THE Cambridge Connection - Episode 1

We’re a 501c3 nonprofit located right here in Agawam, Massachusetts, the Pioneer Valley. We do help people nationwide. We help people navigate paying down their credit card debt. We help people navigate repayment options that they have for student loans. We help people that are struggling with their mortgage payments.

We help people that are looking to buy a home for the first time through pre-purchase programs. We do a whole host of things to help people navigate their financial well-being. The staff at Cambridge is so dedicated to the work that they do. The average tenure is almost 15 or 16 years for the staff at Cambridge. We’ve helped over 2 million people, A-plus with the BBB.

Just can go on and on about the accolades that Cambridge has and the work that we’ve done to serve consumers throughout the country. Top of class in the industry. That’s what that sounds like to me. Yeah. We’ve been rated number one by a lot of different rating websites.

So it’s pretty neat. The staff loves to see that. And the compliments that we get from the consumers that we serve, you know, on a daily basis we’re sending out testimonials to our staff from the clients that we’re serving. Just a great environment to work in. That is incredible.

Obviously we’re in very different times dealing with the pandemic and things have been a little bit different on how consumers are handling their finances, but we know trouble is coming. So can you tell us a little bit about credit counseling and what a debt management program is? Sure. So let’s talk about the timing right now, right? So with the pandemic, people have had a free pass on paying their bills.

Moratoriums for rent payments, for mortgage payments, student loans are still in moratorium right now. Credit card companies gave consumers a break for a period of time. So consumers have gotten a little bit lax. They haven’t had to deal with their debts. But coming toward early part of 2022, we’re going to see quite a change in that.

Consumers are going to have to start repaying their debts again and they haven’t been paying them for a year, two years in some cases. So there’s going to be a pretty big surge of consumers needing information and advice and making sure that they’re going to the right places. Like you said earlier on the show, there are a lot of companies that advertise nationally. Those are primarily for-profit companies that are in this business just to make money off people. Some of their programs might work, but they’re not as effective as the nonprofit counseling services that we offer.

So as you indicated, a debt management plan. So what is that? So what our team does with the consumer calling in for the first time, we spend a good half hour to an hour with them to do a deep dive into their budget. We go over absolutely all the expenses they have and the income that they have available to them, determine whether or not they have any assets they might be able to liquidate to help pay down debt. And from that, we determine is there a plan to help that consumer pay down credit card debt that they might be stuck paying.

And that’s the debt management plan. And it’s so easy. Consumer makes one payment per month to our company. We pay the bills on their behalf. The credit card companies automatically reduce interest rates, lower payments, waive fees on a going forward basis.

It’s a very simple and safe way for a consumer to eliminate their credit card debt in a four-year time frame. And it has a positive impact on their credit score as they’re going through the program. So it doesn’t have any long lasting negative effects on their ability to do things like get a mortgage, buy a car. It’s just a really safe and easy way for someone to pay down their debt. If you’re just joining us, this is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection here on WHMP.

Real people real problems listener questions

And we’re having an amazing conversation with the President and CEO of Cambridge Credit Counseling, Christopher Viale. And now it’s time to talk to Ariane, who works for Cambridge Credit Counseling. She is the resident digital maven, education enthusiast, and Cambridge Credit hype woman. Ariane has been at Cambridge since 2016, and she quickly cemented herself as not only the digital brand specialist, but the financial education coordinator. If you’re wondering if she’s qualified for this conversation, she’s a licensed educator with her master’s in education from Boston University.

Welcome, Ariane. Hey, Gordy. You know, I’m so excited to be here for our Real People, Real Problems segment, where each week I’m going to pull questions from our social media followers to answer here on the air. We get questions sent in from all over the country on just about every financial topic you can think of. So without further ado, let’s jump into our first question.

So our first inquiry is about something most of us have, but not a lot of us know enough about, credit scores. So Madison B. of Illinois types to us, I’m worried about my credit score. It’s low because of my debts, and if it gets lower, I’ll never be able to come back from it. I want to buy a home ASAP to fit my growing family, but I don’t know if it’s worse to be in debt or to have a crappy credit score.

Help. All right, Christopher, what do you got for us? So this is a common situation for people all around the country. Her goal right now is to get into a home to help her family, her grown family, but she’s probably not mortgage ready yet. What she really needs to do is get that debt paid down.

And as far as her credit score, as debt’s getting paid down, credit score improves. So it may take a year or a year and a half for this consumer to be mortgage ready, but if they were to be focused on just paying down their debt, and our debt management plan could be the appropriate solution for Madison, she’ll get there and she’ll be in a position where her credit score will increase and she’ll be eligible to get into that home that she wants for her family. Good call, Christopher. Madison, I hope that helps. If you’re just joining us, this is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection, WHMP, and this is the kind of conversations we’re going to be having every week to help connect the consumer to this great information to deal with financial wellness and financial fitness.

What’s the next one? So our next question is from Sherry C. from New Jersey, and she says, I’m 65 and thinking about bankruptcy, but my financial life is over at this age. I’d be screwed, but I feel like I don’t have a choice. I can’t afford to talk to anyone about it, and I don’t know if I can trust shady companies.

It’s scary because my age means that I don’t have time to bounce back financially. My kids wouldn’t get a dime. What do you think, Chris? Another great question from Sherry. So being at the age of 65, you really want to develop a plan to determine exactly what your next steps are going to be financially.

One of the best ways to do that is to engage with a credit counselor at Cambridge or any other nonprofit credit counseling company. They’ll give you impartial advice about your situation, and if you’re in a position where bankruptcy might be the right solution, they’ll advise that, and they’ll make sure you go into the right place. As far as the shady companies that you’re having a tough time trusting, that’s a very good thought to have in your mind, Sherry, because there are a lot of companies out there that will prey on the public, especially elders. So you definitely want to be careful and work with nonprofit companies when you’re trying to make these financial decisions. All right.

And that’s what we have this week from real people with real problems. We’ve all got questions and stories to share about our battles with personal finance, so please do not hesitate to start the conversation. You might as well get it over with, right? org, and with your permission, your question could be featured on our next show. I look forward to hearing from you.

Good, bad, happy, sad. We’re listening. Thanks again. I’ll see everyone next week. Thank you, Arianne.

Short break and sponsor message

Always inspiring to hear about debt resolution. Christopher, if you could stick around, we’re going to take a short one-minute break, and then we’ll be back with Tina Marie and the Cambridge Credit Success Moment. If you’re having trouble paying down debt or dealing with high interest rates on your credit cards, you need to call Cambridge Credit Counseling. Cambridge Credit Counseling is a non-profit debt relief agency located right here in the Pioneer Valley. They’ve been helping consumers pay down debt safely for over 25 years, and have helped over 2 million people.

com, A-plus with the Better Business Bureau, and they’ve won the Non-Profit of the Year Award. So if you’re struggling to pay down your credit card debt, call Cambridge. The call is free and confidential. 1-800-CAMBRIDGE Welcome back. This is The Cambridge Connection, and I’m your host, Gordon Oliver, here with Tina Marie for the Cambridge Credit Success Moment, and Tina Marie will be joining me each and every week with these stories.

Cambridge credit success story of the week

In creating this weekly show, I thought it would be important to share the various success stories of consumers who have worked with Cambridge Credit Counseling, and who better to bring those stories is none other than you, Tina Marie. You’re an NFCC-certified counselor at Cambridge Credit who, for more than 20 years, has helped thousands of people find their way out of debt and back on the road to financial help. All right, Tina, what do you got for us? Oh, I’m so happy to be here to share the success story of the week. This week I’d like to talk about Donna from Connecticut, who reached out.

Donna was recently divorced. She had full custody of her two children. Her ex-husband began to fall behind on his child support obligation. So she was not only dealing with the emotional effects of the divorce, now she was also dealing with a tremendous strain on her financial situation as well. She began to use her credit cards more to offset living expenses in hopes that eventually things would get better.

Unfortunately, it didn’t. Suddenly, she found herself in further financial stress. She woke up one day, realized she owed over $9,000 in credit cards. She really didn’t want to discuss her financial situation with family members. She indicated she was a little bit embarrassed and that she was unable to keep up with her monthly payments.

With the high interest rates, she didn’t see any way out. She felt helpless and almost desperate. Donna heard terrible stories about the companies that we discussed earlier, claiming that they could reduce her debt in half. She actually had a family member who... went to a debt settlement service and it completely ruined their credit.

Donna was concerned about her credit rating because her goal was to eventually purchase a home for herself and her children. If you’re just joining us, this is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection and we’re discussing some credit success stories with Cambridge. So in the counseling process, Tina, so the first thing that you would do with this consumer is listen to their story and understand why they’re in the situation they’re in. What happens next in this story? Well, absolutely.

And some people do come to us and they say, well, my situation might not be as bad as the next. That’s not true. Everybody’s situation is an individual situation. So we go through a free budget analysis. Together, we were able to identify areas she was able to cut back on by looking at all her income and expenses.

At that point, we did determine that the debt management plan would be most beneficial. Her overall payments were reduced from $357 a month down to $212. Her interest rates were reduced. She was paying an average around 22% down to about 7%. She was now able to afford her monthly payments, pay her debts off within, it was about four and a half years it took her.

The ultimate result, she purchased that home for her and her children. Well, that’s an incredible story. And just kind of back in what Christopher said in our opening segment, it’s about a consumer understanding what their options are so they don’t fall prey to those scams or bad decisions or bad potential opportunities to deal with debt. So the counseling session truly, whether they take advantage of that service or not, they’re getting great information, including a budget to walk away with solutions and narrowing down basically what the options are. Absolutely.

And if the debt management program isn’t the right solution, they’re getting free advice from professionals that have been in the industry for years. And knowing that between the website and all the educational information, they have access to all kinds of information on how to deal with all kinds of financial difficulties. Exactly. And even if they don’t enroll in the plan, we still follow up with them a month, two months after just to see how things are going. That’s incredible.

Break introducing employer association guest

And it’s going to be a pleasure having you join me every week to talk about these stories so people can relate if they’re in the same kind of situations that they should be talking to someone at Cambridge Credit Counseling right away. We’re going to take another short one minute break and we’ll be rejoined by Christopher Vialli, CEO and President of Cambridge Credit Counseling, and our special guest this week, Alison Ebner, Director of Member Relations and Partnerships for the Employers Association of the Northeast. This is Gordon Oliver and you’re listening to The Cambridge Connection right here on WHMP. Did you know financially distracted employees are less productive? Hi, I’m Christopher Vialli, President of Cambridge Credit Counseling.

As a Western Mass non-profit, we can help your employees manage their debts safely and responsibly, and the partnership is free. We already proudly partner with companies like AAA and the Mass Teachers Association. So call me, Christopher, at 1-800-CAMBRIDGE and let’s talk about bringing financial peace of mind to your employees. Hi, this is Alison Ebner, Director of Membership for the Employers Association of the Northeast. EANE supports over 1,000 business members across the region with improving their people process.

Now more than ever, business leaders and HR professionals need a resource they can count on to provide compliance, employee relations, and training opportunities that drive engagement and create better business models. Put the EANE team to work for you. org or reach out to me directly at 789-6400. We’re back and this is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection. I’m here with Christopher Vialli, the CEO and President of Cambridge Credit Counseling.

Conversation with employers association guest

And we also have a special guest today, Alison Ebner. Alison is the Director of Membership and Partnerships at the Employers Association of the Northeast, which we’ve been members of for over 20 years. And the service that they offer businesses is invaluable. Alison, thanks for joining us. Thanks so much, Gordon.

It’s so nice to be here with you and Christopher. So tell us a little about yourself. Sure. Well, as you said, my name is Alison Ebner. I’m the Director of Membership for Employers Association or EANE, so we don’t have to keep saying that long name out and take up air time.

So I’ve been with the Employers Association for about five years now. And my role there is really to make sure our members are receiving all the information that they need to improve their people process. So as part of what we do, I’m really happy to be here today to talk about some of our partners. And Cambridge is, of course, a partner of Employers Association. Yeah.

We’re really excited to be members. And again, your organization has helped us with so many things over the years. And one of the most exciting things that we’ve been working on, Christopher, is trying to get our counseling services in a employer’s benefit package. Yeah, absolutely. And hi, Alison.

Welcome to the show. Hi, Chris. Nice to see you. Yes, you too. I work with Alison all the time, and she’s been great.

Yeah. So one of our missions recently has been to work with employers to make sure their employees have access to nonprofit credit counseling. So often, employers’ benefit packages don’t include anything about financial wellness. And that’s what we’re trying to motivate employers to do for their employees. The employees that are struggling with debt are financial anxieties, like one of the top reasons for lost production, and trouble at home.

One out of every four to five employees is struggling with debt. And those people need to turn to safe solutions, not the advertisements that are on TV and on the radio, and fall subject to debt settlement companies that put them in a worse position. And that’s part of the initiative. And Alison has been great. She’s been working with our team at Cambridge to introduce us to all of the groups at her association.

Alison, I want to make a link here. We just partnered with the Mental Health Association in Springfield to offer their employees, their family and friends the opportunity for our counseling services as an employee benefit. Mental health is a very big topic that everyone’s talking about right now, and debt problems certainly lead to mental health problems. So that’s an example of a partnership. When you’re working with employers, do you see a need for this type of benefit?

Absolutely, Gordon. And I’m so happy to hear that you’re working with the team at MHA to support their employees. I think one of the things that we’ve seen, certainly, we talk a lot about pre-COVID and post-COVID. This was an important factor pre-COVID, but it’s even more important now, coming out of this pandemic. And let’s face it, we know more about our employees now than we have ever known about them.

The old days of going to work and having your employees clock in, clock out, saying, hey Bill, hi Sue, hi Jenny, how are the kids? Not knowing much beyond that. Those days are over. We’ve been monitoring their temperatures, for Pete’s sake. We know how they feel.

We know everything about how they feel. Sometimes they’re oversharing. We’re in it with them now. We’re in the canoe. So we have to own this now.

And we have to own the wellness of our employees, whether it’s mental health, physical wellness, certainly fiscal wellness. A lot of the times, what we find is, people just don’t know that there’s resources available out there like yours. Employers have to bring in these types of resources, just like you’re offering at Cambridge, to really improve the financial wellness of their employees. And if you’re not buying that, if I can’t sell you that, that it’s a great idea because you care about your employees, think about the retention factor now. Recruiting and retention is so big.

Employers are struggling to find staff to fill their positions. Employers that offer these types of services are going to stand out from the competition, without a doubt. You brought up a pretty good point. We’re in the canoe together. But one thing people don’t really like to do is tell coworkers or even family and friends that they’re having problems with debt.

So that’s another reason. It’s a transparent way to get to our company to get those services. Right, Christopher? Oh, absolutely. And it’s a really great point you made, Allison.

And the one thing that’s good about how we organize this solution for employers, for their employees, is it’s confidential. They don’t have to raise their hand and come to the HR manager saying, I’m having trouble with my debt. Everything is set up seamlessly. It doesn’t cost the employer anything. And they have access to be able to call into our agency and speak with a counselor, confidentially.

It’s just a win-win for everybody. We’re already partners with unions, teachers unions, police unions. There’s so many organizations that we could be involved with to offer these services. Yeah. Yeah, that’s a great point.

And I think the fact that it’s confidential is something that maybe employers don’t know. That they’re bringing your information to the employees. They have no idea, and you’re not going to be reporting back, right, specifically who’s using the services, what they’re doing, what their financial situation is. And that’s important when you set up a relationship with an employer. I’m sure you go through that with them.

And it’s just the employer putting the information out there and talking about the importance. And also hearing the stories. Like we just heard from Tina Marie of the success stories that you’ve had, with how you’ve really been able to help people out of very, very difficult situations. Yeah. And in this show, we’re going to get to this, how easy it is for an employer to install the benefits that we have.

We do all the creative, we do all the heavy lifting of the work and the ways they can get to us. So, we do that for the employer. There’s no cost to it. They don’t have to do anything. Yeah, that’s correct.

It’s very easy, seamless. And that’s fantastic, because our HR managers, our human resource folks out there today, they’re overwhelmed. We know that. If we’ve got HR folks listening today, this is not a big burden to add to your plate. It’s an easy thing to do.

Just make the connection, and you all will take it from there. If you’re just joining us, this is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection, here with Christopher Vialli, the CEO and President of Cambridge Credit Counseling, and Alison Ebner from EANE. So, Alison, how many members does EANE have? Wow. Right now, today, we’ve got 1,048.

It’s amazing to us, across really largely three states, Mass. Connecticut and Rhode Island. And they’re really companies of all shapes and sizes. We have small businesses with five employees, all the way up to a large hospital network that has over 10,000 employees. Wow.

So, what’s the top reasons that a company would join EANE? That’s a great question, Gordon. We’ve got a hotline service that’s really, really popular with our members. So, we’ve got six certified HR professionals that answer questions all day long, topics related from compliance challenges at the state and federal level, employee relations, performance management. So, that hotline, really, it kind of buzzes all day long.

Last year, as an example, we took 8,000 calls on the hotline. So, that’s definitely a big benefit of membership, because you can call as often as you’d like for your annual membership dues. And we’ve got some frequent flyers on the hotline, for sure, and we love that. Probably the second reason is that the compliance challenges for a company to keep up with now at the state and federal level are so, so complex and complicated. And you can’t be Googling all that information if you’re an HR professional or an owner or leadership in your company.

Wait a minute. Isn’t that everything on the Internet? I know. We love Google. I Google all the time.

No offense to Google. But you really want an expert in your corner looking at these things, because it can get you into some trouble, and can cost you some money, too. So, we drive the compliance changes out to our member organizations, so you’re very well aware of the things you need to do when you need to do it. So, if you’re a consumer and you have financial difficulty, or a family has financial difficulty, number one, talk to your business about getting our benefits into your HR, and contact EA&E to become a member because of all the great information that you have to help HR managers do their job. That’s absolutely right.

org. We’re happy to chat with you. And I highly recommend that any business, whether you’re a member of EA&E or not, engage with your team at Cambridge to reach out. Really support your employees and offer them this extended benefit. It’s an absolutely great service.

Closing remarks and upcoming show promo

Thanks, Alison. Appreciate that. It’s an absolute pleasure working with you, of course, and Christopher, thank you today for allowing us to do this show so we can get awareness out there for people. org. Follow me at GordonOcares on Twitter.

And counselors are always standing by to answer your credit and debt questions. Just call 1-800-CAMBRIDGE. This is Gordon Oliver working hard every day to help you, the consumer, connect to your journey for financial wellness with the Cambridge Connection. Hi, everyone. Christopher Viale, President of Cambridge Credit Counseling.

If you’re a business owner or an HR manager and you’re not a member of the Employees Association of the Northeast, you need to be. My HR manager, David Josba, always compliments the staff at EANE for doing such a great job and getting David the most up-to-date information to help him manage his job. And you also get to collaborate with fellow HR managers from companies of all sizes, which is so valuable. Special shout out to the staff at EANE, Patty, Mark, and Pam for doing such a great job. org.

Hey, everyone, Gordon Oliver here, and I’m the host of the brand new Saturday morning show, The Cambridge Connection. 30 AM, we’ll spend 28 minutes together that will change your relationship with money for the better. I’ve been a financial counselor for 20 years, and I’m here to get you excited about being in financial control. Join me this Saturday right here on The Cambridge Connection. 30 AM on WHMP.