Lost and I need help!!!

First take a breath! It'll work out! You've taken the first step-asking for help & that's a big step in the right direction!

You could call your creditors & see if they can lower your rates so you can pay them back easier. Some people here have had luck dealing with their creditors lowering rates. It doesn't hurt to ask them to lower rates. Some of the might have "hardship" programs that you might qualify for to help you lower your rates as well-but you would need to talk to the creditors about that.

The way consolidation works (as far as I know from my experience), the consolidation company will take your debts & budget into account & come up with a payment plan. From there they will figure out how much you need to pay them so they can in turn pay your creditors. The consolidation company can negociate better interest rates (mine dropped from about 28% on Discover to 9% and from 28% on Chase to about 15%) also they can might be able to stop over limit fees & late fees (but that might vary from consolidation company & also creditor).

If you do go through a consolidation company, its IMPORTANT to check out the company with the BBB and look at the complaints. Also Google them as well. Another good place is Ripoff Report to see complaints there as well.

This site also has a search option (top right hand section of the site). Type in a company name you are considering & see what others here have to say about them. We post our experiences good & bad here so others-like yourself-can make informed decisions.

Best of luck & please come back if you need help or have more questions!!!

Federated Financial contacted me. I missed the call but looked them up. They have an A- rating with the BBB but I did read a few negative reports on them online. Anyone use them before and if so, how would you rate the experience?

Okay I just watched Suzi Orman tonight and I know she gets compensated for endorsing the FICO scores..but I believe her general info offered is very informative to all debtors ..her opinion is to look at all of your credit cards and to concentrate on paying off the ones with highest interest rate first..pay the minimum on all others and anything left over pay towards the higher interest rate card and when you finally pay this off don't close out card because this is your FICO booster...and that being said if it comes down to paying a credit card VS. defaulting or losing your home that you are living in....she states don't pay anything on credit card debt in order to keep a roof over your head....they can take your home away from getting behind in payments but cos can only do judgements on cc debt!