Settling a debt for any amount less than what is owed will stop the collection agencies from calling, but it will also be noted on your credit report as a "charge-off," which is a negative mark and will hurt your credit score.

Debt settlement is the fastest and cheapest way to debt freedom, with a low monthly payment.

Debt settlement, also called Debt Negotiation, is a form of online debt consolidation whereby a debt settlement professional, on behalf of that individual will negotiate with the creditors to reach a reduced payoff balance on their debts and that will cut your total debt, sometimes over 50%, with lower monthly payments. Debt settlement plan typically run around three years.

Debt settlement program gets you relief from your current budget. It allows you to bring down your current monthly payments on your debt and as a result, you would have more cash available in order to spend on other things that you may need. Not only this, but it will also allow you to get some tax benefits in the process.

If you plan to pay off your debts, not only will you free up those monthly payments (on your car loan, mortgage, credit cards, etc) but you would then be able to invest your money in larger amounts and thusly build your wealth faster. If you can get out of your debts, you'd be doing fantastic financially. Congratulations!

It all depends on how much debt you have. If you have less than $10,000 in debt you may want to just do it yourself. Reasons may include..

• You have control over the program and how you want to get debt free.
• It cost nothing for you except making the payments themselves.

However if you have more than $10,000 of unsecured debt which would include credit cards, unpayed medical bills, and possible forclosures you may want to consider debt negotiation. This could be a much more simplier path. In fact I would consider this before consumer credit counseling because they will usually treat that as if it were a chapter 13 bankruptcy. Which could have some severe consiquences to your credit.