THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502220135
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
SHARON P. NEUHAUS specializes in ``plastic'' surgery.
Looking around her office, one can see evidence of her skill.
All through the Battlefield Boulevard office of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service - the free financial help agency Neuhaus manages - one sees several goldfish bowls filled with cut-up credit cards.
The bowls brim with bits of Visas, shreds of American Express and chopped-up MasterCards. They are the remains of the credit cards Neuhaus' clients have to give up when they enlist her services.
Her Chesapeake office is now a little more than a year old. The service set up business at the busy North Battlefield Boulevard location in November 1993. Then it was just Neuhaus who had the task of convincing people her service is absolutely free and then getting those same people on financial track, helping them avoid bankruptcy.
Her office has grown, and so has its effectiveness.
The Queens, N.Y., native said her work and success has increased so much that she has added another counselor and an office manager.
But she's mostly proud of one major accomplishment.
``I have personally dispersed a little over $1 million,'' she said, smiling broadly. ``This has been a great year for us. That's money from my Chesapeake clients to pay off their credit card bills.''
The Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Virginia is a non-profit financial counseling service for those with credit card and other financial problems. It offers free services for its clients, including budget counseling and debt-repayment programs.
Neuhaus said Consumer Credit Counseling offers this free service because it is entirely supported by donations from various companies, merchants, banks, credit card services, consumer finance companies, industry lawyers, credit unions and others.
``We're an alternative to bankruptcy,'' she said. ``All the major credit companies and retailers are thrilled to death we help people to pay off their debits and get a handle on their finances.''
Clients who had stretched their credit card limits to the maximum and are finding it difficult to pay their monthly bills need her services. Those who borrow from one account to pay for another and those who receive phone calls at home and work from credit card companies or collection agencies should enlist her services, she said.
``But the first thing we ask people to do is hand over all of their plastic,'' Neuhaus said. ``We then take those cards and perform our surgery: we cut them up and throw them into one of our bowls. Most of our clients consider it a liberating experience.''
Neuhaus then works with the client to devise a repayment schedule to fit each particular client's budget. These payments are made to her office through either a cashier's check or money order. Neuhaus takes this money and disperses it to the credit card companies.
``The companies would much rather see us helping a client as opposed to turning an account over to a collection agency,'' she said. ``With a collection agency the company only gets half of its money back, with us they get all of it back.''
Neuhaus said the best thing about her job, and her office's success, ``is knowing you're helping someone get out of debt and stay out. The clients who successfully finish our program never come back.''
When it comes to collecting money and dealing with the debt problems people experience, the 15-year financial counselor has seen it all.
``Prior to me working for CCCS, I was a bill collector,'' she said. ``I worked for the collection agencies of Chase Manhattan and Chemical Banks. I know both sides of the table. I know the laws pertaining to collections, what's legal and what isn't.''
Neuhaus said other CCCS offices are in Richmond, the service's headquarters, with more than 20 other offices throughout Virginia and North Carolina. Last year, the company dispersed $92 million.
Since it's a non-profit agency, CCCS doesn't spend any money on advertising.
``When people discover us they ask, `Where have you been all my life?' '' she said. ``We've helped a lot of desperate people, and we rely on the people we've helped to spread the word about our services.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
Left to right, Barbara Wright, Sharon Neuhaus and Shari Bonneli keep
cut-up credit cards in fish bowls at the Consumer Credit Counseling
Service.
by CNB