I'm looking for a little advice from on credit card consolidation. I
have about 12,000 in credit card debt and would like to consolidate to
a lower interest rate. The problem is that I've never done this before
and don't know what the norm is for consolidating my debt. I've tried
to stay clear of these companies because I've heard that there are a
lot of scams out there by which these companies charge fees and don't
gurantee the low interest rate for the life of the debt. About a week
ago I got a telephone call from one of these company offering to give
me a 6%-9% interest rate on the amount consolidated but I would have to
pay a 40.00 fee each month.

Please help me answer these questions:

Do all credit card consolidation companies charge a fee?

Please list companies that are ligitimate if you know of any.

Is there another altenative?

You can find some responses to your question here:

http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19307

there was already a similar discussion going on that may be of help.

Initially there are two possible ways you may consolidate your debts.
You may use your mortgage (or any other equity) or take an unsecured
loan. If you have a mortgage then you may add up these loans to your
mortgage debt having a very attractive interest rate. It's also
recommended to keep all repayments as high as they were before at least
for 6-12 months. You benefit by lower interest rate anyway (plus all
account fees that many credit card providers charge).

Another option is to take one unsecured personal loan that will repay
all your current credit cards balance and also may give you some cash.
Have a look at bank loans. Many of them do not have any annual fees.