I am concerned as to how a debt management consolidation would affect my credit rating. And, if in fact, it will hurt my rating how long before I recover. My middle score with the 3 agencies is 718. I am unemployed and I am unable to get new credit due to income to debt ratio. I am 65 and I have credit card debt of approx. $27,000.00. I have been able to maintain the payments by digging into an annuity which will end soon and is all I have. I lost a very large sum of money in the spring of 2008. Seems pretty hopeless but the answer is out there somewhere. What you suggest?