Well, as a collector, let me get out my soapbox. Here are the top things you are likly to be misled about. If you have delquient accounts, the collections department can’t call your consuler and you will still recieve phone calls, late fees and regular finance charges until your creditor accepts (not just receives) the propsal the agency sends. In most cases, the agency payment is less than your now due payment, so your account will continue to fall more delquent unless you pay the past due amt yourself. The agency may tell you after 3 payments all your accounts will be current. That’s not always true for every card. And your accounts still report against your credit. Also, if you haven’t closed the account yourself, when your credit card company recieves the propsal from the agency, they will close your account and it will appear as closed by grantor on your credit report (which is bad). If you have accounts that aren’t already behind, your agency may allow those to fall behind so a propsal will be accepeted. Plus, some counsuleing serivces keep your first payment as a fee anyway. I can’t speak for or against any one specific company. This is just the general misinformation I have to deal with on a daily basis. My advice – if you are behind on your bills, call your creditors. If you have a true hardship (like being out of work or having a cut in pay) most credit card companies will work directly with you. If it’s just to elminate your debt, just budget more carefully.