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.

• Credit Debt Consolidation - Do you simply have too many credit cards and other bills? Review this directory for useful information and compare a list of service providers that may be able to help you.
• Credit and Debt Management - 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.
• 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.

Complain Effectively and Get Results

What if you have a problem with a financial institution but you're not sure about the best way to resolve the matter? Here are some tips for dealing with the situation and minimizing the frustrations.

Four

Be clear about deadlines or other responsibilities when filing a complaint. To be fully protected under the law, some federal statutes require people to report a problem within a certain time period or to submit their claim in writing.

"For example, making a phone call to dispute a charge on your credit card bill doesn't protect your rights under the law," explained Howard Herman, an FDIC Consumer Affairs Specialist. "Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, you must write to the creditor at the address set forth on your statement for billing inquiries," which is not the same place you send your card payments. That law also says that, for full protections, a complaint must be received within 60 days after the creditor sent the statement being questioned.

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 2/1/2007

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