History of Credit Counseling.

Debt consolidation programs emerged in the early 1950’s. These programs where created after a surge in consumer debt. Executives at credit granting institutions were concerned with the issue of defaults and very lenient bankruptcy laws, created the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). According to W. Patrick Boisclair, Chairman of the NFCC's Board of Trustees, "the NFCC initially monitored legislative and regulatory activity for its retail credit members and also conducted public awareness campaigns on credit." Their stated objective was to promote financial literacy and help consumers avoid bankruptcy, but they did not serve as collection agencies for the creditors. The first local credit counseling franchises emerged in the 1960's, offering education and counseling directly to consumers.

In 1993, the “Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies, (AICCCA) was founded, citing a need for “industry-wide standards of excellence and ethical conduct.” This formally organized the NFCC’s competition. The AICCCA was formed from the group of counselors who favored telephone delivery of debt management programs. The NFCC was, in the beginning, strongly opposed to this telephone business model, primarily favoring face-to-face counseling as a more effective solution. Eventually, all organizations practiced both phone and face-to-face processes with some agencies using large inbound call centers driven by mass media advertising.
With the arrival of the internet and its great marketing potential, the credit counseling industries expanded and grew. Today there are well over 2,000 active credit counseling organizations in the United States.