There are a number of ways forward IMO, if you are in financial difficulty most banks will want to arrange something for fear of you going bankrupt. First and formost you need to complete a monthly budget, it needs to be 100% honest, including all debts that you have along with other living costs right down to toiletries and entertainment (not gambling related obv).
Once you have done this you can either deal direct with your bank, if most of the debt is in one place they are likely to help but if you have it all over the shop each bank will try to get you to pay them the most. The more sensible thing to do would be to contact one of the following Charities. Whatever you do don't google them and click on the first link up as your likely to go to a fee paying company that will keep pushing IVA's which might not be the best option.
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/http://www.cccs.co.uk/https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/The best one IMO is national debt line, they have all options available and don't actually administer the Debt Management Plans (DMP's) or IVA's (if this is the best option - don't rule it out, everybodies circumstances differ) or finally which hopefully wont be what they recommend bankruptcy.
There are some helpful responses on this thread and some links to moneysaving websites which are all well and good when you can 'borrow' your way out of it. If you have a good credit rating you can go and get a loan somewhere pay everything off and reduce your outgoings however if you are past that the options provided by the charities above are the best way to go.
A debt management plan is probably the banks/your best option. The reason I say its the banks best option is because you will not have to write any debt off so they wont
completely fuck you over on your credit rating!
A DMP is where you make an agreement based on your income and outgoings and pay a set amount to your creditors, the banks will normally freeze all interest and charges which means your balances reduce v.quickly but normally they will spread the cost. Once you enter the agreement it is reviewed every 12 months of if your circumstances change.
Anyway I'm rambling on now and all I meant to say was call the national debt line they will give you some excellent free advice.
Best Wishes
sovietsong
PS
- if your outgoings are actually quite low and you are struggling to make payments due to £300 a month into poker or whatever I think you know what the answer is.