Complaint Review: Consumer Credit Counseling

Let's be honest about Credit Counseling. Like any other industry there are agency out there to make a buck off of you. There are those that are there to help. It is YOUR responsibility to do your homework and find out all you can about the agency your plan on doing business with. Not only asking questions but actually reading the agreements you are signing. Ask you creditors who they recommend.

By the way, when you go to a counseling agency you are declaring a hardship to your creditors, you are asking that they help you repay the debts by restructing your obligation. You can have the most perfect credit, but you're still asking for a hardship plan.

What you had and what you have are two different things. Most important, if you're in a program, check your statements every month and report problems to your counseling agency, if you don't get statements call your creditor and request statements be sent to you every month.

Remember, there is a difference between the time you send a payment and the time a creditor Posts the payment, some creditors take weeks to post a payment.

Enrolling in a program causes all accounts to be closed, your credit score will be based on your payment history. At the end of the program your report should simply state "paid in full" any referrence to a Debt Management Program will drop off since it is no longer a "correct statement". Be honest with yourselves and take responsibility for the things you create and for not paying attention to what you sign.

HI, I do not work for CCCS, but I do work for a different credit counseling agency. There are several misconceptions out there about how it does show up on your credit report amongest other things;

The Truth: Credit Counseling has no effect on your credit score. The point is it's there to prevent people from getting new credit while on the program. Listen, you came to a counselor because there was a problem paying or spending. Why would you want new credit? Pay the old off and then worry about new credit. Once you leave a plan the "credit management" leave your credit report

The Truth: Your creditors/credit card companies make several of the decisions concerning your due dates, payments, interest rates, and really any benefits that are offered. Your credit counselor has little to do with it.

The Truth: Non-profit doesn't mean free. Many hospitals are non-profit but you never leave there without a bill. Our industry is not govt. funded and I doubt that Uncle Sam wants to flip the bill on helping people pay debt they got themselve into. I however do not take kick backs from the creditors, but many organizations do. This is definitely something to watch out for. I do not know about you but I know that I do not work for free.

The Truth: Sorry Jules, but you probably did know about the accounts being delinquent before the notice from a collection agency came. The creditors continue to send their monthly statements to the clients each and every month. By monitoring those statements you would have know the accounts were delinquent.

Now, again I do not work for CCCS so I'm not writing to defend their particular business. My organization is an actual member of the BBB (a rarity) and we are also certified by C.O.A. or the Council of Accredidation for Children and Family Services. That being said I do not doubt that CCCS lied in someway. A lot of credit counseling agencies do, but they are being dealt with. Ameripride & Debticated are both about to fall with many, many class action suites.

I don't write this to toot my own horn or to be a wisea$$ but I want to help by informing people of the truth. Not all credit counselors are bad.

I have been in CCCS in the past and at least the one I was in sent a paper that said that it was up to me to call the cards and have them change the due date so that the payments they send would be on time. I tried with the ones that would have been late and guess what....they can't make ANY changes to an account that is past due. So you see the problem. It does reflect badly on your credit, only slightly better than bankruptcy. So read everthing before you sign up, find out what happens to the first payment you make, see how much you are "donating" for the program every month, and see what you can do when they up your payment because the amount they quoted to you isn't the amount they can negotiate with your creditors. Most CCCS are deceptive and they are preying on people who are usually desperate.

I call CCCSATL at least ten times with both of the accounts. I was told by CCCS that it wasn't there problem that the companies didn't want to cooperate with their procedures. I even got a letter from CCCSATL stating due to the fact that I was late 5 time this one particuler company was dropping me from the program. They dropped me from their program due to CCCSATL paying the payments late. The company did get their payments but again they were late and the company turned the account over to a collection agency. It is now on my credit report. I e-mailed, phoned and sent letters to CCCSATL to try to correct this problem. When one uses a Credit Management Company it is not as bad a black mark on your credit report as a bankruptcy but it shows to banks,credit unions, mortgage companies as you having problems handling your finances. That can hinder you from getting good mortgage rate or even stop you from getting a loan period. I beleive that after finding out what CCCSATL did to me from November 02 until August, this month is more than enough time. I'm having to spend weeks of calling and sending e-mails to the companies. I'm also having to write all three credit bureaus trying to explain to them what happened and get it corrected. Yes I was ignorant, ignorant to the fact that these credit help companies are a negetive to your credit rating. They advertise on TV, internet and radio that they can do so much to improve your credit. I beleived them as millions of other do. Maybe the people with the CCCS that you used did their job. The people I did business with did not---

I call CCCSATL at least ten times with both of the accounts. I was told by CCCS that it wasn't there problem that the companies didn't want to cooperate with their procedures. I even got a letter from CCCSATL stating due to the fact that I was late 5 time this one particuler company was dropping me from the program. They dropped me from their program due to CCCSATL paying the payments late. The company did get their payments but again they were late and the company turned the account over to a collection agency. It is now on my credit report. I e-mailed, phoned and sent letters to CCCSATL to try to correct this problem. When one uses a Credit Management Company it is not as bad a black mark on your credit report as a bankruptcy but it shows to banks,credit unions, mortgage companies as you having problems handling your finances. That can hinder you from getting good mortgage rate or even stop you from getting a loan period. I beleive that after finding out what CCCSATL did to me from November 02 until August, this month is more than enough time. I'm having to spend weeks of calling and sending e-mails to the companies. I'm also having to write all three credit bureaus trying to explain to them what happened and get it corrected. Yes I was ignorant, ignorant to the fact that these credit help companies are a negetive to your credit rating. They advertise on TV, internet and radio that they can do so much to improve your credit. I beleived them as millions of other do. Maybe the people with the CCCS that you used did their job. The people I did business with did not---

I call CCCSATL at least ten times with both of the accounts. I was told by CCCS that it wasn't there problem that the companies didn't want to cooperate with their procedures. I even got a letter from CCCSATL stating due to the fact that I was late 5 time this one particuler company was dropping me from the program. They dropped me from their program due to CCCSATL paying the payments late. The company did get their payments but again they were late and the company turned the account over to a collection agency. It is now on my credit report. I e-mailed, phoned and sent letters to CCCSATL to try to correct this problem. When one uses a Credit Management Company it is not as bad a black mark on your credit report as a bankruptcy but it shows to banks,credit unions, mortgage companies as you having problems handling your finances. That can hinder you from getting good mortgage rate or even stop you from getting a loan period. I beleive that after finding out what CCCSATL did to me from November 02 until August, this month is more than enough time. I'm having to spend weeks of calling and sending e-mails to the companies. I'm also having to write all three credit bureaus trying to explain to them what happened and get it corrected. Yes I was ignorant, ignorant to the fact that these credit help companies are a negetive to your credit rating. They advertise on TV, internet and radio that they can do so much to improve your credit. I beleived them as millions of other do. Maybe the people with the CCCS that you used did their job. The people I did business with did not---

I have also been with CCCS for two years. I admit, they do hold on to your money for a week or two before distributing them to your creditors, but your creditors should not be charging you late fees. First of all, when CCCS sets up accounts with these people, they sign agreements. These agreements cut your interest payments, and also decide on a due date. It is not the same date as you always had. It is also not the date you see on your statement. The creditors have no right to charge you late fees because they feel like it. You should have called the company, and they should have reversed the charges. IF not, you should have called CCCs and they would contact the creditors themselves. I know this because I went through it. Also, they could not turn your account over to collections if they were receiving payments.
I think CCCS does a better job of paying my 7 credit cards than I did.

Anyways, it is not shown up as a bankrupcy. Or anywhere close. It shows up as "managed by a credit program". and when you pay off a credit card, it shows, "paid in full/paid as agreed". No one will know that it was with CCCS. Maybe if you gave it more time with them, you could have worked all of this out.

I think its pretty ignorant for you to make a statement like that without knowing your facts. The only person who can treat it like a bankrupcy is the person you are trying to get credit from. Many companies do not hinder the process because you're with CCCS. Some do. Its up to the individual.

Chapter 7 stays on your report 7-10 years. That's bankrupcy. I wouldn't advise anyone to do this unless absolutely necessary. Like I said, CCCS accounts will eventually clear, and no one will be the wiser.
Learn the facts before you speak.