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

What is a debt counselor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a debt counselor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.24 an hour? That's $37,932 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -17,500 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreDebt CounselorUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $37,932

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.1

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.48%

Asian 6.12%

Black or African American 9.27%

Hispanic or Latino 16.12%

Unknown 4.64%

White 63.37%

Gender

female 53.17%

male 46.83%

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 debt counselor

Explore debt counselor education requirements

Most common debt counselor degrees

Bachelor's

41.1 %

Associate

31.5 %

High School Diploma

12.9 %

Start to develop specific debt counselor skills

Skills	Percentages
Outbound Calls	20.23%
Inbound Calls	15.41%
Customer Service	13.64%
Delinquent Accounts	9.18%
Payment Arrangements	6.47%

Complete relevant debt counselor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New debt 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 debt counselor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real debt counselor resumes.

Research debt counselor duties and responsibilities

Manage patient focuse reports, collection modules, provider/facility A/R, collections, patient discharge letters.
Comply with all of the FDCPA guidelines.
Perform numerous acts of repossession and litigation on a daily basis.
Complete standard legal garnishment forms for review, and forward to litigation department.

Prepare your debt counselor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your debt 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 debt 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 debt counselor resume templates

Build a professional debt 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 debt counselor resume.