Plan Your Debt Management
A debt management plan is developed with a credit counseling agency that will provide you a credit counselor. The credit counselor can be working for either a non-profit or private counseling service provider. The debt management plan provides you with a road map of actions and targets that has been agreed to with your creditors. This enables you to actively manage your debt down by making payments through the credit counseling agency.
In preparation to working with your credit counselor you will need a mindset that you have to work with the counselor to get the best result. By working together you can build up a level of trust however you still need to have the necessary checks and balances on what the credit counselor says and what they do because you are dealing with money and at the end of the day it is your money being used.
When you receive your monthly statement, ensure that all account entries are correct. Go over it with a fine tool comb and quickly act on any discrepancies. These discrepancies can be a payment not made, a higher than agreed interest rate being applied, fees being applied that were not agreed to and any other terms and conditions that were not agreed to. Each creditor that has signed a debt management plan should provide you with a monthly statement.
Check that with the inherent time delays that banks impose on financial transactions are taken into account when payments are to be made. You do not want your payment being electronically made a day late after it was due, thereby you are breaking the terms and conditions that you agreed to in your debt management plan. This could be a huge cost to you financially. Check with your credit counselor each month that the payment has been made and it has been received by the creditor by the due date.
If you suspect that the credit counselor has not been totally honest with their advice or services, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau. If there has been fraudulent actions also speak to you attorney.
In preparation to working with your credit counselor you will need a mindset that you have to work with the counselor to get the best result. By working together you can build up a level of trust however you still need to have the necessary checks and balances on what the credit counselor says and what they do because you are dealing with money and at the end of the day it is your money being used.
When you receive your monthly statement, ensure that all account entries are correct. Go over it with a fine tool comb and quickly act on any discrepancies. These discrepancies can be a payment not made, a higher than agreed interest rate being applied, fees being applied that were not agreed to and any other terms and conditions that were not agreed to. Each creditor that has signed a debt management plan should provide you with a monthly statement.
Check that with the inherent time delays that banks impose on financial transactions are taken into account when payments are to be made. You do not want your payment being electronically made a day late after it was due, thereby you are breaking the terms and conditions that you agreed to in your debt management plan. This could be a huge cost to you financially. Check with your credit counselor each month that the payment has been made and it has been received by the creditor by the due date.
If you suspect that the credit counselor has not been totally honest with their advice or services, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau. If there has been fraudulent actions also speak to you attorney.
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