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What Is Consumer Credit Counseling Services - CCCS?
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 Consumer Credit Counseling, or Consumer Credit Counseling Services – CCCS is meant to be a service that will help you manage payments as well as negotiate payment terms and conditions to your creditors. The creditors in many cases are unsecured creditors like credit card companies. CCCS can negotiate lower interest rates, fee reduction or elimination, and other sorts of benefits to aide in you getting out of debt in a systematic and responsible manner.
Use CCCS When You Are Still Making Payments
Typically, CCCS is designed for people who are still making payments to their creditors but may be late on some payments. Generally, if you have stopped making payments to your creditors, CCCS is not in a position to help you manage this debt. Paying off debt that you have stopped paying on and that is now in collections can be handled by a debt settlement program or bankruptcy.
If you are going to use a CCCS company to help you manage getting out of debt, they will set up what is typically called a Debt Management Plan, or DMP. In general, these plans take anywhere from 2-5 years to complete. The length of DMP and amount of the monthly payment made is dependent on how much is owed versus how much can be negotiated down and how much of a monthly payment can be made based on income.
How Do I Know Which CCCS Company To Use?
There are a lot of CCCS companies out there. There are also a lot of bad companies out there who claim to be CCCS organizations. You do need to be somewhat careful who you choose to work with if you are going to go this route for getting out of debt. A great way to find a company to work with is do a Google search for: “your city, your state, CCCS.”
Selection Criteria For A CCCS Company
- Is the company a member of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling or The Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies? You can bet that if the company that you choose to work with is a member of either of these two groups you are probably dealing with a reputable, upstanding company that will do what they are supposed to do and that is to work with you and your creditors to get you out of debt as soon as possible.
- Is the company charging you a whopper of a fee to get started, or are they taking your first month’s payment as their fee? Either way, if the company you are investigating is doing either of these two things you might want to pass on them and keep looking. Most reputable CCCS companies charge a nominal setup fee to get started, like $10.
Answers By EdGAR. EdGAR has been in the mortgage and real estate and credit business since 1996. This Article is designed to be of general interest and should not be considered legal advice. The specific information discussed may not apply to you. Before acting on any matter contained herein, you should consult with your personal legal adviser.
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