Morality Question???

I was going to basically say the same thing as the proprieter said. It wouldn't make sense to spend another $1500-$2000 to get out of debt since you'll still have to pay that money back. The way I see it, people who get themselves into debt should figure out how to get themselves out of debt. This is why we do not have credit cards. We've seen too many people get caught in this trap of reconsolidating. They still have the debt and the ability to rack up more credit card debt.

Well, you make it seem like a simple question. I would probably pay the debts off IF I could afford to. Which is exactly what I'm doing.

You can easily pay off this debt yourself. I would avoid using a financial counseling company because they have fees that will charge you. Don't get into more of a mess than you need. Live within your means and don't charge any more. Pay cash:) If you need to get a second job to do it, do that then. When we were paying off our 20k worth of debt, we did the snowball method. We put as much as possible toward the highest%, and then the minimum for the rest. Once we paid off the highest percentage credit card, we snowballed the payment to the next highest.

Getting help from the company doesn't mean you won't have to pay the debt, so spending more to qualify for help will likely end up biting you in the end. Most of those companies only help you "consolidate" the debt meaning you owe the same principal amount (what you spent) but they lump it all into one loan at a lower finance rate than the creditcards. Running up the cards would be a bad financial choice, regardless of the morality of it. Honestly, the reason the companines (particularly private ones) won't help you if you have less than $10k of debt is because it is not worth it to them, they can't make much money from you because you will pay off the loan relatively quickly and they will not make a lot of money off the interest you pay (by their standards). My best recommendation would be to do your own kind of consolidating. Transfer your balances on high rate cards to lower rate ones. What you save on the interest will go that much farther towards paying down the principal of the loan. Most of those low rates are are for introductory periods, so keep an eye on the dates and pay off or transfer again before a card reverts to its higher rate if possible. If getting new cards is not an option for you, call the companies you already have cards with and ask for a lower rate. If you have been paying the minimum on time, they may knock a few percentage points off the rate, especially if you say you are thinking of transferring your balance to another card. The worst they can say is "no" so it is absoultly worth trying. Whatever you do, though, do not take out a lone that uses your house or other possission as collateral. If you only owe money on unsecured debt (credit cards) they cannot take your home or other possessions as payment. Don't put your home on the line for the sake of a lower rate. After that, just be really diligent and pay as much as you can each month on the cards, concentrating on those with the highest interst rate first. I know $8500 seems like a lot, but you CAN dig you way out of this, it will just take patience and work and a lot of self-dicipline. But, when you do pay it off, you will feel like a million bucks! Good Luck!