Figuring out how to get out of debt is difficult enough, why should finding good debt advice be so hard?  With so many people trying to make a buck off of giving lame advice, where do you turn?  After writing 50+ articles on debt and finance, and going through the process myself I have learned who to trust and where to find it.  There are hundreds of great sources of debt consolidation advice all around the web, but for every one there are ten that aren't worth the pixels on your screen.

Most of the debt advice websites that you come across with a simple web search will be websites that are a front for a company that will take your information and sell it to the credit counseling and consolidations as "leads."  This is an honest business, but it certainly doesn't mean that they can offer any sort of valuable debt relief advice.  Be wary about filling out the contact forms on their websites, and if you do be prepared to get a ton of telemarketer phone calls from consolidation companies.

The FTC in the United States and DirectGov in the UK provide a wealth of information about programs and services for getting out of debt. Your probably thinking that the government would want you to stay in debt, but their advice is legit and absolutely free. They provide information about services that are offered by the government, private company services, and scams to watch out for.  They don't have a real reason to be dishonest with you, so the information from these sources can be very useful and legitimate.  If you need to print anything from these sites, they usually have a printer friendly version of their articles so you can keep a neat hard-copy of it for future reference.

The FTC website is much more in depth than DirectGov and has hundreds and hundreds of pages full of free debt advice.  There is everything from the pros and cons of debt consolidation to building budgets for your family.  One of the best things that website offers is information on the laws regarding debt collection and what they can and can't get away with.  There are some local laws that may differ from this, but it's still very informative.  Be careful though, the reading is very dry, so be sure to brew a pot of coffee before you dive into any reading.  

Many of the reputable debt consolidation companies, such as CareOne and Debt Consolidation Care have very informative websites.  This helps to build their credibility to potential customers, but it also help you out a ton.  Scour their sites because their articles and information isn't always easy to find, but it's on there.

Many debt consolidation companies will also offer free advice over the phone.  They want to get you as a customer, and you can use that to your advantage to score some free help.  There are many advantages to being able to talk to a real person and it can be very relieving to know that someone actually cares about you and your situation.  If you call three or four companies for advice, you can use that to determine which one you want to give your business to later on.  The company that has the best and most useful debt advice will most likely be the one that will help you become debt-free the best.