Sunday, January 24, 2010

How Does Trying to Settle My Credit Card Debt Impact My Credit Score?

Chances are your credit score isn’t too great if you are reading this. So the question really becomes how the debt settlement process will impact your credit score over a period of time. The important thing to understand is that debt settlement is a process and one that can take a few months to complete. It’s best to take it one step at the time.

In most cases as your representatives are in negotiations to reach an agreement, your credit cards that are involved generally aren’t being paid. During this time period this will negatively impact your credit score. And if you have been paying your credit cards it’s to be expected that your credit score will go down. However, with debt settlement program your settlement is reached and the cards start getting paid off, your score will start to improve and very dramatically. The question that will be asked is: Was the card paid off?” The answer is a yes. It was not defaulted but paid off. This is extremely positive and worth the effort.

For the average person in this process their credit score will get somewhat worst before it gets better. The alternative of not trying to reach a settlement locks you into having to continue to make endless monthly payments at a high interest rate and making very little progress to ever getting out of debt. It’s a much better outcome to go through the process and come out on the other side with your credit cards debt paid off.