First of all, let's get one thing straight. You don't get anything for free, period. One way or another, you'll have to pay. That being said, there are still plenty of 'nonprofit' organizations who are offering free debt consolidation solutions.

A fair number of these 'nonprofit' organizations are merely fronts for a legitimate business operation. It simply looks better to prospective clients when they see that they will be dealing with a nonprofit organization. It doesn't mean that you get anything for free though, depending on your definition of 'free'.

The Definition of Free

When it comes to debt solutions, the definition of free is a service that will not cost you any more than you are already paying. That is basically how debt consolidation programs work. Do notice that I said 'programs', not loans.

A debt consolidation program is different than a debt consolidation loan. It can be very difficult to clearly define the differences between these two types of solutions but here goes. One is a loan and the other is a program. I guess that wasn't so tough after all.

Does it really matter what type of debt consolidation solution you use? The bottom line is that you get out of debt right? Well, yes and no. With a debt consolidation loan, you actually have to qualify for financing. With a program, such as a debt settlement program, you simply have to sign up.

Loans and programs both have fees. This should be fairly obvious. After all, these companies need to make some money or they won't be able to continue helping the poor folks who are suffering from problems related to unsecured debt, right?

With a debt consolidation loan, you will pay a certain interest rate. In general, this rate will be lower than the average of your other unsecured debts combined. This is one of the tools that they can lower your monthly payment.

With a debt settlement service, they take their fee as a percentage of the amount of unsecured debt that they are able to negotiate away with your creditors. So if you previously owed $100,000 in credit card debt, they may be able to talk your creditors down to only $50,000. They would then take a percentage of the difference. The average amount is between 15 and 35%. Don't worry though. This is not a fee that you have to pay up front.

It is not all that difficult to find free advice and a variety of free information services on the internet. Hopefully, you didn't come here looking for a free debt consolidation service.

As stated earlier, it just doesn't exist. Even when you use a nonprofit service, you have to pay.

Therefore, the best free debt help that you can get is when you read the pages of the DebtConsolidationShop.com website and others like it. However, don't let any fees that are listed for debt services scare you off.

These are fees that are either collected from your loan package (debt consolidation loan) or they are fees that are taken from the money that you save each month (debt settlement service) so it's not like you would have to write a check to one of these debt consolidation companies in order to get started. The main thing to do is to JUST GET STARTED!