Debt Questions and Answers

Many Questions...Many Answers
by Scott Bilker

Scott Bilker is the author of the best-selling book "Credit Card and Debt Management." He is also the Editor and publisher of the FREE DebtSmart® E-mail Newsletter (http://www.debtsmart.com). Sign up today!

I want to thank everyone who watched my interview CN8 in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware on January 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 11th! The show is "Real Life" hosted by Mary Amoroso and it airs at 6:00 PM daily.

After each show I received many great questions and many of these viewers allowed me to share their questions with everyone. I received questions about mortgages, debt counselors, consolidation, credit histories, bankruptcy, medical bills, credit cards (of course), and many other topics. Below are the some of those questions and answers.

Question:
I have approximately $20k in credit card debt, the bulk of this is from one credit card @ 22% rate. I am not a homeowner, so I am considering the services of one of the non profit debt counseling companies, i.e. AmeriDebt, Cambridge Credit Counseling. I have been paying the minimum payments on my credit cards each month, but I need to be paying more. So far my credit report shows nothing abnormal. What will happen to my credit report/history if I use one of these credit counseling services?
--Dan

Answer:
Dan,

Thanks for writing!

It's hard to tell exactly what's going to happen to your credit history if you use their services. I would try to resolve the situation with each creditor one at a time.

You can read about the experiences of one of my readers, with credit counselors, at:
http://www.debtsmart.com/pages/article_contest_counsel.html

I would also look into getting the as much of that debt to a lower rate card--make the banks compete for your business! You can probably get better rates from other banks because you seem to have a good credit history. Read my article about getting better credit at:
http://www.debtsmart.com/pages/article_getting_credit.html

Good luck and please let me know what happens!

Regards,
Scott