Restoring Your Name’s Integrity with Non Profit Credit Counseling
October 14, 2011 by Alexandra Kerr · Leave a Comment
Going through life has taught us one important lesson; we don’t always get what we deserve. Sometimes we get very lucky, and other times so many bad things are happening to us that we wonder what we did to deserve it. The economy can make us feel that way a lot. We may work very hard, but we aren’t getting paid the amount that we are working. Our economic structure may allow the greatest potential for financial growth, but most times we are not able to harness that potential. Most Americans are hard working people, but there is another quality that most Americans share; they have poor credit ratings.
Many of the nation’s non profit credit counseling agencies and other financial institutions help us to see that many of the things that contribute to a poor credit rating are more based on a single event rather than a pattern of events. Credit ratings were meant to help others to foresee our ability to have solid financial judgement. Many people wonder why they give higher interest rates to people that have lower credit ratings. Logically, it would make sense to give lower credit ratings to these people so that they can get out of debt more easily. But, the opposite is true; people with higher credit ratings have lower interest rates because it serves as reinforcing encouragement to keep making smart financial decisions.
People that are struggling tend to look for a way around the system rather than looking for honest means of resolving their debts. For these people to have higher interest rates is more of a favor to them because it teaches that it does not pay to make unwise financial decisions. Non profit credit counseling is available for those that can admit that flippant spending is not a good way to live. These tough financial times are hard enough as it is, and everyone has to cut back. It is difficult to live with less when we have trained ourselves to believe that we can have whatever we want when we want it. A friend of mine would rather spend her pay check on a nice pair of jeans than to pay her credit card bill. Once she has some room on her credit card that she has maxed out, she spends the remaining credit limit to buy food.
Over the next month, she does not make any more transactions, but just the addition of the interest charge on the credit card balance sends the total over the credit card’s limit. This places another charge on the credit card bill that she cannot pay all over again. Poor credit is a vicious cycle of discouragement that makes a person feel hopeless and ineffective. One of the items of advice from non profit credit counseling is to do a complete overhaul on one’s finances. There are some big things that we can do if we are in a situation where we have poor credit. We can start making our way to financial prosperity again, but it will take a lot of courage.
We have to start living a completely different lifestyle; no more spending on anything unless it keeps you alive, no more missed payments, no more excuses, and no more going back. Some non profit credit counseling clients manage to get themselves into a better situation after a lot of hard work, but then they somehow fall back into it, thinking that they don’t have to maintain finances anymore. It is vitally important to monitor your finances all the time, and never lose track of how much you are spending and how much you owe.