I lost my job in early September and have run into some serious financial problems. I have a part time job and I should be receiving unemployment but they denied me at first and I have to wait for a hearing to appeal that decision, and they are super backed up and I will not even find out when my hearing is for another four weeks. I took out a distribution from my 401k, went through that, and they are taking their sweet time getting another distribution sent out to me. None of my accounts have been sent to collections yet, but they are almost there. I am considering bankruptcy or using one of those companies that negotiates better interest rates with my creditors and gets them to reduce my debt by up to 40%. I want to know which route I will recover from quicker. I eventually want to buy a house, take out student loans, etc. I keep hearing that bankruptcy is not as bad as it has been made out to be, and I have heard nothing about how debt settlement programs effect your credit. Does anyone have any advice?

Technorati Tags: 401k, bankruptcy, collections, creditors, debt settlement programs, early september, interest rates, part time job, student loans, sweet time, unemployment