“So, it might have a short-term negative effect but because the person is paying on time and paying down their debt, we actually find that, on average, people’s credit scores do increase over time on a debt management plan,” she said. “We save people tens of thousands of dollars of interest.”
Paying off credit card debt as fast as possible is tempting, Miller said. But you also should build up some savings for emergencies.
“Even as little as $250 or $500 is a great debt prevention tool to help keep from falling back into needing to use credit cards,” she said.
Debt repayment is a marathon, not a sprint, Miller said. Focus on learning better spending habits and ways to manage your finances.
“We can’t reassure people enough…
