Hi all, Long time lurker and reader of these forums, I've finally taken my head out of the sand and stared reality in the face. Thought I'd share my story to get it off my chest a bit and hopefully get some useful and practical advise along the way. Both me and my wife have been using credit to pay bills and other credit for far too long, it has got to the point where we just spend every month waiting for a letter from Barclays telling us that they where helping us out by charging us very 5 days for using our reserve overdarft and then topping back up with cash from credit cards to try and avoid going over the reserve limit (stupid I know). We've using cash advances from credit cards and the occasional boost cash at Christmas or Birthdays for about the last 3 years and we've plodded on somehow getting by without ever defaulting on anything other than using our reserve almost every month. The consequence of all this is I've become almost introvert and completely not the person I was 3 or 4 years ago. We don't going anywhere or doing anything we've even gave up any hobbies and don't have any social life as we can never really afford to go out without worrying about what it might cost. I find it impossible to talk to people about it as allot of people assume we've got into this situation by squandering money on luxuries. I wish i had to be honest but it's all just come form trying to get by! We've never rented stupidly big places, never had a fancy car or a big TV or a games console (other than one I was given which I never used because I couldn't afford games LOL) and to be honest I can't remember the last time I spent more than £20 on something that wasn't essential. All of our stuff is second hand and most of it is old. We owe allot (about £32K it transpires) to a combination of credit and store cards (store cards are all relatively small amounts) and unsecured loans. It started as credit cards, then a consolidation loan then we slipped into using the cars again and so it went on. We should have dealt with this a long time ago but for reasons that I can't explain (embarrassment and feeling that we might just make it some how being the main ones) we've carried on and just got by on an day by day, week by week and month by month basis. Only ever getting essential things and feeling completely terrified every time the inevitable letter from Barclays dropped through the door. I an absolutely bricking it and scared stiff about how this is all going to pan out! My wife knows the situation and what I'm hoping to do about it, but i don't think she really understands that we're going to get allot of calls (from some very rude and aggressive people suspect) and probably some home visits (from some even more aggressive people i suspect). I'll give some more info later as i haven't the time (or the courage at the moment) to list the companies and the amounts, I have however gone through the whole lot on the CCCS web site and requested a DMP pack to be sent. So some of questions to begin with, What are other people's experiences with CCCS? Should I contact everyone before i go any further and make them aware of my intentions, or is this not going to help CCCS with the process? I am terrified of the amount of pressure and the type of contact we're going to receive once this all kicks off, will it start straight away or will I have to have been in default a while before it really starts? Will the companies we owe money to just feed us to the wolfs by passing us straight to a debt management company or can I avoid this and just get them to take me to county court if we can't reach an agreement on payment? One of them companies is Northern Rock i have about 12 months of a 7 year loan left to pay, it was done on the internet and I took out PPI which was added to the loan so acquired an interest charge at the same rate as the loan, is it possible to claim this back once I've started making reduced payments and get it take off the outstanding amount or can i kiss that goodbye because I'll be in default of the terms of the loan? Enough questions for now anyway. I'm hoping to get some good advise and maybe get in contact with other who've been or are in the same situation and if seeing what I'm going through helps some else along the way them I'll be happy!