Category Archives: Credit Counseling Industry

The Role Credit Counseling Plays in Debt Relief

The following is a guest post. And while I personally might not agree with some of the points of view, I think it is important for people to hear from different sides. Given what I think is going to be an exploding retirement crisis I am now more convinced that for those near or over [...]

Nonprofit Mpowered Appears to Mislead Consumers

A Facebook friend brought Mpowered to my attention and asked me about them. Mpowered was formerly Community Credit Counseling Services and is located in Colorado. The person wanted to know what I thought of their program. Since I have no personal knowledge about the solutions they offer I had to go to their website and [...]

NFCC Press Release Seems to Misrepresent Truth About Credit Counseling. But Why?

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling sent out a press release today claiming their survey uncovered public misconceptions about credit counseling agencies. The press release listed five areas the NFCC felt consumers struggled with in knowing the truth about credit counseling. But some of the points the NFCC felt they needed to clarify appear to [...]

Consumer Credit Counseling Pros and Cons. My Ultimate Guide to Understanding How Credit Counseling Really Works.

Consumer credit counseling is one of the options people turn to when dealing with debt issues so let’s take an honest look at the pros and cons of the program and what it has to offer. Consumer credit counseling in one form or another has been around as debt proraters, debt lumpers, or debt consolidators [...]

The Hidden Real Cost of Credit Counseling and Debt Settlement

With a more uncertain future for those headed towards retirement it makes logical sense that we need to make preparing for our own retirement a priority in our lives. All indications are there will be less financial help available for us when we do eventually retire and that will most likely be later than most [...]

Personal Finance Author Gail Vaz-Oxlade Turns Away From Credit Counseling

In a slowly building concern over personal finance advice, Gail Vaz-Oxlade, author of Money Rules, Debt Free Forever, It’s Your Money, and more personal finance books, is quoted as reversing her position about credit counseling in Canada. Gail Vaz-Oxlade, author and host of Til Debt Do Us Part and Princess, used to recommend credit counseling [...]

Military Debt Management Agency MDMA Hits Military and Consumers for Student Loan Help

A tipster (send in your tips here) sent me a fee schedule from the non-profit credit counseling group Military Debt Management Agency (MDMA) in Florida. The reader was concerned that this non-profit 501(c)3 IRS approved charity that is supposed to be helping military members and general consumers was taking advantage of those with federal government [...]

InCharge Debt Solutions Gives Employees Access to Your Personal Information at Home

InCharge Debt Solutions, and Orlando based non-profit credit counseling agency, just put out a press release that brags about how their telecommuting program benefits the environment. It even included a neat little infographic which you can see below. “Improving our employees’ quality of life and job satisfaction were enough for me,” said Ms. Money from [...]

FTC Closes Down Credit Counseling Company We’ve Written About.

The Federal Trade Commission has been kicking debt relief butt recently. They’ve been closing down bogus outfits almost faster than I can write updates about them. The latest is a company a reader and tipster (send in your tips here) alerted me about. I then made a secret shopper call you can listen to. See [...]

Consumer Credit Counseling Settles Debt on 50% of its Clients – 1968

As a student of debt history I’m probably one of those odd geeks that spends time reading outdated and arcane material about consumer debt and debt relief activities. Recently I sat down and read a 1968 document put out by the NFCC. Today they are called the National Foundation for Credit Counseling but back then [...]

Debt Relief Lead Generator Ryan Golembiewski Settles With FTC for Big Bucks

The Federal Trade Commission has taken action against a debt relief lead generator, who we’ve written about before, that appears to have made false statements about the effectiveness and efficacy of debt settlement, bankruptcy and credit counseling. As you will read, the statements made to induce consumers into debt settlement and credit counseling (debt management [...]

Did the NFCC Client of the Year Really Do the Ethical Thing?

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling Recently put out a press release celebrating their clients of the year who, in my opinion, should never have been put into a debt management plan to begin with. See NFCC Celebrates Utter Stupidity and Puts Older Dementia Patient in Debt Management Plan. My goodness, I hate to make [...]

To All Former A New Horizon Credit Counseling Clients – HELP

All of a sudden, people that have debt management accounts with the nonprofit credit counseling group A New Horizons Credit Counseling Services, are freaking out. Where did the company go? Why aren’t they answering the phones? Where is my money? In one respect the situation is feeling much like another implosion of a nonprofit credit [...]

Why Enrolling in a Credit Counseling Program Can Hurt Your Credit Score

I keep seeing information around the web by credit counseling companies saying that enrolling in a credit counseling program does not hurt your credit score. I believe the reason they say this is because the enrollment into the credit counseling program is not viewed as a negative entry in the calculation of the credit score. [...]

Consumer Survey by NFCC Shows People Are Wary About Real Help From Credit Counselors

On one hand you have to applaud the most recent release from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. One thumb up. On the other hand it comes across as simply just more denial about the disturbing lanscape that faces narrow niche nonprofit credit counselors. The NFCC survey was an online poll conducted on the NFCC [...]