Debt management involves an informal arrangement with your creditors to allow you more time to repay your total debt to them. It may involve reducing or waiving interest and charges, and in rare instances the writing-off of some of your debt (this is quite rare in practice). By rearranging your installments over a longer repayment period and forgiving or reducing the interest being charged, you are able to come to a monthly repayment which fits in with your budget.



There are no solicitors or Insolvency Practitioners involved in this process – it is simply an agreement between you and your creditors – though numerous companies do specialise in debt management negotiations and charge a fee for their work.

A major disadvantage is that the arrangement is not legally binding and your creditors may change their minds which lead you back into debt collection agents, legal threats and the full range of debt collection measures which are available to collect debts. Very fortunately, it is unlikely to happen but you must bear all of this in mind because if you do not stick to the new debt management arrangement, the lenders can simply proceed to deal with you through the courts and debt collection agencies.

Debt management is very commonly used but there are no real statistics to demonstrate how common it is – this is because it is an informal arrangement which is not recorded anywhere – this is also an advantage as credit agencies are not notified if you have entered into a debt management arrangement.

There is some information on debt management facts which have been accumulated over time by various agencies and charities:

•Around 3.4 million adults are in serious debt in the UK;

•Average debt levels are £25,115 though almost 10% of people have debts in excess of £60,000;

•A massive 91% of people are paying off credit card debt;

•Of those in debt, 75% of women claim they cannot sleep for stress at night, while 61% of men report the same;

•15% of those in debt do not talk about it despite so much help being freely available;

•20% of those in a debt management program will take more than ten years to repay their debts;

•Over ten years, the interest, fees and charges will amount to more than 20% of the total repaid; and

•High stress levels, dramatically increased risk of mental and physical health and long term repayment plans can all be avoided by a variety of debt relief measures which are legally mandated and advice is widely available.

When you are looking at a debt management solution, you must always request that your creditors stop charging interest and fees; they are not required to do this but they will frequently do so. You can negotiate the debt management solution on your own or take professional advice, which is recommended.

Free debt management means there are no charges being charged to you for the professional services involved and allows you to repay your debts faster as all of your monies are going to settling your outstanding loans. A paid-for debt management plan will typically include a 15% charge based on the monthly repayments which are negotiated.