Can’t repay your credit card debt? Seek help of credit counselling centres
Last Updated : June 13, 2016, 11:47 a.m.
Credit card, a plastic money, has become the necessity for most of the people in India and worldwide because of the avenues that you can get from the same. Be it shopping for movie and travel tickets or buying clothes from a retail outlet or dining at the favourite restaurant, credit card is the one that everyone looks for. You get even mad when you start earning reward points on shopping with your credit card. Then starts the game of splurge, and the debt amount goes well beyond your ability to pay the bills. So you start defaulting on the payment and bear late payment charges, making it even more tougher for you to pay the bills. Guess, what happens then? The hassle of dealing with the credit card debt recovering agents who pressurise you mentally to pay the outstanding dues. But in the times of evolution, there comes the concept of credit counselling centres that can help you deal effectively with the problem of mounting debt on your credit card as well as other loans.
Credit Counselling Centres & approach
If you are struggling to pay off the credit card debt that are beyond your ability, then the credit counselling centres provide you specific services to help you emerge out of the crisis. Here is the services that these centres provide to debt laden customers.
Counselling Services- The credit counselling centres first analyse your financial condition, debt structure, and causes for the debt trap. After doing the same, they come out with possible repayment options and suggest you to avail the best one that fits into your budget. Not only this, they even set a budget for you, keep a limit on the expenses and offer you advices regarding the optimum utilization of your available finances.
Negotiation with the lender – In addition to offering advices to repay your credit card debt smartly, these counselling centres also negotiate with the lenders on your behalf. They negotiate to reduce interest rate, waive late payment fines, bring mechanism of debt restructuring, etc. However, the centres charge fees for this service, and the amount for the same will depend upon the outstanding amount, the companty where you work, among others. The centres apply methods like debt consolidation, debt relief, debt settlement, DIY debt reduction approach to help individuals come out of the the credit card debt.
How should you approach credit counselling
- Reveal all the details, which led you to the debt trap, to the credit counsellor.
- Get the details of the fees charged by counsellors before approaching for credit counselling. You can put yourself in a misery if you go there without knowing the fees being charged by the centre.
- Bank-offered credit counselling agencies are the safest bet as they conform to the RBI guidelines.
- You must know the terms and conditions before getting into the written agreement.
Credit Counselling Service Providers
Credit counselling services are provided by non-profit organisations and private institutions. You can get away with fees or pay a lower fee when you get the counselling from non-profit organisations. But you need to pay fee at private centres such as Debt Doctor, Credit Sudhaar, etc. As I said earlier, bank-offered services are reliable in debt counselling. So, you can look forward to Abhay Credit Counselling Service of Bank of India, Bank of Baroda's Grameen Paramarsh Kendras, etc.
But it is always advisable to stay away from such debt trap by keeping a lid on your day-to-day expenditure. This will ultimately help you to pay off your credit card bills on time and enjoy a hassle-free life. So, set a limit of spend and follow it ruthlessly.