Is Credit Counseling a good option for getting out of debt?
The credit counseling companies have been getting into a lot of trouble over past years. Typically non-profit, they claim to lower your interest rates and set you up with a low monthly payment to get you out of debt in 5-7 years by splitting your single payment into little chunks to pay each creditor a reduced payment. The upside is… well there actually is no upside. Because these programs rarely ever do what they claim, and many credit card companies no longer participate in these programs, this has become a serious waste of money and time. The downside is, in addition to above, that your creditors will each enter a line into your credit reports on every account included that states that the account is handled through credit counseling. This will prevent you from qualifying for pretty much anything.