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If you’re struggling to keep up with your debt payments, there’s very little point in waiting before you do something about it. The longer you wait, the more likely you are to start missing payments and receiving letters and phone calls from your creditors - not to mention late payment charges, damage to your credit rating and even higher interest rates.

In general, the sooner you take action, the easier it should be to ’sort your debts out’ - to make sure you can afford your payments and to figure out a way of clearing your debts as soon as realistically possible.

To reach that point, you may need some help and cooperation from your creditors - but you may not. If you do, a debt management plan might be a good solution.

You may find you can keep up with your payments just by cutting back on your spending. If you can do this, it’s well worth making the sacrifices, whether that means cutting back on going out, reducing the amount you spend on clothes, banning yourself from buying CDs, buying a more economical car or cancelling a holiday or two. Exactly how you choose to ‘tighten your belt’ will vary from one person to the next, but it’s a good idea to start by keeping a complete list of everything you spend.

Ideally, it’s best to do this for a complete month (although this may not be an option if your debt problems require you to act immediately), as it’ll give you a chance to figure out exactly where your money is going. To do that, you’ll need to make a note of every penny you spend - you probably have a good idea of how much you spend on bills like mortgage / rent, utility bills and petrol, but it’s your spending on non-essential items that you need to reduce, and this can be extremely hard to figure out unless you keep careful notes.

If you don’t think this will ‘free up’ the cash you need for your monthly debt payments, you need to contact your lenders, explain your situation, tell them what you can afford to pay per month, and ask what they can do to help you pay that. For instance, they might agree to accept lower payments, waive charges and / or freeze interest on your debt for the time being.

It’s up to you whether you want to negotiate with them yourself or ask a debt relief expert to help you out - but again, timing is important, and the sooner you do it, the easier it should be to agree on a repayment plan that works for you and your lenders alike.