Credit Counseling Automation

Credit Counseling Automation advantages for agencies, creditors, and consumers

Credit Counseling Automation is an electronic transaction processing system that enables credit counseling agencies and creditors to eliminate most of the paper, phone calls, and faxes that are used to communicate and make payments. In addition, Credit Counseling Automation also:

• Eliminates waste and inefficiency with state-of-the-art electronic transaction processing.
• Allows creditors to reduce operating costs and improve the quality of service they provide.
• Provides consumers with fewer errors and faster service.
• Eliminates Fair Share invoicing processes, allowing agencies quicker access to operating funds.
• Provides access to net and gross fields, allowing the consumer's record to be credited with the gross payment, while the agency settles only the net payment.

Credit Counseling Automation Services

The picture below illustrates the transaction flow between agencies and creditors (billers):

How Credit Counseling Automation works

Credit Counseling Automation features two types of transactions:

Financial

Financial transactions are electronic payments made by credit counseling agencies to billers and creditors. Payment transactions are made through sponsoring financial institutions for agencies and creditors.

Non-Financial

Non-financial transactions are electronic Debt Management Proposals, account inquiries, account close-outs, and free-form text messages that facilitate the flow of information between agencies and creditors.

The benefits of electronic payments

• Payments post faster. No more waiting for the mail to be delivered or the special handling desk at the creditor to post consumer payments.
• Payments post with fewer errors. No more errors resulting from mistyped account numbers. Check-digit routines and account masks at Visa ePay catch most invalid account numbers, thus ensuring that creditors receive only valid accounts. Electronic posting by the creditor insures that payments are posted to the correct account.
• No more Fair Share invoicing. Net and gross fields allow the consumer's record to be credited with the gross payment, while the agency settles only the net payment. This eliminates the entire invoicing process and allows the agency quicker access to operating funds.

The benefits of electronic DMPs and other transactions

• No more waiting for the stamp-of-approval. Debt Management Plans are processed in days rather than weeks. Creditors can automatically accept proposals that meet preprogrammed acceptance criteria. Valuable human resources can be saved to work only on the exceptions, not the routine plans.
• No more looking up account balances or waiting for a return fax. Account balances and last payments can be verified by the system automatically without human intervention. Results are returned within 24 hours.
• No more sticky notes or messages in the file. Free form messages allow agencies and creditors to communicate with an audit trail and without the fear of losing important information.
• No more payments after a consumer has been removed from the plan. When it's over, it's over. Close-out messages provide creditors and agencies with the means to remove a client from a plan and automatically adjust the client's computer records.

The following are other credit counseling agencies that use the Visa ePay Credit Counseling Automation service.