Last reviewed: 2 October 2026

Home › Credit help › Verify a credit counseling agency

How to verify a credit counseling agency: an educational checklist

If you need credit counseling for a bankruptcy filing, the U.S. Trustee Program (part of the U.S. Department of Justice) publishes lists of the credit counseling agencies and debtor education providers it has approved for those bankruptcy-related services.^[1] Checking a name against that list is the one check on this page that comes from a regulator's own approval list. Nothing on this page rates, ranks, or recommends any agency. No counseling agency is currently listed in the public Register; our Standard page publishes a proposed counseling standard.

Start with what you need the agency for

• Bankruptcy-related counseling. The U.S. Trustee Program says credit counseling must be obtained before an individual files for bankruptcy, subject to very limited exceptions, and that if the course is not completed before filing the case could be dismissed.^[1] A separate debtor education course must be taken after filing, and with limited exceptions it is required to receive a discharge.^[1] For these courses, the approved lists below are the reference. See our guide to bankruptcy credit counseling and the debtor education course.
• Help with budgeting or a debt management plan outside bankruptcy. The U.S. Trustee page covers bankruptcy-related services only, and says nothing about other counseling.^[1] Its lists therefore do not, on their own, tell you whether an agency offering a debt management plan is reputable. Our explainer on nonprofit credit counseling and debt management plans covers what that kind of accreditation involves.

The checklist

1. Get the exact legal name, address and website. From the agency's own paperwork, not an ad. Our Standard asks for a named organization, a real address and a working contact method (point 8 of the credit repair and debt settlement standard; the counseling standard on our standard page is a proposed one).
2. For a bankruptcy course, find the name on the U.S. Trustee Program's list. Open the U.S. Trustee Program's "Credit Counseling & Debtor Education Information" page, follow "Approved Credit Counseling Agencies" (or "Approved Debtor Education Providers" for the post-filing course), and look for the agency by its exact name.^[1] The page also links FAQs for each course.^[1] If the name is not on the list, the page gives no basis for treating the agency as approved for the bankruptcy course; ask the U.S. Trustee Program or your bankruptcy attorney before paying.
3. Check complaints (Standard point 3). The CFPB's public Consumer Complaint Database can be searched and downloaded. Its own cautions apply: complaints are not a statistical sample, a low count does not necessarily mean little harm, and volume should be read against company size.^[2]
4. Check federal enforcement history (Standard point 4). Search the FTC's Legal Library, Cases and Proceedings, for the agency's legal name.^[3] Our reading, not the FTC's: finding nothing is not proof of a clean history, because that library covers FTC matters only.
5. Check state registration (Standard point 6). Requirements for credit counseling or debt management providers vary by state, and this page does not state them. Check your state regulator's lookup tool and its guidance.
6. Read the fee and service terms before sharing account details. Ask for the fee schedule and what each fee covers in writing, and keep copies.

How to verify this yourself

The U.S. Trustee Program's approved-agency lists, the CFPB database, and the FTC Legal Library are all public and free to use; the references below link each one. Run the searches yourself and screenshot or save the results with the date.

What this page does not cover

It does not explain how to confirm an organization's nonprofit tax status, or what accreditation by a national counseling association involves; the sources we read for this page do not address either. Our counseling explainer gives background, and the proposed counseling standard on our Standard page sets out the tax-status and accreditation checks we have drafted (proposed, not yet used to list anything). It does not cover state counseling licensing rules. Being on the U.S. Trustee list means approval for the bankruptcy-related course; it is not a statement about any agency's other services, fees or quality. This is general information, not legal or financial advice. No counseling agency is currently listed in the public Register, and nothing on this page rates or recommends one. For the wider set of ways to check a company, see how to check a credit or debt company. The Register reports the dated checks we have published.

When we will update this page

We revisit it if the U.S. Trustee Program changes how it publishes its approved lists. Sources last read 2 October 2026.