Consumer Credit Counseling Can Help Improve Your Finances

Have you ever found yourself running out of money at the end of the month? Do you consistently have unanticipated expenses completely ruin your best financial plans? If so, you might want to look into the benefits that consumer credit counseling could offer you in regards to your personal finances.

Consumer credit counseling organizations typically offer free help to individuals that find themselves in stressful financial situations. Most organizations will take the time to do a complete budget analysis with you, and will help you to understand exactly how much money you have coming in and exactly how much money is going out each month. They will also help you to identify those items or services that you are purchasing every month where you could save money, or completely eliminate the expenses.

When it comes to financial stress, most individuals find themselves in this type of situation because for one reason or another they are living outside of their means. Some have had medical issues leading up to their debt problems while others have been downsized or have lost their jobs for a period of time. People also find themselves in this situation due to overspending. Consumer credit counseling can help you to formulate a workable budget that will guide you in deciding how much you should be spending each month to cover your basic needs, while helping you to live within the constraints of your current income.

When you look into consumer credit counseling with American Credit Foundation, you will be introduced to a program which will help you to identify ways to free up income every month. In fact, our program will typically help a consumer to free up 10% to 15% of their monthly income. With the help of a credit counselor you will begin to track your daily expenses for a period of at least 7 days. At the end of that period your counselor will help you to identify which expenses were “wants” and which expenses were “needs”. Most people have no idea just how much money slips through their hands because they are not tracking their expenses. Consumer credit counseling will guide you and help you to take better control of your finances.

In the event that the consumer credit counseling process alone does not provide the financial relief that you are seeking, you may be eligible for a debt management program. This type of program could help you by reducing your monthly payments on your unsecured debts. Interest rates are also typically reduced, and late fees and over-limit fees can be eliminated moving forward.  Your payments for your unsecured debts will be consolidated into one single monthly payment which the consumer credit counseling organization will distribute to your creditors each month.

Make sure that you are working with a solid and reputable consumer credit counseling company. Check out their ratings at the Better Business Bureau. If they do not have at least an “A” rating, you should probably be looking for another company to help you with your finances.