In one answer, yes. Do not let any debt relief company tell you otherwise. When undergoing debt settlement, the debt does not get removed from your credit report. It will show up as a settled debt or a charged off debt. A recent settled debt or charged-off debt can lower your score by as much as 40 points or more for just one account. If any creditors have put you out for collections, then that is already on your credit report and that is also already hurting your score tremendously.

Obviously if you have been having significant credit card debt problems where you have been late on making payments recently, your credit history and score is probably already suffering from that damage.

There comes a time when you just have to say to yourself, "damage done" and if it is already done then you might as well go full force and settle all your debt as soon as you can so you can start the process of REBUILDING CREDIT.

If you already have some negative marks on your credit history and you are in a lot of debt,  It's all about closure and moving on from this part of your life so you can start to work in improving your credit score. Believe it or not, as soon as you settle one of your debts,  you can start to dispute this negative item on your credit reports and with persistence (in many cases) you get get these negative items removed from your history.

The process is not fun and not easy but it can certainly be done. This process can be done on a monthly basis for you by a credit repair company. See our list of the BEST CREDIT REPAIR COMPANIES.