The downloadable winter 2010 Credit Management & Counseling, (PDF) and Credit Managment Counseling PowerPoint presentation.

Every time you pay a bill (or don’t) it contributes to your credit history. While you may not give a lot of thought to your credit history in the day-to-day, your everyday actions have long-term effects on your financial security. It’s important to fully understand how simple transactions and payments can affect you into the future. This chapter will provide basic information about managing your credit, including what impacts a credit score, warning signs of credit overload, and where individuals can go for assistance.

The goals of this chapter are:

1. To overview the benefits and drawbacks of debt.
2. To provide information about how to order and what to look for in a credit report.
3. To help you understand what’s in a credit score and ways to improve it.
4. To provide options for managing debt.

Take-away messages:

1. Always keep an eye on your credit—it affects more than you think.
2. Manage an economic hardship with the least damage to your credit record.
3. Check your credit score.
4. If you run into trouble you may need to repair your credit too.
5. Bankruptcy and repayment are options but will not make your financial problems go away.