A credit counselor helps individuals who have too many debts and who may be either going through or are considering bankruptcy. They evaluate the complete financial history of their clients, and do a detailed study of their total income, routine expenditures and debts. They work as a team with their clients to give them ways to reach a debt-free future. To be a certified credit counselor, one has to get through certified credit counselor training.
NFCC Certification
A National Foundations for Credit Counseling (NFCC) certification ensures that the training centers that provide credit counselor training meet NFCC standards. NFCC members often go by the designation "Consumer Credit Counseling Service" (CCCS), and carry NFCC's seal (make sure to look for it). Details about the certification and the training programs available can be obtained by calling the NFCC at (800) 388-2227 or visiting their website, which also has a search feature for locating certified credit counselors in your area (see "Additional Resources," below).
Prerequisites
The prospective credit counselor must have graduated high school in order to enroll for certified credit counseling training. A college education is always helpful for understanding credit concepts on a broader scale, and being at ease with mathematical concepts is a must, as credit counseling involves lots of number crunching. A background in finance, accounting or business administration is ideal. Finally, good interpersonal skills are needed, since this is a service industry that involves a lot of interaction between counselors and clients.
Curriculum
In a typical credit counselor training program, the first two weeks are spent studying general financial management principles. The focus is on credit, debit and personal finance concepts. In the third week, candidates study customer interaction models and learn how to handle questions and complaints. In the second month, candidates start interacting with senior credit counselors for additional training and learning more about telephone interactions. At this time, more detailed concepts are addressed, such as credit analysis, risk evaluation and credit-rating methodologies. This continues for a month and half. Finally, candidates take a written exam and, if they pass, become certified credit counselors.
Online Training
Today, it is also possible to do online credit counselor training. This is often more convenient for people who have day jobs or for others for whom studying at a physical location is inconvenient. The training is imparted through multimedia, skills assessment and real case studies (see "Additional Resources," below).
Training Options
Many credit counseling agencies are certified by the NFCC to give credit counselor training (see a partial list on the NFCC's website linked to in "Additional Resources," below). There are also some educational institutions that provide this type of training, including many community colleges. However, these programs are not certified by the NFCC, though they can prepare prospective credit counselors for the rigors of certified programs as they will be able to apply the knowledge learned in their community college courses to the certified training programs.
