Here are interesting posts and news this week from the MoneyBlogNetwork members and beyond: AllFinancialMatters wonders if anyone should use a credit counseling service. MightyBargainHunter got a great deal on wings. Five Cent Nickel details how to get…

With this, there are many caveats.
1. If you enroll in CCC, your creditor report will show it as such and you will NOT be able to get new credit while you are enrolled.
2. If you have late payment(s), despite not being the fault of your own and being the fault of the CCC, the creditor may renew all interest. Creditors vary in how they handle accounts in CCC. Some will continue to have original interest accrue until the principle is paid off (principle being the amount you owe at the time of creditor acceptance of CCC proposal). This makes keeping track a bit tough as well as puts you in jeopardy of having to pay everything if a payment is late. Others will re-age the account, which is good since what you owe, if there is interest, will start accruing at the point of creditor acceptance into CCC or may have 30-90 day stipulation before reaging the account.
3. CCC aren’t the best in helping. They take a monthly deposit from you and will disburse the funds. If there are payment issues or any other issues with the creditor like late payments etc, then it is on you. This is the part of the counseling portion that baffles me with CCC. They do nothing to help you. Now some will provide you with documentation that shows you paid them, but you are still responsible if the payment is late or not paid. Do NOT think that since your creditors have accepted CCC proposals and that you are now only having to pay one payment through CCC, that everything is being taken care of. Bottom line, it isn’t. You have to actively manage your debt still.
4. ask creditor to reage the account with a due date that falls within the disbursement schedule of the CCC. You may have deposited into the CCC account on the 15th, but CCC will not disburse for another week. Another way to avoid this, is to make the scheduled payment in advance so that CCC disbursements are being done in advance. This doesn’t always work with creditors which may see this as just an increased payment. The best option is to get new payment due dates that fall within the CCC disbursement schedule.
5. You need to continually look at your creditor accounts to make sure things are being adjusted accordingly–that is, the interst rate is what the creditor stated it would be in the proposal acceptance. etc.
6. Some creditors like AMEX will continue to accrue interst at your old rate until you pay off the principle at the time of the proposal acceptance. Ensure you get updates from AMEX and the like on what your principle balance is so you know when you can stop paying them. The second bad thing about AMEX is that they will count anything through CCC as a charged off account. You will have to think seriously about including AMEX in CCC or any other creditor who will list the account as a charge off. Charged off accounts will stay on your creditor report for 7.5 years. The good thing is that the charge off must be at the time of the proposal acceptance, not when you pay off the account.
7. normal payoff timeline is 4-6 years through CCC. You will submit your expenses and debits. You should think about how much you will need to live off of, b/c CCC will come up with a monthly payment based off of this.
8. you do not have to include everything in when you are going through CCC. You should think about creditors who will count it as charge off and decide whether getting zero interest rate is worth the 7.5 year ding. The positive is the fact that payoff in 6 years means that you will have to wait only 1.5 years until the charge off is off your creditor report after you are out of debt. You might also consider not putting one of your oldest credit cards in the program. Everything you put under CCC is a closed account. If you need a credit car for renting cars, you will not be able to use the credit card. Since the accounts are closed, you will have lost the credit history. If you have paid on time, you might consider keeping at least one credit off CCC and pay separately.
9. The fair share portion means that every creditor will receive an equal percentage disbursement from CCC regardless of debt amount or interst rate amount. This means that your highest interest accounts may not be paid off first. Although your monthly payment to CCC will remain the same as creditors are paid off in full, CCC will allow you to redirect money that has been paid off from one creditor to any other creditor. This will also ensure that the creditor annotates you credit report to ensure that it shows that you are no longer paying through CCC. This is also the time you redirect money toward credit with higher interest rates.
10. As creditors are paid off, ensure you request an account paid off letter from the creditor. I chose to make the last payment to each creditor directly rather than through CCC. CCC wasn’t happy and they gave me some lame argument about it would look better if the payment was finished through CCC. Having had one creditor paid late for the final payment of a whopping $1.07, I chose to ensure final payments were directly paid. I also checked monthly the principle balances with creditors that chose to continue accruing interest (i.e. like AMEX). If you have extra money, you can pay the creditor directly as well.
11. Not all creditors will accept a CCC proposal for lowered rates. Collection agencies and creditors will still accept payment through CCC, though, despite not accepting the proposal.
12. I cannot reemphasize enough, even if the CCC is accredited, that you are still responsible for everything. CCC is only a middle man that receives and disburses payments to your creditor. creditors have standing agreements with CCC’s, so the negotiating portion is a complete crock of BS. Counseling portion is also complete BS, because they do not provide any kind of counseling. Post debt credit establishment, again complete BS. Post debt credit establishment is on you by remaining out of debt. This is why I recommend keeping at least one credit card open. Keeping it open has its risks, but hopefully you are serious about getting out of debt and not getting more in debt.
13. Since you were a steller debtee, credit card companies are more than happy to provide you with a credit card post-CCC even if some of the creditors listed charge offs in your credit report. You’ve not only paid off the credit card in the past, but you’ve paid lots of interest. Credit card companies also know that the chances are you will go back into debt and can again make money off of you.
14. the first bullet of you can’t pay the minimums from the article is the problem with the article’s argument. If you are only able to pay the minimums, you will never get out of debt. You need some credit to be zero or at least lower. being hounded by creditors and collection agencies, is also not a valid argument for going into CCC. You have specific rights against being “hounded”. Really, the only reason to go into CCC is that you cannot negotiate a repayment plan on your own. Again, chances are you will not be able to negotiate. The lithmus test is whether you are able to get more credit or not. If you can get more credit, you can more than likely negotiate. If you cannot get more credit, you are more than likely not going to be able to negotiate.

We all have our flaws, we all need a chance to learn from our mistakes, and we all need a second chance sometimes.