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Neal Frankle
I’m Neal Frankle, Certified Financial Planner™. Credit problems are a serious business. In fact they changed my entire family life when I was 16. This site is here to help you repair your credit without getting ripped off. Read my story.
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Should You Get A Credit Consultation?

by Neal Frankle, CFP®

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If you have tarnished credit and have tried to clean it up, a consultation with a reputable credit repair company might be the next step to take. If nothing else, that credit counseling will help you get some direction in dealing with your credit issues. This doesn’t mean you have to hire someone. It means you get to listen and learn. What’s wrong with that?

Asking for outside help isn’t always a solution but it can sometimes be just what’s needed to start back on the road to recovery. If so, a credit consultation is that starting point. Again, I’m not saying you need to hire anyone. After you have all the information you may decide to do that – or not. But before you can make a good decision about that, you must educate yourself. Comprende?

What’s Keeping You From Getting a Credit Counseling?

A lot of consumers are struggling with credit problems, either impaired credit or simply too much debt. But many will delay seeking help of any kind until the problem becomes so acute that they have no choice.  Or they may not understand that many credit issues can be fixed.

What causes them to delay seeking help for so long?

They may not think they have a problem. If you’ve been living with high debt levels or impaired credit for many years, you may have become so accustomed to the situation that you don’t necessarily view it as a problem. In addition, it’s possible to become so focused on your monthly payments, that you lose sight of the big picture that your cumulative debt has become overwhelming.

Fear of admitting to themselves that there’s a problem. A lot of people with credit and debt problems have some idea that the problem exists, but only on a subconscious level. Sitting down and talking with a credit counselor would be admitting to themselves that there is a problem – one they had successfully avoided acknowledging for a very long time.

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Fear of exposing their credit problems to others. There are different ideas when it comes to discussing personal finance with others. Credit counseling may be seen as an example. Allowing someone else access to their credit and personal financial situation might be seen as a violation of privacy.

Fear that their credit problems are even worse than they believe. Even if you know that you have credit problems, you can be overcome by a deep-seated fear that it’s even worse than you think. It can come as a shock to find out that not only do you have credit problems, but that they may be particularly severe.  This might be time to reach out.

General inertia. Getting credit help – no matter how necessary it may be – can disrupt the normal flow of your life. If you’re troubled by doing things that are outside of the norm, you may find it difficult to engage the services of a credit counselor, despite the fact that it can help your situation.

Whatever the reason that may be causing you to delay getting help with your credit problems, you can rest assured that the problems will become even more severe the longer you wait to get help.

What’s the Risk of a Credit Consultation

Apart from any of the above concerns, there is always a practical matter of the cost of credit consultation. You already have debt problems, adding another fee to an already stretched budget may seem counterproductive. But that’s not necessarily a problem, since it is possible to get a free credit consultation.

What a Credit Counseling Will Involve

Different counseling services will approach a credit consultation in different ways. However, you can expect some variation of the following:

An analysis of your credit and debts. A consultation will normally require that your credit report is pulled. This will give the counselor an idea as to what your credit situation is, including your credit scores, and whether or not further action is necessary. The counselor can then make either general or specific recommendations, that you can either implement on your own, or rely on the counselor’s organization to help you with.

An analysis of your personal financial situation. The counselor will see if your debts are in line with your income. In this way, he or she can determine if your monthly debt payments are reasonable, excessive, or in danger of becoming excessive. A review of your budget will help to determine if there is extra cash available to begin paying down your debts.

A review of your credit history. Any efforts to improve your credit situation will be impacted by your credit score. The higher your credit score, the more options you will have. For example, a low credit score might mean that debt consolidation is not a reasonable option. It can also indicate that your debt situation has already reached the point where your budget is under serious stress, and is in need of more significant remedies.

A review of your options. How this will progress will depend entirely upon your personal financial situation. The counselor may recommend anything from concentrating on paying off certain debts, and all the way up to filing for bankruptcy protection. Getting this assessment from a qualified professional can keep you from wasting time and money pursuing the wrong credit repair options.

Presenting you with options available with the credit counselor. Depending on what areas of credit repair and debt settlement are offered by the counselor or the counselor’s agency, recommendations may be made that will offer more direct assistance.

Your credit counseling session may not proceed in exactly this manner, but you should expect to experience at least the outcomes.

Credit Salvation Will Begin the Moment You Take that First Step

If you even suspect that you have credit problems, it’s worth it to at least try getting a credit consultation. It’s possible you may find that your situation is much more manageable than you currently believe. But if it isn’t – and especially it’s more severe than you think – a credit consultation will be the first step toward credit salvation.

Problems, any kind of problems, are usually best faced head on. When you let them linger, they almost always get worse. Getting a credit consultation will be something like getting a check up from a doctor – it will provide a baseline on what your credit health is at this moment. And if it is in jeopardy in any way, it will represent the beginning of the therapy that will be necessary to make your situation better.

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