Hi I've recently found myself facing debts for the first time in my life and I really need some paratcial help and advice to deal with them. At the moment I currently owe my creditors approx £16,500, broken down as follows: Tesco Bank [unsecured] Loan: £6,500 MBNA/Virgin Money Credit Card: £3,800 Tesco Credit Card: £3,500 BOS Credit Card: £1,300 Hitachi Finance: £888 Santander Overdraft: £500 Argos Card: £150 Of the above, I am up to date with payments on the Tesco Loan and Hitachi Finance (credit agreement for DFS furniture). It's the credit cards ie mimimum payment and interest that I am really struggling with. I have taken advice from CCCS, National Debtline and Payplan (who are recommended by my union) and all seem to be of the opinion that a Debt Management Plan is the best way forward. However, I am reluctant to go down that route for 2 reasons. Firstly, I would have to include all my creditors even though I am up to date (ie no defaults or late payment fees) on the Tesco Loan and Hitachi Finance accounts. Secondly, I am due to leave my employer under voluntary redundancy this year (either June at earliest or September at latest) with a lump sum of approx £38,000 (after tax). It was always my intention to use some of the redundancy payment to clear my debts, not least the credit cards because those are the ones that are racking up huge interest and late payment charges. However what I was also planning to do is pay off a bit more of my Tesco Bank Loan so that the repayment period was shorter. Rather than go down the DMP route, my idea was to write to the 3x credit card companies, explaining that I was struggling with the repayments and ask them to freeze interest and accept a reduced monthly repayment for a period of at least 3 months (if I get redundancy pay out at end of June) or at most 6 months (if redundancy pay out is end of September). Is this a good route to go down or at least a good starting point before having to seriously consider a DMP? Grateful for any help or comments.