Consumer Credit Counseling Services - continued
Consumer credit counseling may take 6 years or longer to complete. Furthermore, your involvement with a credit counseling service could be reflected on your credit report and can stay there for up to 7 years. Make sure this is the right debt relief option for you before committing to a consumer credit counseling agency.
________________________________________________________________________ * The statistic is derived from the report, "Credit Counseling in Crisis," published by Consumer Federation of America, in conjunction with NCLC, April 2003, page 27: "Most agencies do not release information on their retention rates, although a 1999 NFCC memo cited by Consumer Reports found that just 21% of their clients completed DMPs while about the same percentage left to self-administer debt payments. NFCC now reports completion rates of about 26% with about 20% leaving for self-administration."