Debt management

What to expect from a debt management company

Our debt management advice begins with the very first phone call. Often people come to us because they are worried about their debt and need a bit of help to get back in control of the situation.

• We don't judge
• Everything you tell us is completely confidential
• We're here to help you sort out your debt

We'll start by asking you how much debt you're in, who you owe the money to and how much you're spending every month. Once we've established your income and expenditure, we'll be able to tell you whether a debt management programme could work for you.

People ask a debt management company for help when they want to repay their debt, but can't afford to. So we'll discuss your options with you and help you find the best way out of debt depending on the situation you're in right now. That could be with a debt management plan, or another debt solution, but you are under no obligation to take our advice.

What is debt management?

Debt management is a new payment plan with your lenders when you can't afford your repayments any more. However, it's only for unsecured debts like a credit card or personal loan. You need to deal with other debts, like a mortgage, student loans or court fines, separately - although we could help you to budget for debts like this with one of our debt solutions.

Enter into debt management with us and we'll negotiate with your lenders, asking them to accept lower repayments over a longer period. Repaying debt more slowly does increase the interest you repay overall, although we'll ask them to freeze the interest and charges on your debt.

A payment plan like this is only the best option if it's affordable - you'll need a regular income and you'll need to commit to every repayment to succeed.

Debt management helps borrowers to repay debt more slowly and reduce repayments without the need for another loan, or insolvency. However, this will damage your credit score for six years.

What do debt management companies do?

Not all debt management companies are the same. We have a good reputation for being fair to lenders and borrowers and helping people to reach realistic agreements with their lenders. Call us and we'll give you debt management advice and discuss your options with you. We start with your personal budget and calculate what you can realistically afford to repay.

If debt management could help, we'll create a repayment plan for you. If you are happy with your repayment plan and decide to enter into a debt management plan, we'll approach your lenders and try to negotiate lower payments with them. We would also ask your lenders to freeze interest and charges on your debts (although they don't have to agree).

We handle and distribute all payments to your unsecured lenders. You make one monthly payment to us while you're on a debt management programme - and we divide it up and distribute money to each of your lenders for you. You only have to worry about that one monthly payment for all of your unsecured debts - we'll handle the rest.

We'll review your debt management plan on a regular basis to keep it affordable, although you can request a review at any time. Your circumstances might improve over time, so you could make bigger payments. Of course, the bigger your payments, the more quickly you'll clear your debts.

We also offer debt management advice if you have fallen into arrears with other debts, like your mortgage, or utilities, or Council Tax. We can advise you on what to do if you are threatened with bailiff action, or you are concerned about legal action from your lenders.

We try to take away as much of the pressure as possible, and the hassle of dealing with lenders when you're in debt. When you're on a debt management programme, we talk to your lenders for you. If they do contact you, simply tell them we're handling your debt management and ask them to contact us instead, or send any letters directly to us.

We do charge fees for our service, but they are all included in your monthly debt management payments. You can find out more about our fees here.