Counseling Options

Budget Counseling:

Our budget counseling will assist you in your quest to have a balanced monthly budget. Our counselors will work extensively with you in order to pinpoint where your money is going each month and suggest ways to reduce expenses. We will help to set financial goals and provide a personal action plan focused on your family’s goals. Budget counseling can be as simple as determining when certain bills should be paid and as extensive as creating a personal pay-off plan. Counselors will provide recommended averages you should consider when setting up a family budget.

Credit Counseling:

Credit Counseling is one of our most common forms of counseling. Clients seeking assistance with credit often use this service. Depending upon each client’s needs, our counselors will work to build an action plan that addresses the client’s needs, goals, and objectives. Counselors use this as an opportunity to educate each client on how to negotiate directly with creditors, change personal spending habits, and develop strategies for saving money. Counselors also have the ability to offer a consolidation program to those that it would benefit. The counselor will thoroughly discuss advantages and challenges of all options including bankruptcy, debt management programs, and self-administered payment plans. Counselors will also discuss client rights, public and non-profit resources that can offer assistance, and applicable laws and regulations.

Homebuyer Counseling:

Clients considering the possibility of purchasing a home will be counseled by one of our homebuyer education counselors. Our counselors work with each client to establish a working budget while assessing the client’s debt load and possible obstacles. Some of the obstacles may include debt load, debt to income ratios, credit issues, employment history, and available savings. Each counselor will work to build a personal action plan that will assist the client in his/her financial goals. The action plan can include ways to pay down debt, options to clean up a credit report, ways to save money, programs for down payment and closing cost assistance, public and non-profit resources that can offer assistance, and applicable laws and regulations which include client rights.