How To Find A Reputable Debt Consolidation Company

Carrying a load of debt can easily feel like you’re going through life with a black cloud hanging over your head. No matter what you’re doing, stress about the debt can linger in the back of your mind.

So let’s say you see an ad for a company that promises to help you pay off your debt more quickly. “Really?” You may think. “I’ve been trying to pay this off on my own for so long, maybe getting outside help is just the thing to help me finally knock this out of my life.”

This is perfectly understandable, but you have to keep in mind that nothing is ever as easy as it sounds. If you are seriously thinking about going to a debt consolidation company then you’ll need to do your research and find that is honest, or else you could end up in a far worse situation than you ever imagined before!

What is Debt Consolidation?

Companies that want to help you pay off your debt come in many forms. Three of the most common types are: debt consolidation companies, debt management companies, and debt settlement companies.
Companies like this will often market themselves in multiple ways to get you in the door and once you’re there they give you the hard sell on what they really want you to buy. But if debt consolidation is what you want, then make sure you know what it is before you go!

• Debt Consolidation: one person or company purchases all of your debt so that you can make one payment to them – this can allow you to get a lower interest rate than what you are currently paying as well as to simplify your life by getting just one monthly payment
• Debt Management: a third party attempts to negotiate lower interest rates and payments on your current debts
• Debt Settlement: a third party tries to negotiate lower principal balances on your current debts

These sound very different on paper, but once you start searching for a company that offers any of these services, you could find that they instantly become jumbled together.


In fact, as an experiment, try doing what I did and simply enter the phrase “debt consolidation companies” into a search engine. Good luck finding search results that don’t include debt settlement or management companies!  Why does this matter? Because debt settlement and debt management can be extremely risky and could have debilitating effects on your finances.


That doesn’t mean debt consolidation doesn’t carry its own risks, but if you consolidate your debt then it means someone else is buying all of your debt and you are paying them back. At that point it’s really up to you to mitigate risk – make those payments every month and you can avoid penalties and an increase in interest rates.

Now that you understand what debt consolidation is, you should know that there are many ways to do it – and most of them you can do on your own without help from a debt consolidation company. To see a list of those options, see Ben’s previous blog post, “Debt Consolidation Programs.”

However, those “do it yourself” debt consolidation options are predicated on having a good credit score. If you’re in a position where your credit score is less than 660, then those options won’t be available and you will need to begin searching for a reputable debt consolidation company. Below, we’ll explain how you can avoid scams and find reputable debt consolidation companies that can hopefully give you a debt consolidation loan with reasonable terms.

Tips for Finding a Reputable Debt Consolidation Company

Unfortunately, there are no quick and easy ways to find out if a debt consolidation company is credible (although you can use ReadyForZero’s savings platform to find one). However, there are a few things you can do quickly to find out if a company is not credible. So start up a search of companies and follow these steps.