 TITLE: What Credit Counseling Offers CONTENT: Does Credit Counseling Hurt Credit?\n-----------------------------------\nCredit counseling itself has no impact on your credit report since it is merely an informational appointment. If you enroll in the DMP, however, your credit scores may be affected.\nSome credit card companies notify the credit reporting bureaus that you are paying through a third-party service. The notice is not calculated into your credit scores.\nOnce you start making payments via the agency, your credit score can improve because you will establish a steady payment pattern. That will likely help your credit scores rise if you've been delinquent in the recent past. In fact, if you were several months behind when you started, the credit card company may re-age the account, which will show that you're now in good standing. Reducing your credit utilization ratio by paying off your credit cards can also have a positive effect on your scores.\nPotential problems, however, may lie ahead. If you have to close accounts as part of your DMP, doing so eventually will affect the length of your credit history, which is a credit scoring factor. Then again, if your accounts were closed because you were seriously delinquent, chances are your scores are already low, so this isn't likely to be a major concern.\nIf you haven't paid late, it will be particularly important to ensure that no payments are missed between the time you begin the DMP and when the agency starts sending the payments. END