Unfortunate CCCS story from Atlanta

This story doesn't mention which CCCS franchise they're talking about, but I do know that CCCS-Atlanta is one of the biggest agencies in the country, and they're definitely a good agency. Good in the sense that they're not evil scammers, I mean. Obviously they weren't good at their jobs in this case.

They seriously dropped the ball with this client, and his score dropped from 680 to 540. I've said before that 680 is right on the cusp of "good" credit. Anything lower than that, and you're starting to look sketchy. So a drop from 680 to 540 is HUGE, by every standard conceivable.

Normal credit counseling clients who make timely payments, like this man did, would not see any decrease in credit score, so this is definitely an anomaly.

The question I'm left with is: did this guy never look at his credit card statements? I tell every CCCS client, whatever agency they're with, to check every credit card statement they get carefully, and compare it to the progress reports they get from the counseling agency. If this guy's payment was too small for the creditor and it was going on for over a year, it would have shown up on his monthly statements from the creditor. That's not meant to excuse the CCCS' failure in any way, but credit counseling is a 3-way relationship, and all three parties have to do their part, including the client. If you're with a CCCS, it's not enough to set up automatic payments and then forget about it for a year. You have to read the credit card statements and make sure everything is proceeding as it should.

Comments

[Small Loans]

I know some people who live entirely in credit, so the article doesn't surprise me at all.