[Hurt] Videos

What happens when you enter into a debt consolidation program?

Debt consolidation companies often promise to consolidate your debts and negotiate settlements with your creditors. These companies frequently advise people to stop paying their debts and to make monthly payments to the debt consolidation company instead. This is done with the hope that the company will be able to use those funds to settle certain debts.

Will a debt consolidation program stop creditors from reporting negative information to the credit bureaus?

Unfortunately not. If you fall behind or stop paying on a debt, the creditor is permitted to report the late or missed payments to the credit bureaus.

So, even if a person is current on the monthly payments to the debt consolidation company, they can still be delinquent on payments to their creditors.

Entering into a debt consolidation program does not automatically change the terms of a person’s agreement with a creditor. Unless your creditor agrees to change the repayment terms, you will remain bound by the payment terms of your agreement with the creditor.

The creditor is also permitted to take action to collect the debt, such as collection calls, lawsuits, and garnishing a person’s wages or a bank account, and the creditor can report delinquencies to the credit bureaus. Reports of missed payments to the credit bureau can hurt your credit score and impact your future borrowing capabilities.

How will your credit be impacted if the debt is settled?

If your creditor agrees to accept a balance less than the full balance that you owe to settle a debt, the account will still remain on your credit report.

Additionally, any missed or late payments prior to the settlement being reached will remain reported as well. Your credit report should reflect that there is no longer a balance owed. However, it is likely to also reflect that the debt was settled and not paid in full.

Should someone who is considering a debt consolidation program also consider bankruptcy?
Yes. It is common for people to believe that a debt consolidation program is a better option than bankruptcy due to concerns about the credit impact. However, the negative credit consequences associated with debt consolidation programs are less commonly understood.

There are actions that people are able to take to overcome credit challenges and accomplish their financial goals. In many instances, eliminating or restructuring debts through bankruptcy may put an individual in a better position to be able to rebuild credit quickly.

At Financial Freedom Legal, we offer free bankruptcy consultations that can be completed via telephone, Zoom, or in-person in Richmond, VA. We also offer flexible scheduling and are happy to meet with you on evenings and weekends.

Generally, an appointment takes approximately 1 ½ hours to complete. At this appointment, you are able to explore your options with an experienced debt relief attorney. There is no obligation to file. If you are considering debt consolidation, we strongly recommend also taking the time to learn about your options under bankruptcy.

www.fflegalva.com

Transcription: Agencies like Cambridge speak to thousands of people every month, and one of the most common questions we hear is, “Will credit counseling hurt my credit score?” The short answer is no, but that comes with an explanation. “Credit counseling” is the process by which a certified credit counselor will help you create a workable financial plan that reflects your income, expenses, and goals. Your counselor will review your finances with you, give you personalized advice to help you develop a budget, provide valuable resources you can use in that process, and recommend alternative strategies to manage your situation. This type of free consultation has no impact whatsoever on your credit standing. Now, one of the options a counselor may offer is enrollment in a debt management program, or DMP. A debt management program will impact your credit, but probably not in the way you may be thinking.

Your credit scores, or “FICO scores,” are calculated from the data in your credit report at any given moment. That’s why they often change from month to month, as your creditors report your activity. The data is grouped into five categories: Payment History, which represents 35% of your score; Amounts Owed, which is 30% of your score; Length of Credit History – 15%, New Credit, 10%; and Types of Credit Used, which also accounts for 10% of your FICO score. The importance of any one factor depends on the total amount of information in your credit report at that moment. This means that what impacts your score may not impact another person’s score as heavily. Now, on to the good news.

Fair Isaac and Company, developers of the FICO scoring model, considers debt management enrollment as a neutral mark – neither good nor bad, and it carries no weight when calculating your score. This wasn’t always true. In 1989 debt management was considered a negative notation; however, the formula changed in 1998 because people were enrolling in DMPs as a proactive step. Instead of looking for help after they fell behind on their bills, people were reaching out to credit counseling agencies before things got out of hand. So if the creditors you include on your program note that your account is being repaid through a reduced payment and interest program, you won’t lose any points as a result of that notation. However, each of your prospective lenders has its own policies. One may view debt management as a non-issue, while others may interpret it negatively. There’s simply no way to predict that reaction.

Although participation in a debt management program isn’t a factor in FICO’s formula, the process of enrollment will affect your score. In a DMP, your credit counseling agency pays your bills once each month, and many creditors drastically reduce their interest rates and waive their late and overlimit fees. In return for those benefits, they require that the accounts you include in your plan be closed. That’s reasonable. Now, closing those accounts lowers your score because the amount of available credit is reduced, and that’s a part of the Amounts Owed category. The number of points you lose depends on the other information in your credit profile at that time. If you have a good credit history, with a lot of accounts in good standing, you may lose just a few points. If you only have a few accounts, the impact may be greater.

At the time you enroll, the agency will let your creditors know when your payment will be disbursed; however, as you transition into the program, you could experience a late or missed payment. That would impact your score, but the length of the program, generally 3 to 5 years, gives you more than enough time to make up for that initial event. It’s also important to remember that even though participation in a DMP is a neutral mark, it doesn’t “protect” you from incurring a negative notation, either. Just like when you’re managing your bills on your own, if you miss a payment on one of your accounts, your history will be affected. That’s one of the things you’ll learn while you’re working with an agency. You’re not just a number to us – we want to show you how to earn lower interest rates by developing good credit habits. Making payments on time is one of them.

If you pull your own credit report or review your score through a free website like CreditKarma.com, which I highly recommend, you may discover that you have too much debt. For example, if all of the credit limits on your accounts added up to $10,000, and all of the balances on those accounts added up to $5,000, you’d be using 50% of your available credit. On creditkarma.com, you’d see a note like “proportion of balances to credit limits is too high on revolving bank accounts,” which means that your score has already been impacted negatively.

(Insufficient room. Please email yourmoney2@cambridgecredit.org for complete transcription.)