I heard debt consolidation acts the same as a bankruptcy on your credit report and that is should be avoided at all costs. My wife and I are ready to start paying off our debt. I talked to a debt consolidator and they told me with all our debt we could save around $5,000 if I went through them. What is better to do, I don’t want to have something that looks and acts just like a bankruptcy on our credit report, but if it can help, doesn’t hurt, and saves us money at the same time I would be willing to do that. SO, should we debt consolidate or just contact all our balance holders and slowly start paying them all off one by one?