debt managment services

About a year and a half ago, Sean, my friend, signed up with a credit counseling program to help manage his overwhelming debt. From my experience with these programs, since I, myself, participated in one to pay of my debt, is that they make great efforts to lower interest rates and eliminate fees. At least mine did.
I used Cambridge Credit, and I know they’ve had legal issues, but they worked great for me. He uses Freedom Debt Management, and it appears as though they have not done anything to lower his APRs. It also seems odd to me that they don’t send him a monthly statement showing the breakdown of where his money is going. And, their website is less than helpful. Almost all communications with them is through email. The good thing is, payments are, in fact, being made to his credit cards, with a monthly fee of $30.
I was wondering, If he cancelled his service with FDM, how does this affect his credit? I believe that he could negotiate better rates himself, and that extra $30/mo could help pay down a card a bit faster. Is it wise to cancel and do it yourself? Or will he see a spike in his already high interest rates? If he did cancel the debt management program, would he be able to remove that mark from his credit report?
My other question relates to authorized users on credit cards. Sean is currently going through a divorce, so the marital debt will be assigned accordingly, but, He is an “authorized user” on many of the credit cards, including some within the program above. It is my understanding that you can add anyone as an authorized user to a card, and they don’t sign an agreement to the terms of the card. If this is the case, can he be held liable for the charges? Is it appropriate if he writes to each card to have his user status removed? And with a balance on the cards, is it likely they will remove him? It just seems to me like a credit card shouldn’t be able to report late payments on a credit report for an “authorized user” who never even agreed to the terms.
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i am not familiar with debt managment programs and rules of such
sounds to me like you can do a great job for this person. i would try all of the things you said and see what happens it cannot hurt.
none of them can hurt
so try and see what happens authorized users
should be able to unauthorize anyime you wish i would think
and piggybacking is now supposed to be done. no longer available. usually used to help credit. should be able to cancel if yo wish
appropriate? sure thats appropriate