Professional help for securing debt relief can get you much wanted freedom from your creditors, but if taken from the wrong kind of people, you could actually find yourself in a worse situation than before! Also, if you don't change your spending habits drastically, then this bigger loan on your financial books could prove to be more of a headache than a boon! So be very careful while making a decision about going in for professional debt consolidation advice! Also watch out for a few things regarding the firm from which you are seeking such financial management help.
Given below is a checklist for your convenience that you can use to select a company which would give you that much sought after relief from debt! Points To Keep In Mind:

• Use the online debt consolidation loan calculator, available freely on the websites of most companies offering such credit management services.
  This would give you an idea of how much you might save in the end.
  
• Compare the rates and services offered by 4-5 different credit consolidation companies.
  Don't just sign up with the very first debt relief company that you come across!
• Research for their reputation in the industry.
  Read user reviews from people who have taken a consolidated loan against their sundry debts from these companies in the past.
  
• Check if the companies that you have short-listed have any pending complaints registered against them in the local BBB, regarding any kind of malpractices.
  
• These debt consolidation firms are supposed to take the monthly payment from you, and immediately pass them on to your creditors, according to the terms agreed upon.
  But some of them don't do this.
  They instead "sit" on your money, accruing interest for their own use, while you keep accruing late payment penalties!
• Then, there also some companies who entice you to take a loan for a sum much larger than what you need.
  Just remember that they aren't giving you that money for free - you will be paying some amount of interest on it at the end!

Caution Makes A Wise Man! If you take care not to fall in the above mentioned traps, then consolidating your various loan accounts could actually be good for you.
You won't have to keep track of how much has to be repaid every month and you can say goodbye to those collection calls as well.
Professional debt relief personnel can also negotiate reduced interest rates from your lenders, and sometimes get rid of any further penalties completely, thus reducing your cash outflow considerably.
So exercise caution and use this option wisely.