What is a Debt Management Program and How Do I Get One?
A Credit Article Contributed by Mark Mcclelland
Understanding What a Debt Management Program Can Do for You - and What It Can't
You're probably not surprised to hear that according to the FTC, one of the industries with the fastest growing level of complaints is the credit counseling and debt management program industry. It makes you wonder why anyone, individual or corporation, would want to take advantage of plain folks who're trying to make good on their debts. Well, money of course. The industry can be incredibly lucrative for those whose ethics don't keep them awake at night. And you're like to see the level of advertising ratchet up another notch, what with the holidays upon us.
Whether you're already buried under an avalanche of debt, or you can simply see the mountain starting to crumble, racing down to bury you, it helps to understand that whatever remedies you're going to take to get out from under the burden you're carrying, you are the one that's going to do the heavy lifting. There's no other way.
You're going to have to change your spending habits, you're going to have to establish a livable budget that accommodate the bills you're obligated to pay, and if you don't think you can do this yourself, you're going to have to seek the assistance of professionals to help you though this.... and it's probably going to take you years to complete the task of paying off your creditors.
No amount of credit counseling, debt management program, debt consolidation program, of financial wriggling is going to be able to simply make the debt disappear; you're going to have to pay it off.
But don't let all the doom and gloom prevent you form doing just that. You'll be surprised how easy it becomes, once you get started and begin to see your debt levels dropping. It'll be like an avalanche in reverse, the less you owe, the faster you can pay down your remaining debts.
What's a Debt Management Program Anyway?
So, exactly what is a debt management program, anyway? Although over the past several years it's come to mean a lot of things to different people, it's basically a generic term that describes most, if not all of the following activities: debt consolidation, debt negotiation and reduction, debt settlement, debt control, credit usage and education, and more. Anything that has to do with assessing, taking control of, and managing your current debt is part of this industry.
A debt management program is a program developed to help you reduce the interest rates, and perhaps actually the amount of your unsecured debt, so that you can pay off your creditors in a timely manner, but without having to borrow additional funds to do so.
Here's How to Find a Good Debt Management Program
Even though you may have easy access to huge volumes of information via the Internet, it's not always easy to actually find a good debt management program. When looking for a good agency, it's always nice to have a decent set of guidelines to go by, or have a couple of reference agencies against which to make comparisons.
You might want to start by looking at the National Foundation Consumer Credit (NFCC), which is the oversight organization for the various non-profit Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS), as well as for the for-profit Accelerated Debt Consolidation Corporation. Both of these organizations are good benchmarks to against which you might compare agencies you're considering using to help you develop your own debt management program.
