Credit Counselors and Debt Consolidators are dominating the Internet, newspapers, magazines, radio, and television with ads promising to give you a miracle cure for your poor credit history and your poor FICO credit rating. This appears to be great news. Let’s see if it really is good news.

Of course there are some credit counseling agencies and debt consolidators that can actually help get people out of debt. But there are many such services run by con artists who are after your money, money you probably can’t really afford to spend. And, sadly, they have no intention of helping you.

There are trustworthy companies and shady companies among the hundreds of credit counselors and debt consolidators, and, good or bad, all appeal to your emotional distress to get out of debt. Let’s consider the differences.

The Best Credit Counselors.

These services will actually help you clean up your credit history while improving that all important FICO credit score. They will help you realize where you went wrong with your credit decisions and then devise a plan to start correcting your bad habits.

Once your spending is under control, they will help you create a budget so you can change your money management style and stay out of debt and live a more stable financial life.

The Debt Consolidation Shell Game.

These companies operate with a slightly different agenda and my advice is: You should only consolidate your debts when you have exhausted all other avenues. It’s true that debt consolidators also help you get out of debt, but they do so by making deals with your creditors to combine all of your obligations into one large loan with one monthly payment.

The pitch they make is deceiving. Yes, the payment on the consolidated loan will total less per month than the total of your current payments but, usually, the interest rate on the consolidated loan is high because you are high risk. This means you will end up paying back more in interest in the long run.

Again, avoid debt consolidation and, if you need outside help, go with a debt counseling service instead. They will monitor you and keep you from falling back into the habits that damaged your credit history in the first place. Consolidators, on the other hand, will only be concerned about you making your monthly payments on the new loan for which they collect a fee.

The ‘ Fix My Credit ‘ Crooks!

These crooks are obvious. Any ‘ fix your credit ‘ offer that claims they can magically erase your debt without you lifting a finger (except pay them) is a scam. Think about their claim. Creditors would have to forget you owe them money. Why would they do that? Some of these scams are designed to force you into bankruptcy. Sure, your debts will be gone but the record stays in your credit report for up to 10 years and your FICO credit score will plummet.

How do you find a reputable credit counseling company?