Related Consumer Finance Programs - The following lists of companies and financial service providers offer services to assist you with handling your debts. Combine debt with a consolidation loan or use a credit counseling or debt relief program for help with lowering your payments and getting your credit card bills and other obligations under control.
- Debt Consolidation Help - Learn more on how debt consolidation can work for you and compare a detailed company list of lenders and related services offering help to people that need to consolidate debt.
- Debt Settlement Negotiation - Too much debt? List of companies providing this alternative to bankruptcy that provides for debt negotiation and arbitration services for those that need to eliminate debt.
- Debt Management Counseling - Do you have too many monthly bills and payments to manage them effectively? Visit this directory of sites in order to review and compare different debt management programs that may be able to help.
For More Help or Information on Managing Your Money
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has staff and other resources that can answer questions about deposit insurance and banking and can help resolve questions or complaints involving an individual institution.
Start at http://www.fdic.gov/quicklinks/consumers.html or call toll-free 1-877-ASK-FDIC (1-877-275-3342). FDIC publications, including our quarterly FDIC Consumer News and articles referred to in this special guide, are available at that same Web site and telephone number (select the option for "FDIC publications").
You can also e-mail us using the Customer Assistance Form at http://www2.fdic.gov/starsmail or send a letter to the FDIC, Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection, 550 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20429-9990.
Other federal regulators of financial institutions publish consumer information and have staff, Web sites and other resources that can help answer questions on financial matters. Start at http://www.mymoney.gov, the federal government's central Web site about managing your money. It is a service of the interagency Financial Literacy and Education Commission, of which the FDIC is a partner.
Other federal, state and local government agencies publish consumer information, offer financial education classes and help answer questions on money matters.
For more help from the U.S. government, start at http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Money_Taxes.shtml or call toll-free 1-800-FEDINFO (1-800-333-4636). Also check out the financial information and programs offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in partnership with the Cooperative Extension System (go to http://www.csrees.usda.gov/financialsecurity). One of Cooperative Extension's projects is an interactive Web site featuring answers to more than 1,100 frequently asked questions on personal finance and the opportunity to "ask an expert" from a university (http://www.extension.org/personal+finance).
You can also find additional information at your state or local government's Web site or by calling a consumer affairs office listed in the government pages of your phone book.
Financial institutions, consumer organizations and the news media publish personal finance tips you can find by searching the Internet.
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 05/13/2008