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This short writing will show you some of the problems with online consumer credit counseling programs. These are the issues that turn in a drop off rate of in some cases over 80% of the debtors who enroll themselves in these programs. People should be aware of these facts before they get themselves into a online consumer credit counseling program to guarantee themselves they are making a smart financial move.

1. Many of the credit counseling firms are made and funded by the actual credit card issuers themselves. They are somewhat of a middle man for the credit card company to collect the debt amount owed.

2. The credit counseling firms work for and represent the credit card companies; they do not work on behalf of the client. The credit card establishments stateto the credit counseling company the minimum payment that is required and the APR. There is no negotiation at all on this.

3. The credit counseling companies should be able to reduce the APR, however they can never actually reduce the original balance. The typical APR on one of these programs is around 13% which is more in the middle than actually being very low. By not lowering the original balance they are not really a method of credit card debt reduction, this is just an sped up repayment program.

4. You will wind up actually putting out more than the principal debt amount, due to the monthly fees, APR and reduced monthly payments which drastically extends the amount of time you are going to be in debt.

5. It does have a short term negative effect on your credit rating and is made a record to the public on your credit history, during the time you are in the program.

6. Receiving a mortgage while on a credit counseling program becomes extremely complicated, borderline impossible.

7. Here is the largest contributor to the 80% failure rate and read carefully. If you fall past due only one payment while on a online consumer credit counseling program you will be booted out of the program and the credit card companies will not allow you to get back into another program for up to a year. Putting your credit card debts right back to where they were before, high interest and all. This is the reason why upwards of 75% of the clients signed into these programs fail off.

I mean think about it for a minute. They put you on a online consumer credit counseling program that may take 5 years or more. We all know life has its ups and downs. If you find it very hard to be on the program in the first place you will drop out. Any unpredictable financial problems as big or small as they may be could contribute to you missing just one payment and getting kicked off of the program. You need to seriously think about how unwavering your finances and income security are before getting into a online consumer credit counseling program to avoid being part of that 80%. The bottom line is those with a large sum of debt such as $15,000 or more should lean more towards debt settlement than credit counseling. Credit counseling is much more suited for people with much lower amounts of debt that do not have much of any problems staying current in the first place. If you are searching for a way to lower your debt and get out of debt in a timely fashion, then credit counseling is just not for you.