My local radio station has been running a bunch of ads from companies urging people who're struggling with paying their credit cards to "settle your debt for a fraction of what you owe." Their claim is that it's a better option than either debt consolidation or declaring bankruptcy.

The aggressive presentation they're using has a used car salesman feel to it and makes me suspicious of almost everything they're saying; but I don't have enough information to tell if they're offering a potentially helpful service or preying on the desperate and giving only snake oil in return. (A claim that credit card companies don't want you to know about it is probably true; but since they obviously would prefer to be paid in full doesn't speak to anything else in the pitch.)