A wave of consolidation is rapidly transforming credit counseling. It used to be a face-to-face experience at locally based offices that were supported by payments from credit card issuers. Now, counseling is frequently done through large call centers with a nationwide reach, which have a cost advantage and better ties with credit issuers.
"The big agencies are going to get bigger and the small agencies are going to go away," said David Jones, president of the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies (AICCCA), one of two associations that represent nonprofit credit counseling agencies.
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