Debt help - timing counts

8 April 2009

If you feel like you`re losing control of your debts, it`s important to ask for some professional debt help straight away. The sooner you do this, the sooner you`ll be able to start putting your money worries behind you - but this isn`t the only reason to act quickly.

Falling behind on your repayments is likely to damage your credit rating and cost you money (in the form of charges, for example, or higher interest rates). It may even lead to legal issues - your lenders might ask the court to issue a County Court Judgment (CCJ), for instance.

Plus, failing to keep up with your repayments can add to your overall level of debt. It`s simple maths: unless you can pay off the debt faster than the interest is making it grow, you`ll owe more at the end of each month, not less.

Debt help - every month matters

So if you`re in that situation, every month you don`t ask for some debt help is another month in which your debt will become bigger and harder to tackle. The longer you let it grow like this, the more problems you`ll probably face when you do take action. If you`re thinking of taking out a debt consolidation loan, for instance, you may find that lenders won`t offer you a loan large enough to cover your existing debts.

Plus, bigger debts are simply more intimidating than smaller debts - you might find facing up to a £5,000 debt much harder than tackling a £1,000 debt. The thought of `tightening your belt` for six months might not worry you too much, but the thought of doing it for three years might be enough to put you off tackling it. And of course, the longer you try to ignore a growing debt, the bigger it`ll get...

Take action fast

If you ask for help as soon as you realise you have a debt problem, you might be able to avoid this kind of problem altogether. If you join a debt management programme, for example, you might find your lenders agree to freeze interest as well as accepting lower monthly payments - so your debt won`t keep on growing while you`re doing your best to pay it off.

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