3 hidden debt relief costs that are easy to miss when enrolling

MoneyWatch: Managing Your Money 3 hidden debt relief costs that are easy to miss when enrolling We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-moneywatch.jpg'); } By Angelica Leicht Angelica Leicht Senior Editor, Managing Your Money Angelica Leicht is the senior editor for the Managing Your Money section for CBSNews.com, where she writes and edits articles on a range of personal finance topics. Angelica previously held editing roles at The Simple Dollar, Interest, HousingWire and other financial publications. Read Full Bio Angelica Leicht May 5, 2026 / 1:09 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Certain debt relief costs don't show up in early conversations, meaning that they're easy to miss if you aren't careful. Mohamad Faizal Bin Ramli/Getty Images If you're a borrower who's struggling to pay off your high-rate debt, you should know that there's a point in the debt cycle when the usual strategies stop working. The minimum payments on your compounding credit card debt no longer make progress, your balances feel like they're ballooning and the high-rate interest charges begin to outpace what you can realistically keep up with each month. At that point, pursuing debt relief often moves from a general idea to an immediate consideration.And, debt relief can make a lot of sense in many situations. After all, these programs seem straightforward at first glance, as they can reduce your balances, making it easier to resolve the debt and then move forward in your financial life. And for many borrowers, that outcome is entirely possible. But the way those results are achieved — and the costs you encounter along the way, some of which are immediate, while others are delayed — can also look very different from what's initially presented. Some of those costs don't show up in the early conversations,...