If you are current on your payments, it is very difficult, if not impossible to settle your debt. Therefore, you will have to voluntarily stop paying your unsecured debts and allow them go into delinquency. By not paying your creditors, your credit will be affected by debt settlement. With any debt relief program, there will be a temporary negative effect on your credit rating. However, following the successful completion of the program, all accounts will be settled and creditors will report the accounts as “settled” or “paid in full” to the credit reporting agencies. Having to experience this temporary setback on credit may be better than having to file for bankruptcy, especially on your credit rating. During your debt settlement program, your total balances are being lowered over time as they are settled in full – a wonderful start to recovery! There are many factors that make up your credit rating. Your credit score is sliced up like a pizza pie. Making on-time payments is just one slice. If you have ever been late on a minimum payment, then you have already affected the whole pizza. As a wise man once quoted “Extra money puts food on the dinner table, not the elusive perfect credit score of 850.”