You could hope and pray that your debt will go away, it won’t. The earlier you contact your creditors, the more flexible they're likely to be in coming to an agreement with you. Write to your creditors, or phone, and indicate that you want to work out an arrangement to resolve the problem.
If you do make an arrangement over the phone jot down what was said and then follow up with a letter to confirm what you have jointly agreed, quote any account references given and keep a copy of all letters you send and remember to make a note the name of the person you speak to.
Promises
Prepare a personal financial statement to include all essential secured debt and bills and adequate living costs and arrange a rate of repayment that you can afford to keep up with based on this. You are likely to default or miss payments elsewhere and find yourself back in trouble if you agree to more than you can realistically afford. The aim is to pay your creditors and meet your other expenditure for the foreseeable future without the need to keep going back and re-negotiating.
Payments
It is better to make regular payments, albeit smaller than usual, than irregular full payments as many finance computer systems are programmed to send reminders and warnings automatically if payments are missed.
The law and your creditors
Although the law gives creditors the power to take action to recover the money you owe them, it also makes them go through fixed procedures before the final action can legally be taken, for instance you cannot be evicted from your home without the creditor following due process and finally having been to court and obtained the necessary authority. Harassing people in debt is illegal. If you are harassed or threatened by creditors turn the tables on them by stating that you will be going to complain to your local Trading Standards office or that you will be informing the police if they persist. Do not be afraid to follow your words up with actions the law is on your side.
