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Free Credit Counseling Service and Fees

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You may want to consider free credit counseling services instead of fee based credit counseling services. As the name implies these are free services provided by non-profit groups. These groups provide credit counselors who will either sit down with you or consult with you over the phone.

If you have finally reached the point that you feel need help. Perhaps, you have if you have accumulated quite a bit of unsecured debt and you just cannot seem to be able climb out of that hole. For whatever reason, you just cannot get a handle on managing your finances. It may be time to make an appointment with a free credit counseling service.

There are many places where you can obtain free credit counseling. You will have to look around at places like universities, perhaps credit unions, military bases and possibly hospitals. It depends on your situation and type of debt. You can also find classes on money management at community colleges, but these are not usually free.

You can also read articles online and follow links you find online for free credit counseling companies. But are these services really free or do you have to pay?

If you have reached the point of needing help managing your money, you can get advice from one of the free credit counseling services. Or, you can locate one of the debt consolidation companies which are not totally nonprofit. For a small monthly charge, often less than twenty dollars, these companies can help you.

The credit counseling services help you by contacting all of your lenders. The service then negotiates a new interest rate which is lower than your current interest rate. Sometimes, they can get that interest rate almost down to zero. In many cases, the credit counseling service can erase late fees, and bring you up to date on your payments. Essentially, they wipe the slate clean for you.

The credit counseling services will make your payments to all your creditors for you. What you have to do in turn is make a monthly payment to them. Typically, this payment is a lot lower than what you are currently paying.

So the choice is yours. You can search for free credit counseling and get help by sitting down and talking about your finances with a counselor. They can assist you to help yourself, which means dealing with the credit card companies yourself. If you deal with the credit card companies yourself, generally you will not be able to get your interest rates lowered on your own.

Or, you can find one of the reputable companies, and pay them a very small monthly fee. This will allow you to get your debts paid more quickly and become debt free sooner.