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How will credit counseling services affect my credit rating?*
I am thinking about allowing a credit counseling service (Take Charge America) to consolidate all my unsecured credit. Will this help or hurt my credit rating once I complete the program in about 3.5 years?
Answers:
1) I have had (and am still with TCA) a good experience...I'm in month 28 or 29 out of 51 or 52 months. Comment #1 brings up one good point about being late...my first one or two months were tough in that all of my 10 credit card companies had different due dates. I was able to move all of them (within a month or two) so that they would fall roughly on the 15th of the month. With that set up, TCA would take money on the 1st, distribute it about the 6th, and creditors would "receive" it between the 10th and 13th or so. I have not been late since I signed up...but I recall having to make one double payment in the first month or two on one of my cards to not be "late." I consider that to be a weird snafu that I probably could have avoided. But...one thing you should check is with *all* of your creditors to see if you can adjust your due date. If they're all okay with that, then you can avoid late payments pretty easily. My score has gone up since TCA, and I've never been late. (Keep in mind though, you can't take out any unsecured credit while you're on TCA--but I was able to get a new car loan just fine).
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