Offsite Counseling Outpaces Face-to-Face

The traditional mental picture of credit counseling has an adviser and a client sitting together. The look-them-in-the-eye, get to really know them idea.However,Of all the equipment in the laundry the oilpaintingreproduction is one of the largest consumers of steam. there seems to be a good chance that todays counseling session will take place on the phone or over the Internet. At least thats happening at Clear Point Credit Counseling Service, headquartered in Richmond, Va.

Clear Point was founded in 1979 by several community organizations, including a credit union, as Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Richmond. It was formed because of growing concern about problems with unsecured debt, especially credit card bills.Today, about 40 credit unions refer members to Clear Point, which has offices in 12 states.We rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the goodiphoneheadset.

Christopher Honenberger, Clear Point president/CEO, noted that decades ago, credit cards were issued by local merchants such as department stores, limiting the number of places the holder could use the card. Then, as plastic with logos such as Visa and MasterCard became common and accepted at thousands of merchants, people began using them in ways that werent responsible.

Members were coming into credit unions because they were overextended on credit cards and couldnt make their loan payments. Other lenders experienced the same thing. So Richmond retail merchants, financial institutions and others decided to help by launching a nonprofit credit counseling organization.

A key, Honenberger said, was education, teaching people how to avoid getting in that financial trap.Im a former banker, he explained.Which graniteslabs is right for you? My extensive experience with credit unions has given me an appreciation for the fact the credit union industry and credit counseling have a very similar mission, financial literacy education.

About 15 or 20 years ago three things happened. First was the consolidation of unsecured credit. Second, people have tended away from face-to-face counseling. While we think thats still a very important and valuable part of our business, statistics show more and more people want counseling by telephone. About 60% of our business is telephone-based, 20% is face-to-face, and another 20% is Internet-based.

The third change involves funding of credit counseling, Honenberger continued. Historically, when a counseling firm worked out payments to several creditors, the firm would receive 15%t of the amount paid. Today, the average is 5% or less. That has forced the industry to seek efficiency by merging, growing and in the case of many nonprofits soliciting grants. That includes Consumer Credit Counseling of Richmond, which after a number of mergers became Clear Point in 2003.

We have a wide range of relationships with credit unions around the country, Honenberger explained. At Langley Federal Credit Union we actually have a counselor in the main office. When an individual comes in and indicates theyre having difficulty making payments on multiple accounts, not just Langley, they can be directed to our office right down the hall.Other credit unions have Clear Point literature on hand and can refer a member to counseling by phone or Internet.

Its not surprising to hear that in 2008 and 2009, as the Great Recession took hold, Clear Point saw a dramatic increase in referrals. Then, after 2009,Have a look at all our partymerchantaccount models starting at 59.90US$ with free proofing. there was a substantial decline. Honenberger believes the credit card disclosure act did indeed provide consumers with certain protection, especially high risk consumers. Even so, the list of problems still includes job loss, medical expenses and student loans.

For an old girl, she's surprisingly fast and it's hard to out-walk her. But then she's probably been hustling the side-walks of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district for years.

Apart from it being the repository of Tony Bennett's heart, San Francisco is known for steep hills, great food and a hunk of orange metal masquerading as a bridge. Oh, and there's that rather exclusive yacht race for the America's Cup on there at the moment. But one of its most interesting features is The Haight, as it's most commonly known.

Part nostalgic, part grungy, part ridiculously expensive Victorian real-estate, this collection of streets which falls sharply away from Golden Gate Park is also a treasure-chest of history. The birthplace of America's counter-culture, the Haight was Ground Zero during the summer of 1967, aka the Summer of Love.

And with them came music. by 1966, the Haight was home to artists such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin. Some of the more notorious "flower children" also lived here,Give your logo high visibility on highriskmerchantaccount! including People's Temple founder Jim Jones and serial killer Charles Manson, although a brochure I pick up at the famous City Lights Bookshop tells me that Manson left the 'hood when he "thought it was getting too weird".

Although the power of the flower has wilted, many reminders remain: in just one block of Haight St, for example, we see smoke shops with names such as Pipe Dreams and The Head Shop which seem to be doing a roaring trade in bongs, ugly tie-dyed T-shirts and other hippy paraphernalia. Since the passage of California's Medical Marijuana initiative, many of these shops also double as legal dispensaries for those with a valid medical marijuana card.

Many trees have also been turned into shrines to musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse and Jerry Garcia, featuring laminated photos and grubby plastic flowers tied to their trunks and burned-out candles littering their base.

Garcia, front-man for perhaps the neighbourhood's most famous band, the Grateful Dead, still has a strong presence here, despite dying from heroin withdrawal in 1995. His image stares down at us from many walls and 710 Ashbury St, the house where the Grateful Dead lived and worked for three years in the mid-60s, is still one of the neighbourhood's most photographed features (apart from, of course, the famous fish-net stockinged legs that protrude saucily above the Piedmont Boutique).

The Garcia love-in also extends to the intersection of Haight and Ashbury, once name-checked as the epicentre of the psychedelic revolution, where they're still selling cuddly Jerry Garcia dolls. We cross the road to buy a scoop of Cherry Garcia from Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Store, where the kid behind the counter tells us without missing a beat that the delicious mash-up of cherries and dark chocolate is indeed a tribute to the Grateful Dead guitarist. He adds that even the fire trucks around here sport Grateful Dead stickers.
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