If you’re struggling to pay all your bills and have a lot of debt, you may need some help with your money management skills. A credit counselor can help you set up a budget, reduce debt, and avoid bankruptcy. Here’s a checklist to help you choose a reputable credit counselor.

1. Choose a nonprofit credit counselor that offers its services for free or a low fee.

2. You should receive a full disclosure of all your rights as a consumer before signing a contract for credit counseling.

3. You should receive a written contract that outlines the terms of payment, total amount of payments to the credit repair agency, detailed description of services you’ll receive, estimated time required for the services, and the organization’s full name and business address.

4. Any contract you sign should specify that you have three business days to cancel it without penalty or obligation.

5. Under the Credit Repair Organizations Act credit counselors may not misrepresent their services, encourage you to make false statements to creditors or credit bureaus, advise you to attempt to change your credit identity, or accept payment before fully completing their services.

6. Look for agencies that are accredited by the NFCC Council on Accreditation (COA). These credit counseling agencies must be licensed in their state and town, and have been in business at least a year. Individuals are not eligible for COA certification.

7. Accredited credit counseling agencies must be licensed and bonded.

8. Choose a credit repair agency that offers a variety of educational programs.

9. Your credit counselor should put together a debt management plan that includes a full review of your income and financial obligations, as well as a comprehensive plan for cleaning up finances.

10. The debt management plan should outline that funds will be paid out at least twice a month, and that creditors will receive fair payments.

There are many reputable credit repair agencies to choose from. Ask lots of questions before signing up to avoid problems later.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.