Non-profit credit counseling agencies enjoy special benefits because of their status. There is a tax advantage; non-profits enjoy tax exemptions on both a state and federal level. Non-profit agencies are also eligible for both public and private grants to support their mission.

Non-profit agencies have a better reputation among both creditors and debtors. In order to initiate Fair Share contributions, non-profit status is mandatory. Some states even allow non-profit agencies greater freedom from consumer protection laws. Debtors feel more comfortable dealing with a non-profit agency than one with a more commercial focus.

Most major credit counseling agencies flaunt their status as non-profits, but some fail to live up to that promise. Some unscrupulous agencies are using their non-profit status to lure in unsuspecting clients and to fleece them. Debtors need to look beyond the non-profit label and investigate the agency before enrolling in a credit repair program.

Some consumer credit counseling agencies are truly in it to help people get back on the road to financial well-being. Agencies accredited by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling or the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies offer reputable services to their clients. Such agencies will not make false claims about fixing credit histories or credit scores; they will paint a realistic picture of your situation and tailor their actions to meet your needs.
(more…)

There are millions of Americans out there who have paid off heavy credit card debt, and you may be one of them. To get rid of credit card debt, it won’t be enough, however, to just make minimum monthly payments. In fact, you just need to do a little more than just paying the minimum monthly payments; you can save thousand of interests and shorten many years in settling your credit card debt. To give you a better picture how it work, let use a case study to elaborate the solution.

Case Study:

A friend of mine asked me to take a look at her monthly credit card statement; according to her, she has stopped using this credit card and try to pay it off, but feels like she isn’t getting anywhere.

The credit card statement record shows her balance is $5218.00 and she is paying 18% of interest; and she is paying the minimum payment at 3.5% or $10 whichever is higher. Like many who confuse with financial matters, she thinks that as long as she stops using the card and by just paying the minimum of monthly balance, her credit card debt will be cleared soon.

The Calculation Result:

If she has stopped using this credit card, and if she continues to make the minimum required monthly payment, as she has been, based on the way her bank calculates her minimum required monthly payment.

It will take her 181 months to pay off her current credit card balance of $5,218.00 and she will pay a total of $3762.35 in interest.

In other words, if she continues doing what she has been doing. It will take her 15 years and cost her $8980.35 to pay off her $5218.00 credit card balance. No wonder she feels like she is not getting anywhere.

So, what should she do?

Actually, it quit simple, if she able to pay the minimum payment of $5,218.00, which is $181.37, which means this is her affordable amount. Instead of paying the minimum payment as defined by the credit card company, she continues to pay $181.37 from now on.
(more…)

Debt is a fact of life in America, making debt relief a national obsession. A search for “debt relief” on Google pulls up over 34 million pages; on Yahoo and MSN, the total is over 12 million pages.

The average American household has $9,300 of credit card debt, but the share of income going to lower credit card debt has fallen to 0.3 percent.

The increase in personal debt can’t all be blamed on overspending. After adjusting for inflation, wages have been flat for the past five years while the cost of essential goods and services like housing, food, medical care and transportation have risen over 11 percent according to the Federal Reserve Board’s most recent Survey of Consumer Finances.

Housing Debt
Based on this study, the Washington Post recently reported that,

The debt of the typical American family earning about $45,000 a year rose 33.1 percent from 2001 to 2004, after adjusting for inflation … Housing debt has climbed notably because home prices have risen and people have borrowed against the equity in their homes. From 1989 to 2004, for example, the median mortgage debt more than doubled, from $46,900 to $96,000.
(more…)