No one wants to live in debt. The best way to regain financial security is to establish a plan for the elimination of debt. Debt consolidation is one way to set up this type of plan and to pay down debt in an efficient and organized manner. When you are looking for credit debt solutions, consolidation will represent many of the options that you discover.The term consolidation can mean several different types of debt elimination. In most cases, you would work with an organization that will walk you through a three step process that is designed to help you become debt free. Bear in mind that this includes unsecured debt, such as credit cards, and most likely will not include things such as mortgage and car loans that are secured with a form of collateral. There are also programs that offer consolidation loans that pay off all of your debt and leave you with a single monthly payment to pay off the loan.During the process, you will work with a professional to do a complete assessment of your unsecured debt. You will be required to provide them with information about every unsecured credit account you have. Then the representative that you work with you to help to calculate the total amount of your debt. Then, the person that you work with will contact each of your individual creditors to work toward reducing the overall amounts of each of your debts. This may be through interest rate reduction, interest forgiveness or sometimes it could be through principal reduction. Creditors would rather accept less than accept nothing should you file for bankruptcy. Finally, you will be presented with a consolidation plan where you make a single monthly payment until your debt is eliminated. You make the payment and the consolidation organization will pay your debts on your behalf as agreed with the creditors.There will usually be no cost to you upfront for these services, until the time where the plan for repayment is presented to you. At that point, you may be required to pay a few hundred dollars in order to establish the payment plan. Each month, you will most likely be paying a monthly service charge to the consolidation agency for their work in helping you to repay your debt efficiently. Once your debt is eliminated, you will no longer be required to make monthly payments.