Credit counseling industry in crisis
Creditors exert control; legislators shortsighted on reform

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Modern-day credit counseling, often a last resort for consumers desperate to avoid bankruptcy, has reached a point where creditor control and legislative reform threaten the very industry itself once thought of as a financial safety net.

"In an era when consumer debt is at record levels, the very system designed to assist those in need is a broken system at best," said Steve Rhode, who has returned as president of Myvesta, a nonprofit consumer education organization, to represent consumers in this crisis.

"Currently consumers are not serviced by an industry who has the needs of the consumer in mind. It is an industry that has been besieged by creditors and government guidelines which force the agencies to worry more about day-to-day survival than focus on helping the consumers with in-depth and meaningful assistance," Rhode says in a news release.

According to Rhode, creditors focused on demanding successful collection activity and the suggested IRS guidelines have trapped credit counseling agencies in a no-win position.

"Credit card companies, the single largest provider of funding for credit counseling agencies, have drastically cut their financial support while forcing agencies to act as collectors rather than counselors," Rhode said.

"Agencies have to do what the creditors want to stay in existence or they will get cut off from funding. Credit counseling agencies are afraid to speak out for fear of more funding cuts as retribution for speaking the truth."

"On top of that, government agencies, in an effort to stifle deceptive practices in the credit counseling industry, are suggesting guidelines that threaten the ability of agencies to fund their programs at all." Rhode said.

"We are now faced with an industry that is on the brink of destruction and has to either obey the creditors as collectors or operate without any source of income. Either choice is deadly dangerous and bad for consumers."

For more information on Myvesta, visit Myvesta.org.