The number of consumers reaching out for financial counseling services continues to skyrocket in 2009 with requests on housing and bankruptcies hitting unprecedented levels, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling said today.
"In 2006, the NFCC member agencies assisted 1.48 million people and two short years later that number more than doubled to 3.2 million consumers receiving counseling help," said NFCC.
The NFCC, whose membership includes 850 agencies across the U.S., said the counseling aid is covering such areas as debt servicing, foreclosure prevention, bankruptcy pre-filing and pre-discharge education.
"It is not surprising that the highest increase in counseling was related to housing, with that area growing by 244 percent in 2008 over 2006 numbers," said the trade group. "Another disturbing trend is related to the number of bankruptcy sessions which grew by 110 percent in the same date range."
When combining the data for all services, the top reason consumers gave when asked what brought them to a counseling agency was simply "financial mismanagement," said an NFCC statement.
"Even as job losses soar, reduced Income remained the number two reason for financial distress," the statement went on. "This data supports the results of the NFCC's 2009 Financial Literacy Survey which revealed that 41% of adults, more than 92 million people, gave themselves a grade of C, D or F when asked about their knowledge of personal finance."
A snapshot of the demographics for the average person, said NFCC shows an individual to be between 35 and 44 (27.4%), white (48.6%), female (53.6%) and married (49.1%).
"Of those seeking assistance, the largest growth was seen among Hispanics, where delivery of service grew by more than 100 percent," said NFCC.
