I am in one called United Financial Services. I had to enter it a couple years ago to pretty much keep my head above water.

But time has passed and I am doing better financially. I would like to pay off my credit cards in the next few months in full. I know they warned me not to use them or make any payments on my own or I would get booted out of the program.

So if I do this, will UFS give me any difficulty leaving their program? Maybe in the form of fees or will they keep charging my bank account? And will it hurt my credit report to pay these off early?

I used a credit counseling service several years ago after getting in over my head, too. If you are ready to pay everything off, meet up with your advisor at UFS and tell them you are at a position to pay everything and would like to coordinate it through them. I’m sure you signed a contract in the beginning that you would work with them to pay your debts off. This will keep you from avoiding any legal trouble, which you certainly don’t need on your record at this point. I think the only fees these places charge are basically administrative fees for being the middle man between you and your creditors. I don’t think they can force you to keep making payments if you instruct them otherwise. They will probably just contact all of your creditors, get payoff balances for you, and then coordinate getting the necessary funds from you to make one last payment to each of those companies. They may charge their regular fee for this or one last fee, but this should be it.

And in terms of paying these companies off early, you absolutely will not hurt your credit, in fact it’s the exact opposite. What they don’t tell you with these counseling services is that banks and credit companies really don’t like them, and it doesn’t show up on your credit report as if you had been making regular payments all this time, what shows up is that you cancelled all of your cards and had to go through a credit counseling service. That’s why after you pay everything off, it will be so important to keep your credit as good as possible, and also to get ahold of a copy of your credit report to see how much damage has been done so you can try to repair your credit score. Banks and credit companies don’t like these types of services because it demonstrates that you are unable to keep a tight control on your finances. You would think it would be the exact opposite, but when my husband and I were buying our first house, I was finishing up with my credit counseling and the bank required a letter from the counseling service stating where I was in the program and as a sort of recommendation letter. It actually could have hindered us buying a house because the bank wondered if I would be a financial risk. Although, after you pay off your debts, strangely enough you will start receiving tons of credit card offers because they figure that given your past you will spend tons of money if given a credit card. Go figure! Good luck to you and hope this helps!

Im their Systems Financial Manager and handle all their Accounts Payable’s and a list of other stuff. They are having me report to a new AR manager who has only been here 6 weeks and doesnt know much about her job ? My old boss who I did report 2 was the VP of Financial Services. I know more about the job then this new employee b/c I’ve been here for 2 years why would they do that??

It is sometimes difficult to understand changes in bosses. Some companies make good choices, others don’t. You will be judged on your loyalty and efforts. I would interpret that the VP you reported to has too much work and needs to spend less time involved in day to day details. Your new boss may not know as much, but the company also probably looked at you and realized you were knowledgeable and didn’t need a lot of supervision. Keep your new boss informed, don’t get in turf wars, seize this opportunity to shine.

High schools and colleges not dealing with peer pressure, family problems, financial issues and telling student that there future are at stake without giving them the skills to cope.

I feel that students need more student services in high school and colleges. High school students need services like personal counseling, financial aid, etc. And colleges need more personal counseling and financial help. Both institutions need more intervention in stress management and life skills development.

There have always been mean and crazy people. The solution would be to deal with them (eliminate them) early on, when they were first identified as antisocial misfits. Most of this type of thing could be prevented.

I had an interview today for a financial services position at a local credit union. the interview when spectacularly, I was the first of 4 candidates to be interviewed, but it was made known I had done very well and would like get an offer. I’m very interested in the job and loved the people I met there. However, towards then end of the interview they had mentioned you needed good credit to work there. If my credit isnt that great, roughly 580 score, with a defaulted student loan and minimal recent credit history, am I basically disqualified? What minimums do financial institutions look for, if I’m not going to be qualifie because of this, I would like to extend the courtesy of notifying them I am withdrawing my application from consideration. If anyone out there in banking HR has a good answer, I would truly appreciate it!

Banks usually do a credit check —A. To make sure your credit is half way decent so that you are not a risk. You will be working with money, so a reasonably responsible person financially is desired. —B. Usually the bank will require you to open an account in order to have your wages direct deposited. As long as your credit report isn’t a mile long in the red….you will probably do fine. Good luck!