a stable risk.
If you need to buy anything while you make up that payment you will pay higher interest but, you can still buy on credit.
Good advice on this thread. Probably the best is to get and keep in touch with the creditors, which is difficult if you take pride in being current.
I’d also add you should keep mental track of which creditors are A-holes to you, so that later on, when you get on your feet again, you can dump them for better folks,
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