Vivix Credit Solutions says that a credit counselor can help you rebuild your credit history.  A credit counselor can also help you live a less stressful life, free from creditors calling and from the worry of not being able to pay your bills.  A credit counselor will help you establish a Debt Management Plan and can educate you on budgeting and how to avoid incurring more debt.

The primary goal of a credit counselor is to help you live within your means, consolidating all of your often high-interest credit accounts into one lump sum, called a debt management plan.  Rather than making multiple payments to many accounts, you will make one payment.  Vivix Credit Solutions points out that a key benefit is that the amount of the monthly payment will often be as much as 50% lower than the total amount the consumer was paying.  Creditors will often accept this lower amount when a consumer is working with a credit counselor.

Another benefit of using a credit counselor is that the counselor can often help you negotiate a lower interest rate.  This lower interest rate is key as it allows you to pay off your accounts much sooner and to save hundreds or thousands of dollars in interest over the life of the repayment plan.  Vivix Credit Solutions says that a person with high debt will often be paying very high interest rates, 25% or higher; a credit counselor can negotiate rates far lower, sometimes in the 0-10% range.

Vivix Credit Solutions points out that a key reason to use a credit counselor is that you will rebuild your credit by making your delinquent accounts current.  That is an important factor in rebuilding your credit.  When you haven’t paid your bill for several months, it is reported to the credit bureaus.  However, when you make several on-time payments through your debt management plan, negotiated by your credit counselor, your credit history becomes more positive.  While you don’t wipe out your past late payments, your credit score will rise when you have on-time payments.  Again, these payments are more manageable because they have been consolidated and are lower.

Vivix Credit Solutions also points out that a credit counselor will scour your credit reports, often finding such errors as paid-off debts listed as unpaid, judgments or paid liens older than seven years, credit delinquencies that are older than seven years and bankruptcies that are older than ten years.  A credit counselor will contact the credit bureaus in writing to correct these errors.  It is important to correct these errors because all these factors will affect your credit score.

In addition to putting together a debt management plan and correcting your credit report, Vivix Credit Solutions says that a key service provided by a credit counselor is budgeting help.  An effective credit counselor will help you make a budget you can live with, while repaying your debts and living within your means.