Fact Sheet

A STRONG NATIONAL PRESENCE

CredAbility is a 48-year-old nonprofit 501(c)(3) community-service agency that provides confidential budget counseling, money management education, debt management programs, bankruptcy counseling and education, and comprehensive housing counseling.

CredAbility is the headquarters for a family of agencies serving more than 440,000 people from across the country.

Consumers can get counseling in English or Spanish 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, either by phone at 800.251.2227 at the agency's Websites, www.CredAbility.org and www.CredAbility.org/es

SERVICES

Budget Counseling: Professional, certified counselors offer individual advice for developing and balancing budgets, managing money, using credit wisely, and building a savings plan. CredAbility provided 21,849 confidential budget and debt counseling sessions in 2011.

Debt Management Plans: CredAbility develops reduced payment programs with creditors for consumers who are overextended. In many cases, debt repayment plans provide sound alternatives to bankruptcy. Last year 18,515 consumers paid more than $108 million to their creditors through the agency's debt management plans.

Housing Counseling: CredAbility is certified by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development as a comprehensive housing counseling agency. The agency helps consumers with pre-purchase counseling, foreclosure prevention, reverse mortgage counseling, rent delinquency, post-occupancy counseling and loan declinations. CredAbility also serves homebuyers through community organizations and governmental agencies. In 2011, more than 109,000 people with housing issues received counseling from the agency.

Bankruptcy Counseling and Education: CredAbility is approved by the Executive Office for United States Trustees to provide budget and credit counseling for bankruptcy filers nationwide. Anyone who files for bankruptcy must complete a credit counseling session from an approved provider and receive a Certificate of Counseling before filing. In 2011, CredAbility helped more than 133,000 people fulfill their counseling and debtor education requirements during the bankruptcy process.

Education: CredAbility provided money-management and housing finance education seminars for more than 62,000 people in 2011. The agency is constantly enhancing its offering of online education classes, known as CredAbilityU (www.CredAbility.org/education), to cover a wide array of money management topics.