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If you are facing a mountain of debt you may be considering a debt consolidation service. While some of these companies can be quite effective in handling your debts, they do not do anything that you can not do for yourself. Yes, it is true that you can find legitimate companies out there to handles the stress and aggravation for you that provide satisfactory results and simply pay out one check each month, but it is going to cost you a fee for this service. If you think you would be better off not paying someone else to do the work with the ever present possibility of getting less than desirable results, not to mention the mark on your credit, you have the option to do it yourself.

You need to understand that all a debt consolidation company does is take your debts, whichever and however many you may have, and negotiate with the companies you owe money to for a low, reasonable monthly payment, and maybe a lower interest rate. Then they take the check you write them and send use it to make your payments for you while keeping a portion for their service fees. All of this can be done by you, so long as you are patient and persistent, and who wouldn't be persistent if it means saving money and taking care of that debt? You will have to be prepared to make a lot of calls and talk to more than one person, but with reasonable expectations and a little work, you can get the same, if not better, results than any third party can do for you. There are simple steps you can take to get started.

First off, you will need a list of the debts you are trying to pay off and all the information for each one. The name of the company, their contact information, the amount owed, current payment amount (if any), and the interest rate are all important pieces of information you will want to have handy when trying to negotiate with the companies. If you do not have this information already, it is available on your credit report, which you can get absolutely free once a year from each of the three credit reporting agencies Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. Just go to www.annualcreditreport.com to receive these free reports. You will also need to figure out what numbers you are shooting for whether you are trying to get a reduced payoff amount, smaller monthly payment, or lower interest rates. Be reasonable and take into consideration how soon you want to be able to pay off the debt. The economy being what it is right now, you may be able to get a nice

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