Consolidating debt through consumer credit counseling services? Info needed.?

I have approximately $2000 of credit card debt that I absolutely need to get paid down. i talked to consumer credit counseling services, a debt consolidation company, http://www.cccsstl.org/ and this is what i was told:

Basically they would cut my payments down to about $130 a month total for 3 cards by getting my interest rates lowered to between 6 and 10% approximately. I would pay it off in 2 years instead of 8 as i would now without consolidating. he said the $130 a month payment included a monthly fee of $49 directly to the credit counseling service for their help and services. Is that the normal thing when consolidating? Is that legitamet? I would only be paying $80 or so a month on the actual credit card debt and that doesn%26#039;t seem like very much to me.

Anyone have any knowledge in this area? Is consolidating a smart thing to do and does it hurt your credit in any way? Is there a smarter way to do it?

LONG-sorry and thanks!

Consolidating debt through consumer credit counseling services? Info needed.?

I have placed this in the source box. There is a wealth of information there and a great free debt management software program. I bookmarked the site as I return to it often for the advice it offers. I hope this helps you.

Consolidating debt through consumer credit counseling services? Info needed.?

You can visit http://www.cashguru.info and find very useful tips and several articles on debt consolidation. Report It

Consolidating debt through consumer credit counseling services? Info needed.?

They are lying to you.

These guys are mostly crooks. Many have been shut down by the IRS because they don%26#039;t behave like a non-profit should.

Assuming your credit cards are at 22% interest (a nice high average), it would only take you 18 months to pay your $2000 off at $130 per month. 1 year and 6 months. 6 months less than they can pay it off.

Please help the rest of the world and report this company to your state commerce department. This is flat-out fraud. These companies are licensed non-profits. This is sickening, blatant abuse of that tax-exempt status. They are not helping you in any way at all. But it doesn%26#039;t stop unless you complain loudly.

If you can afford $130 per month, then do it. Apply everything above your minimums to one card. Get that card gone. Then pay everything extra to another card. Get that gone. Repeat as needed. You might even be able to negotiate for yourself for a lower rate on your cards, which will help get them paid off faster.

Consolidating debt through consumer credit counseling services? Info needed.?

You can do the math yourself. If you pay $130. per month for 2 years, that%26#039;s more than 3,000.00 you%26#039;ll pay on a 2,000 debt.

It%26#039;s not much help. I would NEVER do this. Instead, call the credit card companies. Tell them you want a lower interest rate or you are going to transfer the balance to a different bank card. They very often will GIVE you a lower rate just because you asked!!

Then, just pay as much as you can each mo. until paid off. Pay MORE than the minimum! DONT USE THE CARDS.

Cut back on junk food, whatever until they%26#039;re paid off. You%26#039;ll feel good when you%26#039;re out of debt.

Consolidating debt through consumer credit counseling services? Info needed.?

The thing about a debt consolidation company, they are basically selling you a loan to pay off the credit cards and are often misleading on how the contract is written.

$2000 sounds like a lot, but you should be able to handle it with out the agency doing this. You should be able to do this by paying the cards off in the order of the highest debt ratio. That is if the card has $800 on a $1000 limit, that is the one you want to pay off first. When you get that paid off, you then work down the next one.

All of this is while you are making at least the minimum payments, and the extra money you can afford going to the order of the debt.

The key is to keep the same money going out now the same. So, when one card gets paid off, take all the money that was going to that card and pay the next on and so on. You maybe shocked how quick it will take you to get out of debt.

Consolidating debt through consumer credit counseling services? Info needed.?

You can also consolidate WITHOUT using credit counseling services. There are plenty of lenders out there that will grant you a debt consolidation loan without taking a chunk of it as a fee. Try the website below:

Consolidating debt through consumer credit counseling services? Info needed.?

Also, when you use a debt consolidator like CCCS it is unofficially viewed as bankruptcy. So you can do this on your own...if you want to learn how to repair your credit then visit

http://www.thecreditrepairmanual.com

Good Luck,