About
The office on Lavaca Street
This page is about the practice and the place rather than a company story, because that's the honest version of what we can tell you. Here's where we are, when the phones are actually answered, and what happens if you call.
700 Lavaca Street, Suite 1488
The office sits at 700 Lavaca Street, Suite 1488, in downtown Austin, Texas 78701. It's an office suite, not a storefront. You won't walk in off the street and browse; you call first, and the work happens over the phone and by email from there.
We serve Austin and the surrounding areas. Most of the people who call are already local, and most of the work, from the first conversation to the paperwork, is handled without ever needing to come downtown in person.
When the phones are actually answered
Monday through Thursday the office is open from 7:30 in the morning until 9:00 at night, early enough to call before work and late enough to call after dinner. Friday runs 7:30 AM to 8:00 PM, and Saturday the office is open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. It's closed Sunday. Those are the actual hours a person picks up, not a call center schedule dressed up to look local.
What a counselor actually does
A counselor's job here breaks into three parts. First, education: making sure you understand what you actually owe and how the debt got structured the way it did. Second, a budget: going through what's coming in against what's going out, honestly, before anything else gets discussed. Third, and only if it fits, a debt management plan built around what you can realistically pay each month.
Not every call ends in a plan. Some people just need the budget conversation, and a counselor will tell you that plainly rather than push a program you don't need.
Who they work with
Most calls are about unsecured consumer debt, credit cards mostly, spread across several accounts and several due dates. Separate from that, the office also fields student loan debt questions and IRS tax debt questions, each handled on its own track because neither works the same way as a credit card balance.
There's no credit check to have any of these conversations, and home ownership isn't required. You don't need to have decided anything before you call.
What a first call is like
You call, or leave a number and someone calls you back. A counselor asks what you owe, to whom, and roughly what you can put toward it each month. That part is quick. Everything after it moves at your pace: they explain the options, answer whatever you ask, and nothing gets signed on that first call.
If you do go ahead later, enrollment is handled by phone and email with the paperwork signed electronically, and once a plan is running you get a receipt from the office and a separate receipt from each creditor every month. Read more about those terms on why people choose to call this office, or see every program we offer.
Call and describe what you're carrying
That's the whole first step. A counselor takes it from there.