credit cards

It does go on your credit report and it's a negative mark. Your score will go down. If you're in a situation where you can't pay, however, it's not going to hurt your report any more than late payments, charge offs, etc.

Using credit counseling services to manage and pay off your debt might decrease your credit score. This is because the moment credit counseling service negotiates with your creditors to lower your monthly payments and/or the interest rates, it's reported to the credit bureaus.

But, if you make regular payments towards your debt, you might be able to restore some of your credit within a period of time.