The sad fact is that there are a lot of people in the UK that don’t actually know the total amount of debt that they are facing and the hard fact of their growing debt problem can make for a shocking revelation.

Having a clear understanding of how much you owe is integral to tackling the burden of bad debt. Likewise, knowing who you owe the money to should not be a mystery. You should also know exactly what the interest rate is that you are currently being charged. Taking responsibility for your level of personal debt and striving to manage your finances better is the first step to debt freedom and although it may be painful to face up to the extent of the problem, it is hugely liberating to take it on. So, write it down, see the problem laid out in detail, in black and white. If that doesn’t get you motivated to pay off your debts, you’re in trouble.

When you know what you owe, you can start to come up with a plan to pay it off. For starters, you can work out exactly how much you can afford to pay each month and decide on how best to use that money to free yourself from debt as quickly as possible. If credit card debt is the root of the problem, you need to understand that clearing it off might require some sacrifice. Pay more than the minimum each month and adjust your monthly budget to accommodate for the increased repayment amount.

Once you’ve worked out how much you can afford to pay, you need to decide how you’re going to go about paying the debt off. You can Snowball the debts by singling out the biggest, paying the minimum to the rest and throwing everything else you’ve got at it. As the debt comes down, so will the interest but if you keep the payments high, it’ll disappear faster and faster. Once that card is paid off, go to the next one in the line and use the same snowballing method on that. Paying off your debt in this way is much easier than trying to settle your debts all at once. It’s all about being determined, sticking to your task and hitting that target debt hard, until it disappears.

Clearing your credit card debt is not easy. It will be difficult but it will also be rewarding, both financially and psychologically. There’s no need to tackle it alone either. Talk to a dedicated debt advisor at Harrington Brooks who will be able to suggest the best debt solution to suit your personal, financial situation. Use the free, no obligation debt wizard at www.harringtonbrooks.co.uk to help you find a fast route out of debt.

Since the start of 2010, average credit card rates have hit a 12-year high. Strange, you might be thinking, since we’ve been enjoying the bank’s emergency rate of interest being set at 0.5%. Well, that just highlights that it isn’t all rates that have been on the increase. Essential, lenders have been targeting specific groups of borrowers and raising their rates without warning. This helps to keep the increase under the radar. High risk customers, those with poor credit ratings, tend to feel the brunt of this activity as the increases are introduced as an added punishment for going over their arranged credit limit and missing or making late payments. Of course, they are already penalised and charged for these things but that doesn’t stop them being punished again.

The Office of Fair Trading has put a limit of £12 on this type of penalty, limiting the lender’s ability to recoup the full sum from the missed payments. This loss of revenue was obviously not an option for the credit card companies, who simply looked elsewhere for the money. Pushing up the interest rates for lenders who feel that they aren’t in a strong enough position to argue may not seem a particularly fair way to do this but it’s the situation we find ourselves in.

It’s not just those who are considered to be potentially risky borrowers or those with a poor credit score who are currently having higher rates applied to their credit card accounts. Even those with a first rate, unblemished credit report are being hit with the big fees.

Right, so those with a great credit score are penalised and those with a poor credit score are being penalised. So, who’s not being penalised? Those safely ensconced in the middle? Even if you miss the odd payment, nothing severe but nothing too risky, you’re still fair game for the rate hike. Each case must therefore be looked at and judged on its own merits. With that in mind, should you find your rate has been increased, phone your lender and make tell them you’re leaving unless they readjust your rate, but always make sure this can actually be a possibility first. Get debt advice from an impartial financial advisor too. They’ll be able to assist you in solving a host of debt related problems.

Ultimately, there is no better way to avoid the rising interest rates on credit cards than to not have one. Freeing yourself from the stressful burden of bad debt is a priority for a lot of people but as everyone faces different financial difficulties, the debt solution that best suits their circumstances will differ too. For a free advice about how to deal with your credit debt, drop by www.harringtonbrooks.co.uk who can help find you the debt solution to your circumstances.

Unsecured personal debt can creep up on you. Outstanding credit card balances, a little on a couple of store cards, the odd unsecured loan and even your overdraft facility on your current account; it’s amazing how much debt we can simply take for granted, as a constant feature of our lives. You may feel that this debt is manageable, that you have greater financial problems than those that tick along relatively unobtrusively in the background, but it’s frightening how quickly these background debts can become serious concerns.

Recent studies have found that 1 in every 10 people in the UK is permanently overdrawn, with another 12% using their overdraft facility at least 5 times in the year and almost half of the population using it at least once. As bleak as this sounds though, it’s actually an improvement on the same time last year, when it was almost 2 in every 10 that were permanently in the red and over half depended on their overdraft at least once in the year.

At least we’re moving in the right direction. As personal finance has been such a hot topic for so long now, it’s perhaps only natural that individuals in the UK have taken advantage of the emergency rate of interest to pay off as much of their outstanding debt as they can. It’s great that fewer people rely on their overdrafts but the number of people who are permanently in their overdraft is still too high. Were they to find themselves faced with an unforeseen expenditure or emergency outgoing, this safety net may have already been used up. Also, should their circumstances change and they were to lose their source of income and means of paying off this debt, it can become a serious debt problem.

As inflation is rising, individuals will find it increasingly difficult to get themselves out of their overdrafts if they are used to living off them. Likewise, we could well see more and more people being drawn into this way of life, depending more and more on their overdraft to pay for ordinary expenditures, rather than saving it for emergencies. So, not only are we set to be hit with a sustained cost of living increase, research suggests that banks will also increase rates of interest on their customers overdraft facility.

For impartial advice on clearing your unsecured debt, from a dedicated debt advisor, visit www.harringtonbrooks.co.uk . Harrington Brooks are one of the longest established and most respected financial solutions institutions in the UK. Their professional advisors are on hand to offer debt help to those facing financial problems.