Getting an appointment with a credit counselor that serves Ohio can be frustrating. Nonprofit credit counseling organizations have limited funds, and therefore cannot hire additional staff in order to meet the higher demand.
Most agencies depend on grants and community support to cover operating expenses. In addition, credit counselors must be trained and seasoned before they can handle client sessions on their own.
Foreclosures Straining Agencies
Another reason that Ohio credit counseling organizations are overwhelmed is that some parts of Ohio lead the nation in foreclosures. Slavic Village, a community in the Cleveland area held the dubious honor as having the highest foreclosure rate in the country.
Most of these credit counseling organization provide housing assistance in addition to debt management and credit counseling. In fact, the ratio of client appointments for debt vs. housing counseling has reversed from just a few years ago. For example, two organizations in Columbus are receiving 3 housing counseling calls for every 1 credit counseling call from local residents. That ratio used to be the opposite.
Appointment Times are Limited
Some residents have voiced their concern that they cannot speak with anyone when they call. For example, several organizations in the Cincinnati area share the same toll-free appointment time. This works well for reducing costs at those organizations, but it can frustrate Cincinnati residents that need to get through to speak with someone.
Even if you leave a message, it could be many hours or the next day before you hear back. Furthermore, the mortgage delinquency calls are taking up many of the credit counseling appointment times, pushing available appointments back 2 weeks or more.
Ohio Has Higher Unemployment Rate
To further fuel the demand, Ohio has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. Only 11 states and the District of Columbia had worse unemployment rates than Ohio as of November 2008. This higher statewide unemployment rate is causing more financial headaches with unsecured debt and home mortgages.
Southeastern Ohio has been hit especially hard. Only 4 counties had unemployment rates under 9%. Morgan County was tops with 12.7% unemployment, with Coshocton, Guernsey, Muskingum, Perry, Noble, Monroe, Meigs and Vinton Counties all reporting over 10% unemployment. Elsewhere, Huron County lead Ohio with 13.5% unemployment. That means nearly 1 out of every 7 county residents that were in the work force were denied unemployment. That is in addition to those residents that no longer consider themselves a part of the workforce, such as retirees or students. That makes for a lot of extra people in financial trouble.
If you are looking for an appointment with a credit counselor, understand that there may be substantial waits before most of these local agencies can schedule you in. If your need is urgent, then you should make sure that you get help from an organization that does have available appointments before your situation gets worse.
Most nonprofit credit counseling organizations maintain both an appointment/counseling hotline as well as an online counseling tool. Insist on nonprofit credit counseling that puts your needs first.
Kenneth Long began his public service with nonprofit organizations in 2001. He has since conducted workshops teaching other nonprofit executives how to integrate credit counseling with volunteer tax preparation programs. Long is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kenneth_Long
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