How To Become A Credit Counselor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a credit counselor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average credit counselor salary is $40,227. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an business major. It usually takes 1-2 years of experience to become a credit counselor. Credit counselors with a Certified Planning Engineer (CPE) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -17,500 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCredit CounselorUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $40,227

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.1

Growth Rate -8%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.48%

Asian 6.41%

Black or African American 9.24%

Hispanic or Latino 16.06%

Unknown 4.64%

White 63.17%

Gender

female 58.80%

male 41.20%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress Level

6.1

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

7.1

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

8.9

Work Life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a credit counselor

Explore credit counselor education requirements

Most common credit counselor degrees

Bachelor's

47.5 %

Associate

23.2 %

High School Diploma

14.9 %

Start to develop specific credit counselor skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	19.36%
Debt Management	13.87%
Outbound Calls	9.99%
Inbound Calls	7.55%
Payment Arrangements	4.32%

Complete relevant credit counselor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New credit counselors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a credit counselor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real credit counselor resumes.

Research credit counselor duties and responsibilities

Manage accounting operations, accounting close, account reporting and reconciliations.
Conduct underwriting reviews on FHA, VA, and other conforming and non-conforming loans within proper authority limits.
Gain thorough knowledge of FDCPA laws.
Complete in-service trainings, CPR training and medication certification course.

Get credit counselor experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a credit counselor. The most common roles before becoming a credit counselor include customer service representative, cashier team lead and assistant manager.

Prepare your credit counselor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your credit counselor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a credit counselor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Credit Counselor Resume templates

Build a professional Credit Counselor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Credit Counselor resume.