Debt management is not a passive process. This is your life and your financial situation. You need to be an active part of the solution. A Debt Management Plan only helps you manage your financial obligations to your creditors better. Your active participation can only help you in the long run and will ensure that your financial situation improves for the future. It may also provide a little peace of mind since you will be able to your debt diminishing and continue to monitor whether your credit-counseling agency and Debt Management Plan is doing what it should be doing - eliminating your debt. Active participation means you need to keep in contact with your creditors.

Here are some ways to be active:

1 - When does your Debt Management Plan start?

This is important to know because you want to continue paying your bills until it goes into effect. Your credit rating is affected by your payment history and your goal should be to avoid any negative reports, whetheryou've had them yet or not. It would be a shame to start a Debt Management Plan to avoid negative reports, only to get them anyway.

2 - Has your Debt Management Plan been accepted?

Your Debt Management Plan only works if your creditors accept the proposed plan. If it hasn't been accepted, then you should contact your credit-counseling agency again before sending them payments.

3 - Is your Debt Management Plan paying the bills?

Check your monthly statements and call your creditors monthly to confirm timely payment, interest rates, elimination of fees, etc. Again, it doesn't do any good to sign-up for a plan only to have it fail in what you've been told it would do and how it would do it.

By Kelley Kilanski

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