Just wanted to post my story as a motivational (and brag) post:
I am officially finished with my settlement adventure.
I settled with 5 different creditors: AmEx, Chase, Advanta, Discover, and BofA.
If you search, you will find several posts of mine dealing with each of these different settlements, but in total, I settled $61,500 of debt for $21,800 (35%). I did this on my own - there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to use a third party debt settlement group.
If you have any questions, ask away.