The following is a brief, with some detail, description of the six (6) Consumer Credit/Debt Assistance Service options available...

First Stone^® Credit Counseling™ (FSCC™) - The short answer: the ONLY program any sensible person would ever want to hire: Please, read on...

Yes, we are a legal and competent U.S. Treasury approved "Credit Counselor" (as the law/s require) but much, much more... therefore, we perform the following services: Credit Education with Credit File Restoration/Correction/Cleanup as well as settlement(s), if necessary. We pride ourselves on being Consumer Advocates, meaning we are "consumer friends" and the ONLY to ever file as such and be U.S. Treasury approved, and the ONLY outfit who can and will also clean your credit file and not gouge you! We created the ONLY program that always actually works, if, you, the consumer will pay attention (and we have 20+ years' experience in this business).

Now briefly, here's how it works: we customize each project for our clients. After fairly pricing each project (no gouging but we can't do it for free), we do it the right way, which removes and/or neutralizes the bad news (FYI - normally we can settle those unsecured accounts for 20 to 35 cents on the dollar, and that's even less than the "illegals" claim!). However, your file will also be cleaned up and/or any bad news neutralized and normally in 1 to 2 years, sometimes a little less, thus removing one from "Economic Bondage."

"Credit Repair" Clinics - The short answer: all of these are "Scammers"!
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) probably said it best when their Consumer Protection Division Director, Ms. Jodie Bernstein, first essentially stated: "The FTC has never seen a legitimate credit repair company..."

Credit Repair clinics mostly perform by trying to fool or overload those so-called "credit bureaus", the ones Congress named the Credit Reporting Agencies (CRA's), by sending "frivolous disputes" with the hope that it will confuse the CRAs into removing negative information. In our opinion, credit bureaus, while not "rocket scientists" are much more savvy than that, and quickly pick up on this technique and then "flag" the consumer's credit file as punishment so that, for years and years to come (7 years, 20 years, perhaps life), any future contacts can be used against the consumer for trying to fool them. Those consumers are now actually "marked" for life or until they find FSCC™ who can actually stop it! By the way, all "Credit Repair" clinics violate The Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) and The Federal Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, a.k.a. The Telemarketing Sales Rule, or TSR for short, as well as The Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA). If you tell FSCC™ about these scammers, they can help you get your money back! "Forewarned is forearmed."

"Debt Settlement" Companies (a.k.a. Debt Negotiators or DS/N's) - The short answer: They are "simply another more recent complex consumer scam"
Debt Settlement/Negotiator Companies claim they can settle all your unsecured debts in about 60 months (5 years) or maybe less for approximately half or 50% (maybe 40%?) of your unsecured debt plus their 15% off-the-top fees which are all charged up front and they get theirs even if you, the consumer, don't. Now the new Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR, enacted 9/27/2010) will stop all that or they and "their friends" will eventually go to jail. First of all, Debt Setllement/Negotiators must now (effective 9/27/2010) disclose all negative aspects like, your credit file is quickly and totally destroyed for seven (7) to twenty (20) years because you immediately stopped paying your unsecured creditors. DS/N's must now additionaly disclose they have no contract with creditors and that many of their consumer customers will also get sued. By the way, the Feds and attorney generals now publish that only 10% of their consumers successfully ever complete these programs; however, customers can now use the new TSR to sue the Debt Settlement/Negotiators.

Lastly, the "mad-as-hell" creditors also extract more revenge by sending consumer customers and the IRS a 1099C tax lien which will stay on someone's credit file and keep them in that "Economic Bondage" situation for fifteen (15) more years, therefore that additional blemish added to the already 7-12 negative years may add up to half a lifetime. Since Sept. 27, 2010, all Debts Settlement/Negotiators have to tell all prospects verbally and in writing what we just explained or you can sue them and their "helpers", like lead providers or TV and radio stations... Again, "forewarned is forearmed!"

The NFCC/CCCS - The short answer is: they are very sophisticated "collectors"
In our opinion, as well as some others, most are actually "collection-agencies-in- disguise" since they fail to disclose to the consumer the creditor rebate - (the "Fair Share Offering" they call it). Collecting money for creditors can be lucrative - CCCS/NFCC is estimated to have grossed between $20 to $24 billion last year - but it is extremely hazardous to any consumer's credit health if they hire them. If one hires the NFCC/CCCS and/or their friends, the companies would be performing what's called a DMP (Debt Management Program) which allegedly settles all your unsecured debts but, it normally takes from three (3) to eleven (11) years to complete a DMP project. However, your monthly payment goes to half but not the debts; in fact, the interest usually continues!

However, all those negative items continue to move forward each month until the payoff which ends in five (5) to eleven (11) or more years and credit file bad news remains all the time plus another 7 or more years ("makes some folks actually feel better though"). But it's just another "Economic Bondage" creditor and credit bureau scam. "Forewarned is forearmed."

Bankruptcy - The short answer: ten (10) to twelve (12) more years of "credit hell" unless you know FSCC™ and/or The People's Credit Bureau and do our After Bankruptcy Cleanup program:
One could be a bankruptcy candidate, however, to qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a.k.a. total unsecured "debt wipeout" (which takes about 100 to 180 days or so...), you must qualify economically and by that I mean, there is now a "means test." However, BK-7 debt wipeout leaves a 10-year credit file blemish. There is also Bankruptcy, Chapter 13 - Re-ogranization - however that is normally a five (5) year project where you would still pay approximately 30% of your unsecured debt with a monthly payment plus attorney and trustee fees plus seven (7) more years of credit report "death" after the five (5) year bankruptcy, unless...

You find FSCC™ for our "After Bankruptcy Cleanup" program. FSCC™ does have the expertise to do true after bankruptcy credit file clean-up... FAST! It normally takes about a year to free clients from that state of "Economic Bondage."

And finally, there is the Do Nothing option... "time heals all wounds"... well, maybe
However, our experience has shown that you can usually look forward to seven (7) to twenty (20) years of "credit hell" if the powers that hate you (that's those creditors or their collector friends) actually obey the law themselves. Good luck! Because they normally try to punish consumers until... well let me say, "they normally give up when you die...!"

P.S. The following scenario is titled:
WHY YOU PROBABLY CAN'T OR DON"T WANT TO TRY TO DO THIS YOURSELF EVEN IF YOU ARE A "GENIUS"...

#1: The system has been stacked against you and all those other “players” will stick together to “punish” you so you will always unquestionably want to pay them first.

#2: The "system players" hold most of the cards except one "wild card" that trumps all others and that is simply "FSCC™" (ask us when you call and we will educate you as to why...)