Credit Resource Sheet available for trainings

Consumer Action’s Outreach department staffers enjoy spreading useful financial information at train-the-trainer events, community presentations and local fairs and festivals. But they don’t always enjoy lugging tons of brochures that might be needed to answer questions.

That’s why Nelson Santiago, a Consumer Action community outreach manager, developed a new resource sheet to help trainers get valuable information into the hands of credit workshop participants. The two-page resource sheet, titled Resources for Good Credit, compiles publications related to building and improving credit. It allows the workshop leader to give consumers lots of information without having to carry potentially overwhelming amounts of literature to every workshop.

Santiago relied on the new resource sheet during a recent workshop at a Los Angeles public library. A workshop participant wanted more information about whether paying a monthly fee for credit protection and monitoring services made sense. Santiago responded with suggestions for free and low-cost alternatives, including free annual credit reports and “freezing” one’s credit file. The new resource sheet allowed Santiago to point consumers to a listing for Identity Theft Monitoring Services from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which helps consumers decide whether it’s worth it to pay for monitoring.

Other participants in Santiago's workshop raised questions about paying very old debts. The resource sheet came to the rescue with an FTC resource called Time-Barred Debts.

“It's a short and simple sheet that can save workshop leaders the time and effort of compiling their own resource list,” said Santiago, who encourages community-based trainers to regularly check Consumer Action’s website for new resources. “We want to make it easier for our network partners to deliver valuable information to consumers.”