Pre-filing Bankruptcy Counseling

The online course takes about 90 minutes to complete. You must use a laptop or desktop computer to complete the course online. The session can be restarted if you are interrupted. You may also go back to the course for a period of one year to review the course material. 

The course material is the same material that a counselor uses when doing in-person or telephone counseling. We charge a fee of $0-$50 per person which includes the generation of the certificate. It is our obligation to provide a certificate to the client, promptly upon completion of credit counseling services, no later than one business day after completion of counseling.

The fee will be waived if your current income is less than 150 percent of the poverty guidelines updated periodically in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2), as adjusted from time to time, for a household or family of the size involved in the fee determination. Please ask us if you have questions about these income levels. No one is turned away if they cannot afford to pay. 

View our disclosures and launch our online course. 

To register for telephone counseling, please contact us to obtain our intake forms and disclosures that you will need to fill out and return to us before your appointment is set up with a counselor. You may fill out the intake forms on-line. This is not a link to the online course.

Our financial counselor will email our disclosures before we get personal information from you or giving you financial counseling services. 

We charge a fee of $0-$50 per person which includes the generation of the certificate. It is our obligation to provide a certificate to the client, promptly upon completion of credit counseling services, no later than one business day after completion of counseling.

The fee will be waived if your current income is less than 150 percent of the poverty guidelines updated periodically in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2), as adjusted from time to time, for a household or family of the size involved in the fee determination. Please ask us if you have questions about these income levels. No one is turned away if they cannot afford to pay. 

The fee will be waived if your current income is less than 150 percent of the poverty guidelines updated periodically in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2), as adjusted from time to time, for a household or family of the size involved in the fee determination. Please ask us if you have questions about these income levels. No one is turned away if they cannot afford to pay. Please call 1-800-366-8161 or 920-886-1000 about eligibility.

We provide free bilingual counseling services or professional interpreter assistance to any limited English proficient client.

The agency receives grant support from various funders for counseling services.

The consumer credit counselor conducting or supervising this session has been trained and certified in accordance with the National Association of Certified Credit Counselors (NACCC) standards, and while he/she has expertise in helping those with financial problems, he/she cannot provide you with legal advice. In fact, this session is designed to provide you with information and alternatives; it is not intended to take the place of a consultation with an attorney to explore your legal rights and options.

We will discuss any potential impacts on credit reports of all alternatives that we discuss with you. The purpose of this session is to provide you with information so that you may chose the option that you think is best. If you decide to declare bankruptcy, it will remain on your credit report for up to 10 years. Budget and credit counseling do not produce a negative impact on credit scores. If you enroll in a Debt Management Program, a notation may appear on your report that you are making payments through a third party and that the account is closed. That notation is at the discretion of the lender. A consumer’s score is not negatively affected simply by enrolling in a DMP. If you should decide to enter a DMP (which will be explained during this session) you will be referred to another agency who handles DMPs.

We do not pay or receive referral fees for the referral of clients.

It is our obligation to provide a certificate to the client, promptly upon completion of credit counseling services, no later than one business day after completion of counseling and shall issue certificates only in the form approved by the United States Trustee and only from the Certificate Generating System maintained by the United States Trustee.

You have the opportunity to negotiate an alternative payment schedule with regard to each unsecured consumer debt under terms as set forth in 11 U.S.C.502(k), and we may refer you to another approved agency, and you may incur additional fees in connection with such a referral.

All information is confidential an only disclosed with written aurthorization or as required by law. We may disclose client information to the United States Trustee in connection with the oversight of the agency, or during the investigation of complaints, during on-site visits, or during quality-of-service reviews.

The United States Trustee has reviewed only the agency’s debtor education and credit counseling services and has neither reviewed nor approved any other services the agency provides to clients.

You will receive a certificate only if you complete the counseling services. The certificate is valid for up to 180 days from date of completion of counseling.