How Does Credit Counseling Work?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), defines credit counseling as meeting with counselors that are certified and trained in the areas of consumer credit, money and debt management, and budgeting who will advise you on managing your money and debts, help you create a budget, and that will usually offer free education material and workshops. How does credit counseling work? The overall goal of credit counseling is to teach individuals how to develop better financial habits, but many individuals are looking for ways to get debt relief by lowering interest rates or decreasing payment amounts.
How Does Credit Counseling Work?
So the main question for someone contemplating credit counseling will inevitably be: does credit counseling work? Much like other things in life that require hard work and consistent dedication: it depends. If you’re dedicated to improving your financial situation, most individuals are able to improve their financial standing.
As a pre-requisite filing bankruptcy, everyone who intends to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy or Chapter 13 bankruptcy must go through credit counseling within 180 days of filing. The credit counseling agency that you work with in order to file bankruptcy must be approved by the U.S. Trustee’s office that maintains a list of approved credit counseling agencies. Because of this necessity, it makes sense to go through with a credit counseling course which will give you a better opportunity to sit down with an expert, go over your assets and liabilities, and ultimately discover if you can get out of debt on your own, or if you need to file bankruptcy.
When looking at all the options one has to address financial difficulties (e.g., credit counseling, debt management, bankruptcy), bankruptcy is actually a cost effective solution when comparing all three. Since you’ll have to take a credit counseling course before doing so, it makes since to start with that step. If you have questions about the timeline involved in your own possible bankruptcy filing, contact a bankruptcy attorney in Sacramento Californiato ensure your next steps are the best ones.
Categorized in: Filing Bankruptcy