Air Force: Consolidating credit card debt vs paying all of your debt?

my husband is in the air force and years ago we were about 15 grand in debt and we used genus or genuis credit management to help with our debt they cut the interest they didnt close the account but basically cut the interest in half and we paid genius..and they paid the company...it didnt affect his military career at all...but it did give us a slightly higher interest rate on a car we bought...since then we got out of debt totally other than cars and a house...no credit card bills...we did not pay anything for two years into an account though so im not sure what kind of company you are looking at..our interest reduction started within three months...but reducing your debt by 40 to 50 percent sounds like they are charging off your debt and you will pay for that in the long run with higher interest on cars houses etc.