PRESS RELEASE Of interest to editors and journalists covering: Business/Finance, Debt Counseling, Credit, Surveys, CA Business News Attitude Survey Reveals That 1 Out Of 4 American Consumers Is Having Difficulties Paying Monthly Credit Card Bills SAN DIEGO, CA ­ July 26, 2004 /Send2Press Newswire/ -- On July 20th, Best Debt Solution (BDS), a Debt Settlement company and Bright Credit, Inc a Credit Counseling company joined efforts to conduct a survey into the understanding of U.S. Consumers’ awareness and attitudes relating to getting help with their personal debt. The survey concluded that: * 1 out of 4 of American who has 4 or more major credit cards is having difficulty paying their credit card bills. * Over 58% have or would look for help from their financial or tax consultant while over 41% would look to the Internet and 24% would follow the advice of an independent newspaper columnist. * TV, radio and newspaper advertising have very little impact on the people’s choices other than to create company name awareness. * Over 70% of the respondents felt that the vital or extremely important elements in making a choice were: The amount of fees paid to the company The length of the program The certification of counselors, The effect on credit score, The stopping of creditors calls, The record from the Better Business Bureau And the length of time to cancel without a penalty. * 43% of the respondents would choose credit counseling as opposed to 26% who would chose debt settlement and 33% who are undecided. This is surprising when compared to recent marketing research that reported that about 2 million Americans are serviced by credit counseling annually while less than 100,000 are helped by debt negotiation. 250 people were randomly chosen to fully completed the survey and were equally spread amongst the ages of 25 and 55 years old although slightly less than two thirds of the respondents were male (62%). Two out of three of the respondents are homeowners (66%) and are either employed or living with a full-time employed spouse. About Best Debt Solution, Inc BDS has been in existence for 17 years and is a bonded and insured corporation. Its mission is to help consumers with severe hardship get out of credit card debt by negotiating lump sum payments for each one of the debts as funds become available. The average length of the program is 36 months. BDS has a team of dedicated debt relief consultants who have been trained and certified by the Institution of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE) in reading, understanding and communicating the information found on credit reports, which is just one component of our free professional consultation. BDS’s processing company manages over $150 million of debt for thousands of clients and has saved consumers over $40 million. For more information visit www.BestDebtUSA.com or call 1-800-254-0171. About Bright Credit, Inc Bright Credit, Inc’s mission is to help consumers with difficulties get out of debt by reducing credit card interest rates and the monthly payments by up to 50% and eliminate or reduce finance charges. The average length of the program is 50 months. Bright Credit, Inc is partnered with a full-service 501c3 non profit certified credit counseling agency to negotiate the best possible repayment plan with creditors. For the past three years, the agency has successfully helped over 5,000 individuals and families across the United States and Bright Credit has earned an outstanding reputation for integrity and effectiveness by having all staff members fully trained and certified therefore achieving the highest possible customer service rating.. For more information visit www.BrightCredit.com or call 1-800-699-9740. Media Contact: Jon Schmid of Gable-Cook-Schmid Public Relations +1-619-200-7257 jschmid@gcs-pr.com # # # [ source of news = Bright Credit, Inc and Best Debt Solution, Inc ] ref: http://www.send2press.com/2archive/2004/pr04-072601-brightcredit.txt http://www.send2press.com/2archivePDF/pr04-072601-brightcredit.pdf ----------------------------------------------------------------- *IMPORTANT NOTE TO MEDIA: to reach the organization releasing this news, please contact: jschmid@gcs-pr.com (media only) If used for publication, please send specimen copy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- S2P-NP/ 0C / CA / SAN DIEGO, California / USA / English Copr. (c) 2004 Send2Press Newswire. This release was issued on behalf of the above organization, who is solely responsible for accuracy of content, by Send2Press(TM), a unit of Neotrope(R). http://www.Send2Press.com [www.CaliforniaNewswire.com] keywords -------- Debt Help Consumer Credit Counseling Debt Relief Help with Credit Card debt Debt Consolidation Bankruptcty Avoiding Bankruptcy