to pay them all off. I succeeded in getting them all paid off except for 1, which I’m still paying on. Now I want to get a new credit card for purposes of improving my credit (paying on time, etc.) Now that I’ve gone through credit counseling and a debt management program to reduce my debt, what is the best way to convince the major credit card companies to trust you again with a new card?

I’m considering consolidating my debt with the consumer credit counseling agency in my town but someone told me that it’s considered (i guess by potential creditors) the same as filing bankruptcy? Is this true?

I’ve used credit counseling companies to pay off my debt in the past, and it works. But now, I’m a little older, and I think a little wiser. My partner is currently paying his debts through one of these "non-profit" companies, and I don’t feel as comfortable with it. Here’s why:
1. The minimum payments on the credit cards don’t seem to be lower.
2. The interest rates are not very low. When I went through one of these programs my APRs were lowered to between 1 and 5%. His are still as high as 15%.
3. They don’t share the "fair-share" dollars with us. — which is where I get my Debt collector logic. Essentially, the Credit Card Company is PAYING this Credit Counseling company to collect our payments. And then the Counseling company is charging us even more to process the payment. Seems like a raw deal…

probably be a month? I make 97,000 a year but have 2 kids in college so money is tight. And how many years do you get to pay those payments off?

I have about 3,000 in credit card debt from Citi and Discover. Both have been charged off so the damage is already done and I am 20 years old and I had to use this to pay for college and I wanted to try and make a small payment plan so I could defintley afford the payment but both collection agencies are asking for over 100 each month and I can’t really afford that right now. I filled out this online application for Consumer Credit Counseling Service and they set up a plan where I pay 85 each month and out of that 15 goes to Consumer Credit Counseling Service and there also a fire deposit amount of 120$ which includes a file setup fee. Should I continue to do this or try and talk with the collection agencies about lowering the monthly payments or find another Service? I just want something that I can afford. Please help. Thank you

I have just started getting a budget together. I know better than this to get myself in debt. Our hours at work have been cut and that just made it easier to use the credit cards and borrow more. I am sure there are people in my situation.