Related Services - The following companies and services offer a wide variety of financial programs to assist you with handling your debts. Consolidate your bills with a debt consolidation loan or use a debt management or credit counseling service for help with your credit card bills and other payments.

• Debt Consolidation Program - Are your bills piling up? Lower your monthly payments and consolidate them with a debt consolidation loan or a related service.
• Debt Management Counseling - Too many credit bills for you to handle with your budget? Compare different programs and find the one that is the right match for your individual situation.
• Personal Loan Consolidation - Need a personal loan for debt consolidation? These types of loans often do not require collateral and are available to homeowners, as well as renters.

Avoiding Costly Banking Mistakes: No Trivial Pursuit

Here are clues to preventing expensive errors with your checking account, credit card or other financial services. After all, this isn't play money!

To err is human...and sometimes it can be expensive. That's the case for many consumers who have to pay fees and penalties because of mistakes they've made when using their checking account, credit card or other banking services.

FDIC Consumer News wants to help you make smarter decisions and avoid some of these mistakes. So, we've compiled a list of some of the more common and costly slip-ups. Follow our tips and you can enjoy a more satisfying banking relationship and keep more of your cash.

FDIC Consumer News is published by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

FDIC Consumer News is produced quarterly by the FDIC Office of Public Affairs in cooperation with other Divisions and Offices. It is intended to present information in a nontechnical way and is not intended to be a legal interpretation of FDIC or other government regulations and policies. Mention of a product, service or company does not constitute an endorsement.

Find current and past issues of FDIC Consumer News at http://www.fdic.gov/consumernews. Refer to this same index to locate the issues that are specially formatted for being reprinted in any quantity.

To receive an e-mail notice about each new issue of FDIC Consumer News posted on the FDIC Web site, with links to stories, follow instructions posted at www.fdic.gov/about/subscriptions/index.html.

Last updated on 11/08/2006

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