You must understand there are four different services for credit card consolidation. Typically, a Debt Consolidation Loan, a Balance Transfer and Credit Counseling all have a neutral effect on your credit score. However, Debt Settlement requires that you starve your creditors of payments. Therefore, Debt Settlement has a severe effect on your credit.
Credit Counseling is a free service that includes analyzing an individual or family’s, liabilities, assets, monthly expenses and monthly income, in order to provide guidance and ultimately recommend an action plan to pay off their unsecured debt.
One of the debt-payoff strategies we recommend is a debt management program (DMP). Our program typically allows the participant to enjoy reduced interest rates, one low monthly payment, and becoming debt free in fewer than five years.
About 68% of the clients that enroll onto a debt management program successfully payoff their debt. The most common reason why some people don't succeed is due to a financial hardship such as job loss or increased expenses.
That's a personal preference. All services (Debt Consolidation Loan, Balance Transfers, Credit Counseling and Debt Settlement) have their pros and cons. It's up to you to figure out what is the best one for your financial situation. Therefore, do lots of research and ask your advisor lots of questions.