Certified Credit Counselor, Addressing Your Credit and Debt Concerns

My goal is to write a column to help people overcome their debt and answer specific questions regarding credit and debt. I am a certified credit counselor, and have roughly four years of experience in the credit industry. I can answer any questions ranging from budgeting, credit cards, collections, and even pre-foreclosure housing counseling. I am also certified by aarp to provide reverse mortgage counseling, and am an expert on hecm reverse mortgages. I will be happy to accept emails regarding any of these topics at pisceshalcyon@hotmail.com, and will provide answers on your specific topic in a future article.

I must also stress that, although I am an expert on credit and debt; I am not an attorney. Therefore, I cannot give legal advice. If you are in need of legal advice, I can provide a referral for a legal aid service in your area. I can also provide you with a list of resources available to you in your community.
The first thing that I would like to address is that credit and debt problems can happen to anyone.

Many clients have come into my office ashamed and afraid. Some clients even expected me to yell at them. I was astonished at the thought of someone judging another person so harshly. From working in this business I know things happen; people lose their jobs, get divorced, get sick, or sometimes they have a spending or gambling problem. No matter what the situation, things are usually not as they appear on the surface. Financial problems are complex and add pressure to our already stressful lives.

This first article is going to be part of a series on exposing the problems with the credit industry. There are some very important problems with this industry that need to change. People have the misconception that if you pay off your bills every month, and are responsible you can't get into trouble with credit. That is not entirely true, not only because of life events, but because of most creditors' shady practices.
The credit card and personal loan industry is not held up to the standards they should be.