You have most likely reached this page because you are swimming in an out-of-control pool of debt that is threatening to overtake your entire existence. In today’s tough economy, millions of individuals who are normally good stewards of their available credit are now finding themselves on the verge of bankruptcy. Often left jobless or underemployed, more and more Americans are facing a mountain of debt and monthly bills that they simply cannot afford. To add insult to injury, many of these folks (and you may be among them) are turning to credit counseling companies that may have no scruples whatsoever in steering a bad financial situation into a far greater mess.

Let’s look at the most common claims and ploys that so-called "consumer credit counseling" companies use to appeal to those in desperate financial straits:

• "One call does it all". Many of these unscrupulous credit counseling companies will claim to be able to fix all of the debt worries that you have with just a simple phone call to them. Oh, if it just was that easy and simple! The process of becoming debt-free is a complicated and complex one that cannot, unfortunately, be successfully accomplished in a short window of time, and certainly not with one phone call. This tactic is used to create a false sense of security in the indebted consumer that their problems can be resolved lightning fast – creating a faux "light at the end of the tunnel".

• "We are a non-profit organization". This simple statement in itself is enough to make most consumers trust in the credit counseling company that they have contacted. The truth of the matter is that these types of companies seek tax-exempt status for the sole purpose of circumventing state and federal protection laws that are in place to protect the consumer. Many state and federal statutes that normally regulate credit counseling agencies oftentimes do not even apply to those companies that have received Section 501(c) (3) tax exemption. This basically comes down to using the U.S. Tax Code to skirt the very laws that were enacted to protect consumers. The scary thing is that many of the non-profit credit counseling companies are funded (completely or in-part) by credit card companies and loan companies! This is certainly a conflict of interest for a company that is supposed to be completely on your side and working for you. Many of these "non-profit" credit counseling companies boldly charge both the consumer and the credit card/loan company/finance company a fee for their services.

• "You will be able to pay off your debt for much less than you owe". This may be one of the most outrageous of all claims that are made by credit counseling companies today. In actuality, using one of these crooked consumer credit counseling companies as an intermediary between you and your debtors may cause you to pay not only the full balance that you owe, but also exorbitant interest and outrageous fees.

• "Lower your monthly payment". In most cases, borrowers find that in addition to the monthly payments they are already making to their creditors that consists of principle owed plus interest, once they work with a credit counseling company, they are also paying a monthly fee to that company. Credit counseling is reported to the credit bureau as a third party payer, commonly viewed by most lenders as a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

• "You can be debt free in less than five years". While those borrowers who don’t have a significant amount of debt may be debt free in less than five years, those with larger debt amounts cannot be assured by any reasonable credit counselor that they can pay off their debt in such a short period of time. This tactic is simply another way that these companies use to appeal to the consumer’s desperate want and need to get out of debt as fast as possible.

The bottom line when working with any company that is offering a quick fix to your credit problems is to use caution and reasoning when deciphering their claims. If a claim sounds "too good to be true", it most always is. By relying on your own common sense, you can avoid being scammed by these disreputable credit counseling companies who (like vultures) seek out those who are suffering and use them for their own personal gain.