Credit Counseling: Everything You Need To Know

Credit counseling could be the best first step to ending your battle with debt.

Credit counseling is a nonprofit financial service that helps people manage credit card debt, create a budget, and find the best strategy to become debt-free.

If you’re struggling to keep up with minimum payments, dealing with high interest rates, or wondering how to get out of debt without bankruptcy, credit counseling can help you understand your options.

During a free or low-cost consultation, a certified credit counselor reviews your finances, explains potential debt relief solutions, and helps you build a personalized plan for paying off debt. Depending on your situation, that may include budgeting assistance, financial education, or enrollment in a debt management program (DMP).

Find out how credit counseling works, what credit counselors do, how it affects your credit, and how to avoid scams when choosing a nonprofit agency.

What is credit counseling?

Credit counseling is a professional service that assists people in getting out of credit card debt. These services may also be referred to as debt counseling or financial counseling. All of these terms are roughly interchangeable.

The credit counseling process starts with a financial consultation. The counselor reviews your finances and helps you understand your various options for getting out of debt as quickly as possible as well as how to improve your financial literacy overall. The next steps will depend on your particular situation.

Does credit counseling hurt your credit?

Your credit score is not a factor in qualifying for credit counseling. In addition, when done correctly, the program has either a neutral or positive effect on your credit. In other words, if you still have decent credit when you start the program, completing it won’t set you back.

It’s also worth noting that working with debt counselors won't negatively impact your ability to qualify for new financing.  The initial consultation, even with a credit check, won’t affect your score. Even if you enroll in a debt management plan – a repayment arrangement that can eliminate interest charges and fees – you can still get approved for loans, such as a mortgage or an auto loan. The only limitation is that you cannot open new credit card accounts during enrollment.

It is important to note that while credit counseling does not have a negative impact on your credit score, completing a debt management program (DMP) can.

While the program helps you build a positive credit history, a DMP closes your credit cards. Closing cards can drop your score if your score was high when you began the program. However, people with fair or bad credit generally see their scores improve over the course of the program.

What do credit counselors do?

Credit counselors play a crucial role in assisting individuals who are struggling with their personal finances. Credit counseling services offer a lifeline to those individuals, providing them with the tools and knowledge necessary to navigate their financial challenges effectively. These services provide valuable guidance, education, and support to help individuals manage their debts, improve their credit scores, and ultimately achieve financial stability.

Perform a credit report review: To get an idea where your credit record stands, a credit counselor will pull a copy of your credit report. While the report may seem like a bunch of hard-to-decipher credit history to you, a trained credit counselor knows what to look for and where you need improvement.

The credit counselor can go over your credit report section by section, explaining what all those numbers and notations mean, and offer suggestions on how to improve your credit score.

Create a debt management plan: When you owe a lot of creditors, the monthly bills can pile up fast. A nonprofit credit counselor can set up agreements with you and your creditors, allowing you to make one lump sum payment to the credit counseling agency every month. Then the agency sends the agreed-upon monthly payments to your creditors.

Teach how to manage money better: If no one showed you how to manage money, how interest works or how to create a budget, it’s never too late to learn. Along with helping you create a monthly budget so your money goes further, nonprofit credit counseling agencies also offer planning tools and calculators, homeownership and foreclosure prevention counseling, and bankruptcy counseling.

Explain debt management options: Don’t stumble through the fine print of debt-relief options alone. A credit counselor can help you understand the difference between debt settlement and debt consolidation and explain the pros and cons of each, along with offering other options, including a debt management plan.

Improve money habits: Putting together a monthly budget is a great start, but what about examining your daily spending habits? When you meet with a credit counselor in-person or by phone, he or she can help you determine where you’re frittering away money on mindless purchases and what you can do instead.

Then the two of you can come up with ways to improve your money habits so you can pay off debt and prevent racking up more debt later.

• Answer questions about different strategies for getting out of debt
• Assist you in identifying the right solution for your immediate and long-term financial needs
• Help you eliminate your existing credit card balances and possibly other unsecured debts, like unpaid medical bills and payday loans
• Eliminate the hassle of collection calls (once you enroll, you can pick up the phone and tell them you’re working with an agency)
• Provide resources to build financial literacy
• Teach you how to budget and manage credit effectively
• Help you establish long-term financial stability

What can’t they do?

• Repair your credit (that’s a different service)
• Provide immediate debt forgiveness – Debt management programs (DMP) take about 36 to 60 payments, on average
• Negotiate settlements with your creditors – Some agencies may offer less-than-full-balance programs that only pay back a portion of what you owe, but these are preset agreements that creditors offer for customers facing severe financial hardship
• Provide direct assistance for other types of debt – Mortgage, back taxes, or student loans; however, they can refer you to other service providers
• Stop existing court actions regarding your debt – If a collector already sued you and won, the ruling stands

What to expect in a credit counseling session

A certified credit counselor will evaluate your debts, budget, and credit. You’ll also talk about your financial needs and goals. Then, they’ll help you identify the best method of getting out of debt considering your unique situation. In addition to teaching you how to better manage your money, they can actively help you reduce your debt by enrolling you in a debt management program (DMP).

The first step in credit counseling will always begin with a consultation which can take between 30 minutes to an hour. Have your financial documents, like your most recent credit card statements, available for reference so that you can share all necessary financial information such as balances and interest rates. You will also need to share the last four digits of your Social Security number for a soft credit pull.

How does credit counseling work?

When faced with overdue notices, late fees, and collections notices, things can quickly become overwhelming. A common problem when people face financial challenges is that they don't know what debt relief solutions are available to them. Most people don’t look into them until they’re already in debt.

Step 1: Contact a credit counselor

Certified credit counselors are trained to be knowledgeable about all available debt solutions. They can assess which debt relief strategy is best for your unique financial situation.  A credit counseling session is usually done over the phone. However, the consultation can also take place in person or start online by filling out a form detailing your situation.

Step 2: Assessment of your financial situation

To start the credit counseling process, the counselor will ask for some basic information about your financial situation. Be prepared to share information including:

1. Your income
2. Current debts, including secured loans like your mortgage or auto loan
3. Monthly expenses – i.e. groceries, gas, entertainment, subscriptions… everything in your budget
4. Current balances on your credit cards as well as the APR on each account
5. Other obligations, such as payday loans and unpaid medical bills

In order for credit counseling to be truly effective, it’s vital to be completely honest with your financial situation. Withholding any information could drastically affect which debt relief option they recommend.

Step 3: Authorize a credit check

To complete the picture of your finances, the counselor will ask to run a credit check which allows them to review your report to see if you have collections or other items of note. This is a “soft” inquiry and does not impact your credit score.

Step 4: The credit counselor will make a recommendation

Once they have a good picture of your finances, the counselor recommends the types of debt relief services that would be best for your circumstance:

1. Debt management programs
2. Debt settlement
3. Consolidation loans
4. Balance transfers
5. Bankruptcy

Counselors are required to review all your options and only recommend the best solutions for your situation. In other words, nonprofit agencies don’t try to “sell” their program. This is why credit counseling is the best way to find a solution for paying off debt that fits your needs. You can get an unbiased, expert opinion about what you need to do to take control of your finances and ask questions about different solutions and learn how to minimize things like credit damage.

13 questions to ask during your free counseling session »

Talk to a certified consumer credit counselor today for an expert opinion on your best option to get out of debt.

Is credit counseling right for me?

If any of these signs sound like you, you may benefit from meeting with a credit counselor at a nonprofit credit counseling agency.

Credit counseling and debt management

A debt management program can significantly lower your monthly payments and stop the damage to your credit score. The credit counseling agency acts as a go-between for you and your creditors. They set up a repayment plan that you and credit card issuers agree on, and credit counselors also work with creditors to reduce or eliminate interest and fees. You’ll still need to pay off the full principal amount owed.

Your organization should also provide free resources you can use to build financial literacy. The goal is to help you learn how to avoid financial hardship in the future and plan for long-term financial stability. You should receive information on how to budget, save, and plan for financial challenges. Not only beneficial for reducing debt in the short term, but debt management programs also provide tools to successfully manage your finances in the future. There is no minimum credit score requirement to enroll in a DMP.

If you run into trouble during your program, you can talk to the counseling team to make special arrangements. They may be able to help you delay or adjust your payment without jeopardizing your plan entirely. They are there to be a financial coach and provide assistance to ensure you can graduate from your plan successfully.

Credit counseling vs debt consolidation

Credit counseling is a service whereas debt consolidation is a debt-reducing strategy. Debt consolidation combines all loans from one or multiple lenders so that the individual only needs to make one monthly payment to the refinancers with a single interest rate, rather than making multiple payments for loans of different rates. There are several options for debt consolidation: balance transfer, debt consolidation loan, or debt management program.  Aside from offering advice, a credit counselor can only enroll you in a debt management program—they do not offer any consolidation services.

Credit counseling vs financial advisor

Credit counselors are certified professionals trained to help individuals manage their debt and improve their financial literacy. They are usually turned to when a person finds themselves in or on the brink of financial difficulty such as being unable to make payments or owing more than they can afford.

Financial advisors are a much broader category of professionals. They don’t require any specific accreditation and can include a wide array of different services and titles including investment advisors, brokers, financial planners, asset managers, or wealth advisors. These professionals focus on financial growth rather than repair. The most similar type of financial advisor to a credit counselor is a financial coach who teaches clients basic financial literacy. However, only a credit counselor can enroll you in a debt management plan and work out better debt repayment terms with your creditors.

How to choose a credit counseling service

Almost all credit counseling services these days are non-profits. However, this status doesn’t mean that any business touting itself as a credit counseling service is legitimate.  There are plenty of cases of businesses presenting themselves as credit counseling agencies when they really aren’t.  That’s why it’s important to know what to look for when choosing a credit counseling organization.

Is the agency accredited?

Look for an agency that’s accredited by a national trade organization like the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) or Financial Counseling Association of America (FCAA). If they’re a member of a national trade association, it means they’re compliant with the highest industry standards including :

• Annual agency audits
• Agencies are licensed, bonded, and insured
• Offering a variety of types of consumer support
• Funds are disbursed on behalf of clients at least twice a month
• Clients can make deposits through a variety of methods
• Every client receives counseling
• Clients receive at least a quarterly statement

Are they approved by the DoJ?

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has a list of credit counseling agencies that are approved to offer services for pre-bankruptcy counseling. Only DoJ-approved credit counseling agencies can provide the counseling required to file personal bankruptcy in the U.S.

Thus, you can look up an agency and see if they’re approved to provide counseling through U.S. bankruptcy courts. If not, then you may want to use the DoJ tool to do a search for an agency in your area that is approved.

No upfront charges

A credit counseling agency that exists to help people (rather than just make money off them) shouldn’t charge any upfront fees without service. Any agency that requires money before giving you more information, providing counseling, or guaranteeing certain results, is a red flag. Also, skip any agencies that charge for educational materials or workshops. Their goal should be to set you up for long-term financial success to avoid debt in the future.

Doesn’t push a one-size-fits-all solution

A credit counseling organization that’s legit and truly has your best interests at heart shouldn’t immediately push you into a debt management plan (which is a service they charge for). Legally, credit counselors are required to tell you about all debt relief options and only recommend what best suits your situation. So if you speak to an agency that instantly tries to push you towards a DMP or doesn’t tell you about any other options, look elsewhere for financial assistance.

Are counselors qualified?

In addition to checking for the validity of the credit counseling agency, look into the qualifications of those you’d be speaking to. How are counselors trained? Are they accredited or certified by a non-affiliated organization like the National Association of Certified Credit Counselors? If not, you just might be speaking to salespeople who make commission after getting you to agree to a certain service.

Look for consumer complaints

Once you’ve found an agency that seemingly checks all the boxes, check with consumer protection sites like the Better Business Bureau (BBB), a local consumer protection agency, or with your state’s Attorney General. Here you can read reviews from past clients to find out whether the company delivers what they say they will and check for any official complaints against them.

How to spot a credit counseling scam

1. Charges upfront fees before they perform any actual service. This is the biggest red flag that a credit counseling or debt relief agency you’re working with isn’t legitimate. According to federal regulations, companies cannot charge fees until they provide some form of actual relief.
2. Guarantee to improve your credit score by a certain number. Although data shows completing a debt management program can improve credit scores in many cases, it’s impossible to guarantee. Results vary based on where you started when you enrolled and what negative penalties you incurred prior to enrollment. Be wary of other false promises that can remove negative marks from your credit report.
3. Advise you to do something illegal. A certified credit counselor will never tell you to try and create a new identity to get away from your old debt. Companies that advise people to get a new Social Security number or Employer Identification Number (EIN) are scams! Counselors won’t even advise that you run or hide from creditors or collectors; they help you find ways to face your challenges directly.
4. Immediately push you into signing up for a specific solution. Nonprofit agencies must advise a client of all available paths to take to become debt-free and only recommend the best solution. If an agency pushes you to enroll in their DMP–or doesn’t even mention the other options available– they're not following nonprofit counseling organization rules and likely aren’t reputable credit counseling agencies.

Frequently asked questions about credit counseling