paying off debt

You may be confused with the differences in different debt programs.

Debt Consolidation is when you take out another loan (or borrow against a secured debt i.e. your house) and use the money to pay all your debts. You then have one payment. If you have good enough credit or enough equity in your home to accomplish this, then it could work. Of course you need to figure out how much you would be paying, the interest rate of the new loan and how long it would take.

A Debt Management Plan (which is what I think you are referring to) is when you use a third party to negotiate a new payment/interest rate with your creditors. You send one monthly payment to the DMP company and they distribute the payments for you. These are very rigid programs as the monthly payment will not change, it will have a mark against your credit, can take over 5 years to complete and you must include ALL your debts. The drop out rate for these programs is very high. Search on this site or look for info on CCCS and you can find more info.

There is also Debt Settlement where you negotiate a lower payoff amount with your creditors. Again, look on this site and elsewhere. There is a ton of info out there on this subject.