Debt management firms have shown exponential growth over the last few years, and, with the larger financial picture unlikely to change any time soon, consumers shall continue to flock to every company that promises a reduction of payments and interest rates for the debts that accumulated back in the good old days.

You are sure or at least familiar with the notion of debt management. It has become a buzz word for all segments of the economy whether or not you're trying to get out of a negative equity residence or simply trying to erase a few thousand dollars of credit card debt whose minimum payments you can no longer maintain. In the greater sense, for most borrowers, undertaking the process of debt management will be to your advantage regardless of the path you choose.

While there are obvious drawbacks to Consumer Credit Counseling (FICO score wreckage resembling that of Chapter 7 bankruptcies) and home equity debt consolidation (incredibly dangerous in a time of tumbling property values), there remains a number of debt management forms - debt settlement negotiation, which can reduce borrowers' balances by as much as fifty percent with a few phone calls for relatively low cost to the pocketbook or credit report, chief among them - that have demonstrable value to even the most dubious debtor.

For every good and legitimate debt management firm, there are others who are simply out to make the fast buck regardless of their client's well being. We would like purely to highlight some of the more egregious complaints our correspondents have reported when attempting debt consolidation with the hope that you would be able to sniff out a malfeasant business and select one that truly has you and your family's best interests in heart. Obviously, there is a good deal more investigation that needs to be done well before you even meets with a specific company.

While it is necessary to offer this information to your prospective debt management company during the application process, one shouldn't just hand out your most personal financial data before making absolutely certain that the company is one to be trusted. Even beyond the question of honesty - as happens, many debt management companies will share such information with bill collectors and predatory credit card companies all too ready to shove near fraudulent balance transfer offers down the debtors' metaphorical throats - there's a separate issue of experience and competence.

For obvious reasons, debt management partners will need to trade this information with the lenders that they will need to deal with over the course of debt negotiation, but representatives of those credit card companies should be the ONLY ones to be given access to such incredibly sensitive data.

While on the subject of monthly payments, another element of debt management that many borrowers unused to dealing with this sort of financing tend to ignore revolves around the lenders themselves. Remember, you are entrusting all payments to be made - which, in essence, means entrusting your credit rating for years to come - to the debt management firm, and it's of the greatest importance that they understand and acknowledge their responsibility.

Particularly lax or incompetent debt management companies (or, even, those companies that themselves have liquidity problems) have been known to delay the payments to creditors that they have been charged to transfer out. Many of the less reputable debt management firms attempt to hide redundant charges within the monthly payments, and some of them add on an additional annual expense for exactly the same efforts! Not to repeat ourselves, but this is why a close perusal of the final good faith estimate is such an integral part of choosing the debt management companies.

After debt management, you will be sending the checks to the management company, but, in many instances, you will still be held liable by the credit card companies for the obligations that you originally signed on for. Make sure that you understand precisely your debt management partners' plans for timely remuneration of the credit card companies and - we apologize for the repetition but this cannot be underlined sufficiently; too many households have been lost to oral agreements - get everything down on paper.

For that matter, force the debt management companies to send along a notice each month that records their payments to the various lenders alongside some tracking system available over the internet.  The internet has proved to be the most essential and easily accessible source to handle all kinds of finance and debts.

As ever, should the debt management professional suddenly blanch or in any way act as if this is outside the bounds of his responsibility to his client, feel more than free to walk out the door. Indeed, feel that it is your duty to remind the company about industry standards.