Credit counselors help locals defeat debt

It was a television commercial that set Dedra Coldiron on the path to debt freedom five years ago.

“I was going through a divorce and I found myself stuck with all the debt. I had a perfect credit score from before,” said Coldiron, who recently moved from Carrollton to Flower Mound. “I saw the commercial and I called to explain my situation.”

The commercial was for the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of North Texas, a non-profit organization that has branches in Carrollton, McKinney, Plano, Denton and Texarkana. The organization was founded in 1980 and offers credit counseling, a debt management program, pre-filing for bankruptcy and senior citizen reverse mortgage counseling.

“I went in so nervous and said ‘I don’t want to file bankruptcy,’” Coldiron said.

Coldiron had about $18,000 of credit card debt and is pleased to report that it will be completely paid off in Aug. 2010 through using CCCS’s debt management program.

“I just sat down and thought to myself ‘Do you want creditors calling or do you want this over with?’ ” she said.

Certified Credit Counselor Susan Kelly in the Carrollton branch of CCCS sees cases like Coldiron’s daily. Kelly said symptoms of financial trouble include living paycheck to paycheck, not wanting to open your mail, keeping things from your spouse, and if you’re starting to get calls from creditors.

“Folks are coming in and saying ‘I never thought we’d be here,’ ” Kelly said.

CCCS offers an initial 90-minute consultation session for $35, where a counselor will take a look at your monthly income and budget.

“We look for ways to find money in folks’ budget,” Kelly said.

Kelly often recommends people cut out or reduce luxuries like doggie daycare, manicures, expensive lattes, premium cable channels and unused memberships.

“Everything is really unique to the individual,” she said. “The doggie daycare sticks in my mind. It was $400 a month. When they saw it in writing, it became evident to them that this was an item that was going to have to go.”

Clients with unmanageable debt can sign up for CCCS’s debt management program. If you’re considering a debt management service, Kelly recommends you make sure the organization is non-profit, check it out with the Better Business Bureau and check that it’s certified through the National Foundational for Credit Counseling. CCCS works with creditors to get lower interest rates and set up a payment system to pay off the debt in three to five years. There is a $50 one-time set-up and a $30 monthly maintenance fee for the program.

“They looked at all my bills and called all the creditors for me,” Coldiron said. “They told me you’ll have this much of a monthly payment.”

In order to find the extra money in her budget, Coldiron said she was told to stop spending money on “stupid stuff.”

“They say give yourself a treat once a month, but make sure it doesn’t go over a certain amount,” she said.

Coldiron said she cut up her credit cards into the smallest possible pieces.

“Now I don’t use them,” she said. “It’s kind of a freeing feeling.”

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