If you are having trouble managing your money and your debts, it could be time to seek the guidance of a professional credit counselor in Oklahoma City. Credit counselors will help you create a working budget, and can point you towards free educational tools and resources that will help you to continue managing your credit on your own. Our Oklahoma City credit counselors are trained and certified in every area of consumer credit, including debt management. At Credit Advisors Council, you’ll have the opportunity to speak one on one with a professional counselor about your financial situation and your goals. This will allow your counselor to help you find the best debt management and recovery options for you.
There are several areas that a credit counselor will be able to help you with. These include credit counseling, debt counseling, pre bankruptcy counseling, and budget counseling. No matter what form of credit counseling in Oklahoma City that you are in need of, our counselors will be able to tailor your financial counseling sessions to best help you get out of debt. Remember, not every consumer credit counseling service is going to work for every individual. You need to be upfront and honest with your credit counselor, just as they will be with you, in order to get the best debt help possible.
Most credit counselors are completely non-profit and offer local office hours so that you can meet with them in person when it is convenient for you. Always take the time to get to know your credit counselor and ask them important questions about the consumer credit services that they can and can not help you with. Keep in mind that they should spend about an hour getting to know you and your financial situation, and should never ask you to make any sort of payments or enter into a debt management plan after just one session. If you are uncomfortable with your credit counselor, don’t think they can help you, or find that they are pushing you towards a debt management plan right away, consider finding another non profit counselor whom you can work with. There are also online credit counseling services in the event that you are unable to find a reliable credit counselor in your area.
If you are tired of struggling with your debt, or are just getting back on your feet after suffering from damaged credit, you might not know what the best steps are for you. After all, you don’t want to make the same mistakes and fall victim to bad credit again. This is when it is best to seek a Oklahoma City credit counseling service. The right credit counseling service can help any American consumer achieve their goals of being debt free. No matter your age or income level, Credit Advisors Council can help you determine the debt management or relief option that helps you pay off your existing debts and take back control of your finances.
There are several ways our experienced debt counselors can help you find a solution that works best for you. If you, like a growing majority of consumers, are having trouble paying back your outstanding credit card debt, allow our debt counselors to show you resources that can help you better track your income and spending. We will also help you create a working budget and show you possible repayment methods that will help you pay back your debts and improve your credit score. In the event that your situation is extreme, we can even help you to set up a debt management plan with your creditors. Through this service, we renegotiate terms with your creditors and pay them a smaller monthly sum that you deposit into a debt management account that we can help you maintain.
If you aren’t faced with credit card debt, there are still a few things that our debt counseling offices in Oklahoma City can help you to achieve. If you are faced with even more consumer debt than most, you may be considering filing for bankruptcy in order to give yourself a chance to start over financially. While this should only be done as a last measure, a credit counselor can still help you through the process and determine if there are any other repayment options that you could try beforehand. Even if you haven’t thought of seeing a credit counselor before filing for bankruptcy, it is a requirement of the filing process. This means that you must see a credit counselor and review potential repayment options that could fit your situation before filing for bankruptcy. While you may be required to speak with a credit counselor, you are not required to follow any repayment options that they might recommend.
A Oklahoma City credit consultant isn’t just here to talk about your financial situation and point you in one direction or another. The members of Credit Advisors Council provide additional consulting and debt management services as well. We not only give you access to tools and strategies to manage your debt, we help you to learn how to best use these resources to your advantage. We can help you set up billing plans with your credits that help you get a lower interest rate or better repayment terms, start automatic pays for some of your most common bills like your utilities, and even refer you to our Oklahoma City consumer protection lawyers who can help you put an end to debt collectors and negotiate further with your creditors to resolve your debts.
There are some credit agencies out there who require a fee for their agency services. These are generally privately owned companies who claim to be able to get your credit repaired in record time. Often, they will not charge a fee up front for their services, but may highly recommend that you offer a donation for incentive to creditors or to speed up the process of repairing your credit. Not for profit agencies may spend less time with each client learning their finances and helping them to choose a debt recovery option, and will more readily push clients into a debt management plan, which doesn’t help the majority of consumers clear their debt.
On the other hand, many credit counseling services are for profit and are run by people who truly care about helping American consumers to improve their credit. Their employees will meet with you in person, generally for an hour at a time, in order to speak with you about your finances, income, current debts, and other factors that determine how you currently repay your debt. They will show you how to set up automatic payments and use credit checking tools to monitor things that appear on your credit report. They will also assist you and dispute negative, inaccurate and erroneous information on your credit report and help you build a better FICO score.
Credit Counseling Common Terms and Definitions
Term | Definition |
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Credit Counseling Service | A service provided to consumers in which an experienced and licensed consumer credit counselor helps you to understand the causes of your debts, where you can improve, and the best repayment options for you. |
Credit Counselor | Accredited and generally non-profit, credit counselors help consumers to improve their financial literacy and use tools and resources to improve their credit and pay off their debts on their own. |
Consumer Credit Counseling Service | A not for profit service designed to give consumers access to valuable financial tools that will allow them to pay off debts and improve their credit report. |
Debt Counseling | A counseling service designed to help consumers pay off their debts. This is another term used for credit counseling. |
Debt Help | Free or paid services that aid consumers in paying off credit card, secured, and unsecured debts. |
Non-Profit Credit Counseling | Credit counseling that is available to all consumers. These counseling agencies will never require or request payment for services, unless a debt management plan is found to be the best solution. |
Bankruptcy Credit Counseling | Compulsory credit counseling for those filing for bankruptcy. This form of credit counseling aims to help consumers find a debt repayment plan that they can follow in place of bankruptcy filing. |
Debt Relief | Slowing or stopping the growth of new debt, or partially or completely having debt removed. |
Credit Counseling Agency | Accredited financial counselors who will educate you on debt management and repayment, budgeting, and positive credit growth, improving your financial literacy. |
Credit Analysis | Credit companies, credit unions, credit counselors, phone companies, and more will analyze your credit in order to determine your ability to repay debts. This can impact credit approvals and interest rates. |
Consumer Credit | Money that you are given in advance to pertain goods and services. |
Credit Bureaus | Any of several agencies that gather your credit rating and debt information and pass it along to credit card agencies, financial institutions, and more who use this information to determine if they will give you credit. |
Credit History | Your debt repayment history. This shows where you opened accounts, your repayment on them, and any instances in which you were unable to repay your debts on time. |
Credit Report | A detailed report of your credit history. Used to determine financial worthiness with creditors. |
Credit Score | A numerical summation of your credit history, used to determine credit worthiness at a glance. |
FICO Score | One of several types of credit scores. The FICO score was created by the Fair Isaac Corporation and is used with your credit history to determine a possible extension of credit. |
National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) | The nationwide organization through which credit counselors can become accredited and find educational support to further their consumer credit knowledge. |