Consumers are doing a poor job of taking advantage of financial counseling services under last year's CARD Act, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling charged Wednesday.

Indeed, the association's help line connecting consumers to member agencies is going unused and that is “confusing particularly during this current economic environment where millions of consumers have serious financial concerns,” said the trade group. 

“Every month tens of millions of credit card statements are mailed to consumers as a result of the CARD Act and every statement is required to display a toll free number directing consumers to non profit credit counseling agencies for help managing their finances,” said the NFCC.

The result, said NFCC, has been that the NFCC toll-free line has been listed on 500 million statements since the implementation date of Feb. 22, 2010, but “only 150,000 people have reached out for help with their financial situation.”

This is unhealthy, said the NFCC, since consumers are not contacting the 800 agencies that comprise the NFCC network.

“Consumers are doing themselves a disservice by not taking advantage of this resource, as reviewing their situation with a trained and certified credit counselor could provide solutions they've not considered.”