As if we haven't endured enough financial double-talk lately, the airwaves and our email are filled these days with offers to slash our credit card debt. Sounds tempting, but beware. A lot of credit counselors are up to no good.
Don't take my word for it--take the word of Elizabeth Warren, Harvard professor, author, and champion of the middle-class. In "All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan, she writes that "...credit counseling has become an industry thick with slick operators who do little more than take your money and leave you deeper in a hole." Some masquerade as nonprofit operations when they're not and many of them are run by big banks and credit card companies, she points out.
Other brands of snake oil identified by Warren: Credit repair offers, FICO repair kits, identity-theft protection and credit-card loss protection. This book was published in 2005, before the credit bubble burst. Its cautionary advice seems even more relevant today.
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