Will Debt Management Plans Affect Your Credit Score?

Debt needs to be handled properly if you want to eliminate it. You may need to enroll into a debt management plan to give your more breathing room in your monthly budget. But, you have heard that debt management plan may badly hurt your credit, is that true?

At the time you start delay your debt payments you are hurting your credit. The longer you let your bad financial situation as it is, the more you hurt your credit score. There is no way out of debt except you pay it off. Therefore, when you enroll a debt management plan, you are putting a solution to resolve your debt issue. If comparing to a problem without a solution, a debt management plan won't hurt your credit score as much as you may think. However, using it to pay off debt may make you difficult to qualify for new credit. But, when you clear it off by following the schedule in the plan, you can always recover your good credit later.

In order to minimum the impact that may hurt your credit score, you can always take a few precaution steps to protect it:

1. Choose a debt-management plan wisely

It is so important to choose a debt management program carefully because if the agency that misses or late in making your payment to your creditors, your credit record will be jeopardized. You have to select a credit counseling service with good reputation and reliable in helping you to get rid of debt successfully. In addition, enrollment and monthly fee for a debt management plan may vary from one agency to another. Some agencies may charge a few hundreds a month while other may only cost $20 or less. You may have to take into consideration of the monthly fee as it will be a huge lump-sum when being add-up for years as the plan may take a few years until you fully pay off your debt.

2. Make on-time payment

Late payment hurt more than the debt management plan itself. You have to protect your credit score by ensuring you make your monthly payment to your account on-time. Always pay early and allocate enough time for your check to be cleared and transfer to your account so that the credit counseling agency can pay your creditors on-time. Although there will be comments stating you are paying an account through a credit counseling agency in your credit report. The comments won't hurt your credit score in the least.

3. Monitor your debt counselor

Even though you make payments to your account on-time, but if the credit counseling agency makes late payment to your creditors, your credit score will also be affected. Therefore, you should ensure that your creditors are paid on-time by monitoring your credit bills carefully. If you discover a problem with bills paid through your debt management account and the problem is not resolved by the credit counselor, then report the company to a local consumer protection agency or file a complaint at the Better Business Bureau.

Summary

Enrolling into a debt management plan won't hurt your credit score as badly as your may think. But, it does affect the easiness of your future credit application. However, you could minimize the negative impact of debt management plan by following the above steps.