If you have less than perfect credit and want to repair it back to a positive state, you may want to enlist the help of a credit repair counselor. What is a credit repair counselor? I call it my mother since she’s a whiz with budgets and money. But a professional credit repair counselor is someone who will take a look at where you stand financially, help you go through your credit reports and identify areas where you can make changes to restore your credit rating and your credit score.

Credit repair counselors are everywhere these days. It’s big business since many Americans are finding themselves deeper and deeper in debt. In fact, over 90 million citizens carry an average debt of about $20,000 not including mortgages. That’s a lot! Most of it is credit card debt and it can balloon out of control before most people even realize they’re in trouble.

A credit repair counselor will help you work with your creditors to make payment arrangements or even obtain a debt consolidation loan to help pay them off. The counselor can help obtain better rates for you and even lower the interest rate you are paying on your outstanding balance. They’ll work with your creditors and help you with establishing a better relationship with them in the long run.

Once you have developed a plan with your credit repair counselor, they will help you develop a long-term plan that will help keep you from getting into the same situation you were in when you first contacted them. That means setting up a budget and then learning ways to stick to that budget. You will likely have monthly meetings with the credit repair counselor initially to address any issues that might arise in your financial dealings. They will give you tools to help you stick to your budget and stay out of trouble.

When looking for a credit repair counselor, do your homework before you sign on the dotted line. Check out their reputation with the Better Business Bureau and even your local Chamber of Commerce if they are local. Ask questions and pay close attention to the paperwork they are supposed to present you with.

A reputable credit repair counselor will advise you of your rights as a consumer, disclose the fees for their services in writing, and outline what will be happening during the time they will be working for you. If they seem to be making outlandish promises that seem too good to be true, don’t hire them and keep looking. A good credit repair counselor can be a great help toward making you more financially solvent and less stressed about your debts.