Your credit score can impact on applying for jobs, where you will be required to declare any bankruptcies you've filed and a potential employer can refuse your application based on this information. 

Once you've settled your debts make sure that you take full advantage of the free credit report available to you each year. The debts you've settled should reflect a zero balance. This does not erase any delinquent repayments prior to the settlement. 

You can ask your debt settlement program agency about how the debts will be settled, how they will tackle collection calls from lenders, how existing liabilities and bills will be paid off.  After you are enrolled in a settlement program, you are solely responsible for making the agreed-upon monthly payments. 

The advantage of combining credit repair and debt settlement is that debt settlement can reduce your repayments giving you the immediate relief you need, while credit repair can help mitigate the damage to your credit-score. If they are able to pay more each month, then your debt will be paid off more quickly. 

If your credit evaluation has already been damaged because of late or missed repayments and you frequently default same then debt settlement is unlikely to have a negative impact on your credit rating. Once you start making the new renegotiated repayments, your credit evaluation may actually improve. 

A debt settlement program is where a company will negotiate on your behalf an amount less then the balanced owed by you to your creditors. Typically a good settlement lender can get the total balance you owe down to about 50%, occasionally even less. It is important that you realise your credit score will drop. Over time it will eventually improve as you pay off your debt. You can avoid harassing telephone calls each day and avoid bankruptcy  in contrast to the seven to ten years minimum that it will take to start rebuilding your credit score after insolvency.