A debt management company helps you re-organise your financial situation in order to get you out from under your debts. However, they normally charge for their involvement and some recommend applying for further lending!



The National Debt Line is a countrywide call-in helpline. It provides free, impartial and confidential advice to people on settling debt conflicts in the UK. Their phone-in helpline is offered seven days a week and they also host a website that offers lots of constructive assistance and counsel on it. National Debtline is an element of the Money Advice Trust (MAT), which is a registered charity. The Money Advice Trust supplies the public an organized method to managing serious personal debt problems in order that they might take back control of their money.





A default is meant to refer to where you have not fulfilled your contractual requirements. When you have ignored a payment on a mail orders, as an example, they could put a Notice of Default on to your credit file. This will reflect poorly on your credit file at some point should you wish to take on more borrowing.



An arrear is a legal expression and is applied to indicate when you are past due in making monthly payments on a credit agreement. They will be ?in arrears? from the date their first expected instalment is missed. This financial term tends to be used when explaining past due payment of personal loans, credit cards, rent or mortgage and also child support and taxes.



If you are in the situation where you have so many debts that you can no longer afford to pay them, the first thing you need to do is to prioritise them.



Write a list of all your debts, putting them into order, with the most important at the top of your list. (First would be your mortgage/rent as not paying these could see you end up homeless); then utilities (if you do not pay these your gas/water/electricity supply will be cut off and you will be taken to Court); and so on.



By sorting out your priority debts - ie the ones that if you do not pay them will have severe consequences on your life - you can then work out how much you can realistically afford to pay to each creditor every month. Even a little bit is better than nothing.



Then contact the organisations and explain that you are having problems meeting your bills. In most cases they will be sympathetic and try and work out an arrangement where you pay less until you are back on your feet. The \'less\' important debts where maybe you cannot afford to allocate money to, you can ask your creditors if they could freeze the debt until such time that you have money available.



You could consider a debt consolidation loan to pay off the bulk of your debts, but do remember that if it is secured against your home and you fail to meet the repayments, you could lose your home.



Try and reduce your outgoings - simple things like not having take-away meals; swapping utilities to a cheaper provider; getting a cheaper car etc - can reduce your outgoings by a huge amount.



Consider getting a part time job - bar work is ideal as you can have a social life while earning money!



Finally, contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau - they can help you work out a financial plan and even negotiate with your creditors.