Bankruptcy Filing Tips

Can you recommend a legit credit counselor in St. Louis?

I am trying to consolidate some credit cards. I hear that those credit consolidation places are not all that great becuase they will appear on your credit history. But, I want to know if that’s all true or what. I would like to talk to a credit counselor first before I just jump out there. Can some recommend either a Credit Counseling Company and/or a legit credit consolidation company?

You have to be careful when consolidating credit cards, especially if you go through a credit counseling service.

Consolidating credit cards means that you would take out a loan at a cheaper interest rate and only have one bill to pay.

Going through Consumer Credit Counseling Services means that you are having problems paying your credit cards and that you would like their help in “consolidating” your bills. This means that they would take over all of your credit payments. They will contact all of your creditors to say that you can not pay the minimum required payments to them and they negotiate with your creditors to lower the payment. You would then make one payment to the counseling service, who will in turn pay off your creditors.

With the credit counseling service, your credit will reflect that you are paying through that service and it will be negatively reflected for 7 years from your final payment.

If you just want to combine your credit cards into one bill with a lower interest rate, then I would try a consolidation loan through your bank or a home equity line of credit. If you can’t make your monthly credit card payments, then I would seek counseling. Some banks offer this to their customers, so check there first. If your bank doesn’t, then try your local Consumer Credit Counseling Services.

Here’s the government website on consumer credit:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/index.html

For more info, check out these sites for credit counseling:

http://www.nfcc.org/

http://www.cccsintl.org/

http://www.consumercredit.com/

For debt consolidation check here:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/calcs/n_debt/main.asp

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Managedebt/P36230.asp

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20031007a1.asp

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