Debt advice

There is a way through this.

Whatever the number is, it has been seen before and there is a route out of it. The first conversation is free, takes about half an hour, and you are under no obligation to do anything afterwards.

What you can do tonight What each option costs you

4 in 10Callers we send to free help instead

0Upfront fees, ever

30 minThe first conversation, free

21 yrsAdvising on debt

Tonight, before you speak to anybody

Pay the essentials first

Rent or mortgage, energy, council tax, food, and the tools you work with. Credit cards and loans come after those — always, whatever the letters say about it.

Write the list

Every debt, who it's owed to, and roughly how much. It is far less frightening as a list than as a feeling, and nobody can help you without one.

Agree nothing today

You do not have to settle anything on a phone call tonight. "I'm getting advice — put it in writing" is a complete sentence, and it works.

Tell one person

Not for advice. Just so that it isn't only you carrying it. This one matters more than the paperwork does, and it is the one people skip.

None of that needs us, costs anything or commits you to a thing. If it is all you ever take from this page, that is a good outcome and we mean it.

Free debt advice exists. Try it first.

Free, independent debt advice is available in most countries — usually through a national money-advice service or a debt charity — and it does not cost you anything at all. For a great many people that is the right first call, and the only call they need to make.

Free advice — Costs nothing, and covers most situations completely
Us — For situations that need somebody acting for you, week after week
Anyone charging you upfront — Walk away. Money before any work is a warning sign, not a policy
Anyone promising a write-off — Nobody can promise that. Creditors accept offers, and courts make orders

We say this on our own website because a firm that hides it is telling you something about itself. If free advice sorts your situation out we are genuinely glad, and we will still have been useful for half an hour.

Every option has a cost. Here they are.

A plan you arrange yourself — Free. Slower, and it needs you to keep making the calls
A formal arrangement — Fixed payments for years, sitting on your credit file throughout
Anything secured on your home — Your home enters the conversation. Never sign one without independent advice
Insolvency — Can end the debt. Can also cost you assets, put you on a public register, and affect some jobs
Doing nothing — The debt grows, and the decisions start being made for you by other people

Which of those is even available depends on where you live, what you owe and to whom — and in several of them the decision is neither ours nor yours. An insolvency practitioner, a creditor or a court decides. Anyone who tells you the answer before seeing your figures is guessing at your life.

What we charge

The first conversation — Free, about half an hour, and no obligation at the end of it
If free advice is right for you — We say so, and we charge you nothing at all
Setting up an arrangement — Nothing upfront. Our fee comes out of the agreed monthly payment
While it runs — Included. No renewal fee, and no charge for picking up the phone
Stopping — Free, whenever you like. Your figures and your creditor list go with you

You will never be asked for a payment before you have seen in writing what it is for, what it comes out of, and what happens to it. If anybody ever asks you for money up front, that is the moment to stop.

Ask for the free half hour

★★★★★

“I had been avoiding the post for a year. They opened it with me on the phone, and none of it turned out to be as bad as the not-knowing had been.”

Anonymous

By request

★★★★★

“On the first call they told me a free service could do what I needed and gave me the details. I came back two years later for something else entirely.”

R.T.

First conversation

Ask for the free half hour

No paperwork needed to start. You can give us as little as you like and still get something useful back.

Ask for the free half hour

We use only the method you pick, and we won't leave a message saying who we are unless you tell us we can. What we cannot do is stop your creditors contacting you — that changes when an arrangement starts, not when you send this form.

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