OUR VIEW Tackle debt, change your spending ways

First Posted:

If you overdid it on holiday spending and dread the arrival of those credit card bills, don’t despair. Help is available.

The Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Northeastern Pennsylvania – a fixture in the region for nearly 37 years – conducts programs for people who want to get, and stay, debt-free. For instance, individuals who made credit card “mistakes” might want to enroll in the agency’s debt management program. Generally, that means rolling debts owed to multiple creditors into a consolidated monthly payment, often at a lower interest rate. The agency charges a recurring fee for this program, but it can be waived in “hardship cases,” according to its website.

The credit counselors also offer free budget counseling. Plus, you can turn to their website – www.cccsnepa.org – for helpful worksheets, such as the “Six-month expense tracking sheet.”

The site also includes details about the agency’s other services, including housing counseling, and back editions of its seasonal newsletter. If you had seen the Consumer Credit Counseling Service’s fall newsletter, you’d probably have noticed a poem titled “Surviving the Holidays,” which was a contemporary reworking of Clement Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas.”

It read, in part:

A month after Christmas, the bills hit their door.

They saw what they owed, and ‘bout hit the floor!

If they’d only heard what CCCS had said,

A whole lot less worry would be in their head.

For the record, the credit counselors also issued a “Financially naughty or nice checklist” before Christmas to encourage consumers to make wise shopping decisions in December. If you missed it, and regret your recent spending habits, it’s not too early to begin planning for next year.

To land on the agency’s “nice” list, you’ll need to abide by strategies such as this: “I am dedicated to paying cash for holiday expenses next year and tracking holiday expenses to know how much to save for that goal.”