Free Debt Management Advice for Living on a Budget
Contributed by Lisa Marie
Here's a little bit of free debt management advice for those of us that are living on a budget.
Did you know that when you call one of those "Debt Management Services" for some free debt management advice, you could be actually destroying your credit?
This is true of almost all of the non profit organizations that reduce or even eliminate your interest on credit cards, personal loans, or any interest paid for unsecured debt. A car loan is a secured debt because if you don't pay for your car, your creditor will come and take it away from you, therefore it is considered a secure loan.)
Let me ask you this: If you were a creditor making all of your money on interest that your customers pay you in order to keep your business afloat, would you be thrilled about reducing or eliminating someone's interest? I don't think that this would be the case.
So why am I giving you a bit of free debt management advice?
Because this happened to me when I bought my first home. I thought that things were a little tight as far as finances go, so I thought I'd contact one of the non profit credit counseling services to get their opinion on my financial situation. Of course, they decided that I was making a wise decision- to consolidate my debt BEFORE something happened and I didn't have the finances to balance out my budget. I figured that if they were non profit, then they weren't trying to get rich off of me and that there was actually someone out there to help me and my family in our pending situation.
What I didn't know at the time was that this was a huge mistake. My credit report was being destroyed before I even made the first payment to my debt management service.
First thing to remember, nothing is free, well, except for this advice. You do pay for these types of services, usually on a "per creditor" basis as these companies have bills to pay, too.
