Getting into debt has always been extremely easy, but in the current economic climate it has become an unavoidable fact of life for millions of people.
Rising unemployment, redundancy, divorce, medical problems and other difficulties are all factors in leading more and more people into serious debt problems.
Debt can sneak up gradually, and it is sometimes difficult to spot that point at which it moved from being a temporary problem that you hope to get past soon, to being a serious situation that you can see no way out of.
The best solution to your debt problem will depend in part on the nature and extent of your situation, but for most people, the best answer is to seek help from a specialist debt plan organization.
Debt management is a process that is also known as debt consolidation, because you consolidate all your debts into a single payment.
However, it is important to understand the difference between a debt plan and the other type of consolidation which is when you take out a big loan to pay off your debts.
Debt plans do not involve any new loans or borrowing, which is a very good thing, because the last thing you need when you are in debt is to just move the debt somewhere else.
Debt plans are about making sure your debts do not get any bigger and finding ways to bring down the amount you have to pay out each month to service them.
The company who will set up your debt plan will negotiate with all of your creditors and see if they can get them to agree to lower your payments.
This is done by reducing interest rates and often getting rid of any penalty payments for if you have defaulted or been late with a payment.
The results of these negotiations are that you stop paying all your separate creditors and instead make a single monthly payment to the debt plan company.
This will be a more affordable amount and you will know when you are going to be free from debt again.
You have the undoubted advantage of only having one single payment to think about, which makes it far less likely that you will ever miss a payment or be late.
In addition to this your monthly outgoing are actually less and you do not have to deal with all those angry creditors any more, because they have to go to the debt company for their money.
The most important decision to make when thinking about using a debt plan is the choice of which company to use to set up your plan.
There are hundreds of organizations out there who will offer to do this for you, but quite a few of these are less than honest and will charge you far more than is necessary.
You can avoid such organizations quite easily by only approaching very well established and reputable companies that have a good track record and lots of happy customers.
As an extra safeguard you should apply to more than one, so that you have something to compare.