Does anyone know if using a debt councelor or debt consolidation is good idea or not? My girlfriend asked me to post it..... I think she mostly wants it for her student loans....

Student loan consolidation is a good idea. Especially now, because the interest rates for consolidation loans are insanely low. If she has multiple student loans, now is a GREAT time to consoldiate. The only thing to make sure is that you do the math and make sure that the sum total of interest payments over the life of the loan is less after you consolidate (which it should be unless they try to screw you.)

As for personal debt consolidation, I've never looked into it, but I see a lot of ads for really shady looking consolidation plans where they lure you in with really small monthly payments for all of your debt, but gore you with high interest payments, or ridiculous balloon payments at the end. I'd be more skeptical of these. If most of her debt is student loans, and she's got more than one, then I'd say definitely do the consolidation thing. My only regret is that I consolidated before the rates went down, and I'm stuck at a higher rate than I'd be at if I consolidated now. (You can only do it once, I think, and I don't think you can get the lower rate unless you consolidate two or more loans.)