Certainly a personal credit crunch is a trying experience in itself. When you're behind the 8-ball with your finances - high interest rates, too much credit card debt and overextension of personal wealth - the last thing you need is someone taking advantage of you under the guise of "helping." Debt counseling is an prevalent part of modern society, and unfortunately so are debt consolidation scams.

The simple advice for avoiding these debt counseling scams is "buyer - or debtor - beware." The more meaningful advice is to use technology and other resources to properly research and vet available credit counseling services. The Internet may be the easiest researching tool - discussion boards, blogs and review sites are full of solid advice about this topic and many others. Your local financial institutions, including banks and financial planners, can help, too.

The federal government has issued guidelines for protecting yourself against debt consolidation scams. In a nutshell, the government says to read carefully any written agreement from a debt counseling service. FULL detail should be provided concerning payment for services, length of repayment plan, guarantees, etc. The government also suggests you to be VERY wary of services that promise to remove negative information from your credit report; as lovely as that sounds, a third party just cannot do that for you. Finally, the government recommends that you contact your creditors first (that's actually pretty - they certainly call enough, don't they?) and find out whether they work with the debt counseling service you're thinking of using.

Once you've entered into an agreement with a debt counseling service, it's important to stay on top of your plan. Your counseling service should provide you with a monthly statement, and the information provided there should be in line with the information your creditors have about your accounts. There's nothing wrong with double-checking the work being done by your credit counseling service. In fact, it's recommended.

Debt consolidation scams can be avoided, with the proper information. No venture involving your hard-earned money should be undertaken without the right dose of diligence. Use available resources and thoroughly investigate your options. You'll be rewarded in the long run.