Thinking about debt consolidation

I am thinking of consolidating my debt since I have about 15K in credit card debt. I never miss a payment and they are always on time. Never been in collections, but I feel like my debt is a cloud over my head and I would love to be in the + rather than the -. I am afraid that if I do go to a debt negotiation/consolidation company that it will reflect poorly on my credit report and we are trying to buy a house before the end of this year...I'm at a loss.

I will only reflect poorly for a short time and not much. Stay away from debt settlement however. Also check out the consolidation company you use thouroughly. There is a ranking chart on this site.

I agree with frog patch. Since you can afford to pay your minimums but just want to get out of debt faster I would not do settlement because that is a program for people in a hardship who can't afford their minimum payments. I would definitely look into a dmp with a 501(c)3 non-profit credit counseling company.

Let me chime in. I was looking for a good DMP program, for fear of settlement effects. However, in contacting over 10 credit counseling companies, every single one wanted monthly payments over $100 above what I pay now. All of them had $40-50 monthly service charges. All of them would not take AMEX or Dell Financial. As a result, I will be doing settlement.

I know you can call AmEx on your own, but not sure how much they would work with you. They sent me a letter telling me that that would work out a payment schedule with me.