With so many people in debt out there, many people turn to the professionals before they turn to themselves.  While there are many great companies out there that can help settle your debt, you have to remember that you can negotiate with just about any company out there, including debt collectors.

Get your debt together – Before you call up a debt consolidation agency, you want to get all of your bills together.  Whoever you owe money to, you need to let them know this.  If it’s a car payment, credit card bill, student loan, mortgage, etc, if you owe them money, they need to know about it.

Do your research – If you went out and bought a car, would you buy it right away without doing the research?  I hope not.  The same goes with debt collection agencies.  You’ll want to do your research and ask them about their fees and what they charge to help you get out of debt.  You’ll want to make sure that you can afford these fees because you don’t want to sink further into debt.

Keep it simple – Never give a debt firm any financial information such as checking or saving account numbers.  They can easily tap into these in the future and withdrawal the money for “fees” you didn’t know about.  Always pay them with cash, a check or any other form of payment that they can’t tap into.

Besides the financial aspect of things, you’ll also want to keep it short with your debt.  Let them know what you owe and steer away from a life story.  These people are here to make money, not sympathize with you over your medical bills.

Know all of the fees – No debt consolidation firm is going to be free.  Make sure that you take notes and know of what you’re going to owe them at the end of the service, week or however they charge you.  The more you know, the more you can control

In the end, when you find someone you like, let them know that you have been shopping around and that you want to use their service but for X amount of dollars.  If your offer is out of reach, they will say no but most of the time, they want your business.  It never hurts to throw out an offer because the worst they can say is no.