If you think you are in debt don't despair, as whatever your situation there are ways to ease your financial suffering.

The first step is to acknowledge you have a debt problem so you can then start dealing with it. If you don’t, the problems may end up being more than financial. Debt affects your relationships, your work, and in the worst cases, your mental health.

Can you still get accepted for new credit?

If you can, you need to ensure you're paying the lowest possible interest rate. And that involves doing a balance transfer, which is where you get a new card which allows you to shift debts to it at a much cheaper rate.

Full details of the current best buy deals are in Martin's Best Balance Transfers article

If you can't get new credit?

If you get rejected for new credit, but can still meet your minimum repayments; don't worry, you can still get better deals. This is because your existing lenders may be willing to allow you to shift debts to them from your other cards at a cheap rate.

For full instructions on what to do, read Martin's full 'Credit Card Shuffle' article

If you can't meet your minimum repayments

This is debt crisis. The most important thing is that you start to deal with it. The best thing to do is to speak to a non-profit debt counselling agency such as the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, National Debtline or the Citizens Advice Bureau.

For Martin’s full checklist to deal with debt read Martin’s full guide on Debt Problems: Where To Start, What To Do, Where To Get Help