In deciding on whether to file bankruptcy or deal with your creditors on your own, you should determine how long it will take to pay off the debt if you DON'T file. Forget about minimum payments - those get you nowhere. Look at your statements to verify this. Most of every payment is interest. In order to become debt-free, you MUST attack the principal.
Most people mistakenly believe that their credit and their credit report are the same thing.
This is wrong. Your credit is your ability to borrow money, while your credit report is a summary of your payment and credit history. Although you may have perfect payment history, if you currently have more bills than you can afford, you have no credit because no one will loan you any more money. Many people discover this when they apply for a consolidation loan. After the bankruptcy, you will have little, if any, debt and you will be a better credit risk to creditors because you will be able to afford the payments on new debt.