SILVER SPRING, Md., and WASHINGTON – A three-year study on the change in consumer financial behavior after receiving credit counseling services finds that credit counseling has a major positive effect on consumer credit usage and payment behavior. Conducted by Georgetown University Credit Research Center and Lunquist Consulting, the study, "The Impact of Credit Counseling on Subsequent Borrower Credit Usage and Payment Behavior" also finds that borrowers who received this form of budget/financial counseling reduced their debt and improved their credit profile over three subsequent years, compared to similar borrowers who did not receive counseling. The study was encouraged by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and reviewed 10 different measures of borrower behavior subsequent to counseling including summary measures of creditworthiness, such as credit bureau scores; specific dimensions of credit usage, such as number of accounts with balances and total amount of debt; and payment performance. TransUnion Credit data provided an objective measure of credit performance for 14,000 clients over a three-year period from June 1997 to June 2000, following their initial counseling sessions.