If your asking if you need a credit consolidation company, Run, don’t walk to a credit consolidation company…Hurry!
You won’t look bad if you are repairing your credit. And with any luck at all, you will learn how to control your credit addiction…

DON’T DO IT!!!

The advice you are getting is COMPLETELY off base. It may sound pleasant to say if you try to fix your credit it can’t be bad. In fact it is quite bad, especially if you go to the wrong place.

The “credit counseling” services industry is very shady. They take people who are having difficulty paying their bills, charge them substantial amounts of money and are essentially have no more ability to “fix your credit” than you do, despite their often outlandish promises. What they often do to “fix your credit” is to dispute all negative reportings on your file. If they file disputes on your behalf on legitimate credit issues , those reports will be reaffirmed within 30 days and will end up right back on your credit report. So it is not fixing anything. They can attempt to negotiate lower rates with your credit card companies, but you can do this yourself. IF they get a credit card company to accept less than you owe them the creditor will report to the credit bureaus as “profit and loss” writeoff. This KILLS your credit. It is akin to saying “this person is in such a poor fiscal position that we did not feel they would ever be able to repay us so we took what little we thought we could get”. So next time you apply for credit and the prospective creditor sees this how do you think they will respond? Not favorably. For getting all these benefits you will have the privilege of paying from $400-$1000 (or however much they think they can get from you). So when they organize your debts and have you pay off your debt with a single payment, the first portion will go to them, then the rest to your assorted bills putting you further behind than when you started. Basically, these people are scum and prey on people in real need. RUN AWAY.

What you should do
*Check your credit. See exactly what creditors see when you ask them for money. Gov’t supported site with FREE credit reports:

*Contact a government credit counseling center. They are non-profit offices that do not require payment for their help. They are genuinely interested in your best interests (it looks like this is what another post went to). If someone is advertising RUN AWAY, it is a for-profit company and right now you cannot support more debt.

*Contact your assorted creditors and negotiate a rate reduction. Ask if they would be willing to reverse any fees. DO NOT ask them to take less. As I stated earlier, a P&L Writeoff is brutal on the credit score and for prospective creditors to see.

*Schedule an appointment with your banker at your bank /credit union. They will (atleast should) help you with any possible consolidation options and give you information on how to begin repairing that troubled credit.

Good luck!