Most “debt settlement” companies are at worse a scam and at best will ruin your credit for at least seven years. Very few are actually helpful and the fees that you pay makes it more expensive than if you just pay it yourself. I tried one before filling for bankruptcy and I told them that I did not have enough to put all my debt through them and they still charged me the full fees and didn’t send any payment to my credit cards for the few months that I had them.

Debt settlement, also called debt negotiation, is a form of online debt consolidation that cuts your total debt, sometimes over 50%, with lower monthly payments. Debt settlement programs typically run around three years. It is important to keep in mind, however, that during the life of your debt settlement program, you are NOT paying your creditors. This means that a debt settlement solution of online debt consolidation will negatively impact your credit rating. Your credit rating will not be good, at a minimum, for the term of your debt settlement program. However, debt settlement is usually the fastest and cheapest way to debt freedom, with a low monthly payment, while avoiding Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. The trade-off here is a negative credit rating versus saving money.