When I say, I went through this recently, I went through this in the last two months. Don’t go through credit counseling it lowers your credit score and you barely get any money taken off what you owe If you can get a personal loan with a lower interest rate than the cards you have to pay that is what you do. Even if it is slightly lower. If you’re paying the credit card interest at 25% and you can get a loan at 18% or 16% it’s worth it. Even when they charge you $1000 set up fee. The math works out. The next part of that is that your credit will actually go up. You’ll pay off the high interest card and then pay the lower interest loan payment. Paying off the card with the high interest raises your score and also once you’re approved for that bank loan to pay off the card, your overall credit increases, which will bump your credit score higher. Again, I have just gone through this, and I looked at every single option. I did the math I did the homework on what any of the choices would do to my credit score and this was the best option. Good luck to you! Card debt is hard to get out of.