Does credit counseling help your credit or hurt it?!

Does credit counseling help your credit or hurt it?

i'm trying to clean up my credit..and i was wondering if its best that i pay off my debts on my own. or is it best 2 get credit counseling? i dont want to damage my credit anyomre?

Simply getting credit counseling will not hurt your credit. They may put you on a debt repayment plan where they negotiate with your creditors to enable you to pay back ony a portion of your debt. If so, that will harm your credit. There are many things you can do to raise your credit score.

The most important is to pay all your bills on time. Your credit score is calculated on many factors, but some of the most important are how many late payments you have, their severity, and how long ago they occured.

late payments made in the past 24 months will have more impact on your credit score than those that occured further in the past. Something else you can control that will affect your credit score is your credit utilization percentage. That is the percentage of your revolving credit accounts you have charged up. For example, if you have revolving credit accounts totalling $10,000, and you've charged up $8,000, you have an 80% credit utilization score. That's too high and will hurt your credit score.

For more info on how to increase your credit score and debt mistakes to avoid, along with many other money saving and consumer tips, see the blog "Debt Free" .