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Start With a Clear Picture of What You Owe

Before you change a single thing, get everything out in the open. Log into every account — cards, store cards, catalogues, overdrafts and buy-now-pay-later balances — and write down four things for each one: the outstanding balance, the interest rate (the APR), the minimum monthly payment, and the payment date. A plain spreadsheet or a page in a notebook is fine; the point is that it lives in one place rather than in your head.

Seeing the total can be uncomfortable, but it is also the moment the debt stops being vague and becomes a problem you can actually solve. While you are there, check your credit reports with the major agencies and make sure every balance and payment history entry is accurate. Errors are more common than you would think, and a disputed default or a lingering balance from a closed account can be corrected.

Work Out What You Can Realistically Pay

Minimum repayments on credit cards are set low on purpose — often between 1% and 3% of the balance, plus interest. That keeps accounts ticking over while the balance barely moves. Paying only the minimum on a £3,000 balance at 22% APR can keep you in debt for well over a decade.

So find your extra. Go through three months of bank statements and separate spending into essentials (rent or mortgage, council tax, utilities, food, transport, insurance) and everything else. Look for the easy wins first:

• Subscriptions you forgot you had — streaming, apps, gyms, cloud storage.
• Annual or monthly bills worth switching, such as broadband, mobile, insurance or energy.
• Regular takeaway, coffee and convenience spending that adds up quietly.

Be honest rather than extreme. A sustainable extra £150 a month beats an ambitious £400 that you abandon in March. Keep the essentials funded and give yourself a small amount of guilt-free spending — a budget with no breathing room tends to snap.

The Avalanche Approach: Attack the Most Expensive Debt First

Once you know your extra amount, keep every minimum repayment running exactly as it is. Missing a minimum payment triggers fees, damages your payment history and can cancel a promotional rate. The minimums stay; the extra goes in one direction only.

Pay the extra towards the debt with the highest interest rate. This is the avalanche method, and it is mathematically the cheapest way out — you pay less interest overall and clear the whole lot sooner. If your most expensive debt is a store card at 29.9% APR and your credit card sits at 21.9%, the store card gets everything spare until it is gone.

Then move to the next highest rate, and the next. Each time a balance clears, roll that entire payment — the old minimum plus the extra — onto the following debt. This is where progress accelerates sharply, because your monthly outlay stays the same while the balances it is chasing shrink.

The alternative is the snowball method: smallest balance first, regardless of rate. It costs slightly more in interest but delivers quicker wins, which suits some people better. If motivation is your biggest risk, the snowball is a perfectly respectable choice.

Check Whether a Balance Transfer Actually Helps

A 0% balance transfer can be transformative, but only if you use it well. Work out the transfer fee, usually a percentage of the amount moved, and compare it against the interest you would pay otherwise. A 3% fee on a balance you would clear in eight months is usually worth it; the same fee on a balance you will not clear before the promotional period ends is not.

Set up the monthly payment as a direct debit from day one and, crucially, divide the balance by the number of promotional months to get your target payment — not the minimum shown on the statement. Put the date in your calendar a month before the offer ends so you can move or clear any remainder. And resist the temptation to spend on the old card; if it is tempting, cut it up or freeze it.

Protect Yourself While You Pay It Down

Try to hold a small cash buffer, even £500, before throwing every spare pound at debt. Without it, a car repair or boiler breakdown goes straight onto a card and undoes months of work. If your employer offers any financial wellbeing support, or you have access to free debt advice services, use them — there is no shame in it, and they can negotiate or restructure where appropriate.

Also be aware that using a large proportion of your available credit limit can affect your credit score. Keeping accounts open and in good standing, rather than closing them once cleared, usually helps your credit history over the longer term.

Review Progress Every Month and Keep Going

Set a fixed date each month to update your spreadsheet: new balances, interest charged, and how much you have cleared. Watching the highest-rate balance fall is genuinely motivating, and it catches problems early — a fee you did not expect, a payment that did not go through, or a rate change on a variable card.

If your circumstances shift, adjust the plan rather than abandoning it. A smaller extra payment still beats no extra payment. If you receive a bonus, a tax rebate or a pay rise, send a chunk of it straight to the most expensive balance before it gets absorbed into everyday spending. Debt repayment is rarely dramatic — it is a series of unglamorous, deliberate months. But the maths works, and the day that final balance hits zero is worth every one of them.