Consolidated Credit Reviews

[On-screen text] Achieving the American Dream of Paying Off Debt and Buying a Home

April Lewis-Parks, Director of Corporate Communications for Consolidated Credit: Traditionally, owning your own home is part of the American Dream. But for many, credit card debt can be a barrier to that dream. For Maria and her family, they conquered their credit card debt, using Consolidated Credit’s debt management program.

Maria Altamirano, Consolidated Credit graduate: My name is Maria Altamirano. I had like a 29% APR on my credit cards and Consolidated Credit got me a really good APR of 2%. In three years, I paid my $20,000 of debts.

I always wanted to have a new house. But I always knew in order to get my new house, I needed to pay off my debts. After I finished my debt management program and the house counseling, my [credit score] went to 790.

Through Consolidated Credit they sent me an email [for] first-time homebuyers. Victor was always available, like at any time, by emails, by phone calls. And he helped me in every single step. From the time that I took the class, I got my house in 6 months.

Buying a home, it was like a dream, because I always wanted to have a house for me and for my family.

April Lewis-Parks: If you’re struggling with high interest rate credit card debt, reach out to a credit counselor for a free consultation. And if you’re ready to buy a home or need help staying in your existing home, Consolidated Credit’s HUD-certified counselors are ready to assist you.

[On-screen text] Call now: 1-888-418-2027 or go to www.consolidatedcredit.org/housing.

Hi, we’re the Allen Family!

[On-screen text] Making the American Dream of Homeownership a Reality

Why buy a house? How did Consolidated Credit assist you?

Mr. Allen: I mean, besides the growing family, the biggest impact was, where we were renting, it kept increasing. And it was getting to the point where it was like, am I paying for a mortgage? And if I’m paying for a mortgage, then why not just get a house?

Mrs. Allen: I called you and set up an appointment for the class

Mr. Allen: She’s on top of everything and, really was the one that brought this class to my attention and really was kind of go-getter about it. I mean, it was either get on or get lost. So, we got on board.

[On-screen text] What did you learn from the homebuyers workshop?

Mr. Allen: You have to save. Like that’s the biggest part, right? You have to be able to save and so we sat down and we were writing down, like okay, this is what I get paid and this is what I pay out. And it was, like… it was kind of a one, two, three step kind of process. It made it much easier than I think going it alone would have taken us – we’d probably still be looking for a house.

You kind of get that ah-ha moment, like yeah, this is what we should be doing.

[On-screen text] Were your expectations aligned with your personal reality?

Mr. Allen: You can say oh, we’ll just do this and this and this will be fine, but in reality it’s like, okay wait, this is what we really need to do and these are the steps we need to take. This is plan that we need to follow.

You’ve got to put on those blinders sometimes. There are trips that you want to take that you can’t take, things that you want to buy that you can’t buy. Thankfully, a little under a year went by and we had enough money for our down payment, we were qualified based on our credit. Thanks to going through, we knew all the steps based on the program. So, it was just like, hey, so we’re buying a house, huh?

[On-screen text] What advice would you give someone who was thinking of buying a home?

Mr. Allen: If you are buying a house, you and your other – your significant other – you’ve got to be, you have to be on the same page. Like, what you want to spend, what you’re looking for in a home. Not only does it make it, your process easier, it makes everything easier on the Realtor. It lets you sleep at night. I think, without the class, I don’t know if we’d have this house right now.

[On-screen text] For Homebuyer Education & Counseling Call 1-800-435-2261 or visit www.consolidatedcredit.org

I’m Nadine Ehrlich and I’m Gerald Ehrlich.

I got let go of my job after being with them for 24 years, and they were downsizing and they had to let me go.

We were devastated. We thought that was the end of the world.

All roads led to Consolidated Credit. I was fortunate enough to call up and got Barry on the phone and from then on he advised us every way to go. But everything was coming due at the same time.

He’s the optimist, I’m the pessimist so I did more crying than he did.

She was worried.

He’d say, “Calm down. We’re going to go from here.”

You gotta go each step. This is what we’ve got, then you go to the next one – and he was right all the way down the road. And I said he was better than a psychiatrist. Absolutely.

He just put our minds at ease. We sat down, we talked to him – I mean everything changed because I wasn’t in that percentage rate anymore. I was out of a job.

It qualified us for a lot of programs that Barry explained to us in detail and told us what to expect. We were doing better because we had changed a lot of things in our budget, but we still had this albatross around our neck which was the mortgage payment that was going up, and up, and up.

We went down to $804 and some-odd cents – 27 cents – and we were amazed. And it’s also for the life of the loan and this was through HAMP: Home Affordable Modification Program. And again, it was a lifesaver.

And I got a call on a Friday, saying, “Do you want to accept the offer?” I was in tears.

Every day, I come home from work and go through the gate and I smile, because I know this is ours and that is a great and wonderful comfort. I’m just so thankful to him, to Consolidated Credit, I couldn’t do enough for you guys in return for what you gave us, and that’s how we feel.