Does Working With a Credit Counseling Organization Hurt Your Credit Score?


Credit counseling organizations do not lower your credit score when you approach them for assistance in creating a budget that you can work with. Credit counseling is designed by nature to assist each individual in a way that is unique to a person's particular situation. A credit counseling plan that may work for you will most likely not be the best credit counseling plan for the next person.

With each credit counseling plan being different it would be unfair to affect an individuals plan based off of their desires to get help with their financial situation. Many individuals who approach credit counseling find that they are not in need of joining a credit counseling repayment plan due to the advisor assisting them creating a plan for the individual to repay their debts with some adjustments to their spending habits or state of income. It is not a credit counseling organizations job to place you on their program. It is their job to ensure that you receive the best care and receive the best advice for your particular situation. While not all credit counseling sessions have an end result of the consumer enrolling on a debt repayment plan inevitably some will. This lead to the question; Does a debt repayment plan affect an individuals credit worthiness.

Once a credit counseling organization recommends that you enter into a debt repayment plan there will be no affect to your credit score. This is thanks to Fair, Isaac which designed the FICO credit scoring system. Spokesman Craig Watts states "Statistically, it does show a higher propensity to go bad on a credit obligation sometime in the future, we decided it was in everybody's best interest if we had it changed so that people can go into credit counseling without worries about what it might do to their credit score."

Credit counseling is different from credit repair, and debt settlement. There are no statements that support that these services will not affect your credit in a negative fashion.Credit counseling may be noted on your credit report by your individual creditors. The notation simply states that the consumer has entered a debt repayment plan. This notation does not affect your credit score.

Rick Munster is the Media Planner for Debt Reduction Services, http://www.debtreductionservices.com. When he isn't busy planning media he enjoys writing, hiking and finding a nice spot to drop a line and do a little fishing.