i have been in debt myself, a large sum of money as well, today thinking about it scares me.
Now i have no credit cards, the miggy is paid next month and the next car will be bought cash, we have a mortgauge and that is it, if the money isn't there we cant have the luxuaries......
I work for a large credit card company, i do a lot of the training for their collections dept, they speak to people who have fallen behind with thier payments and try to negotiate a way forward, we hear some very sad stories, and then there are others who run up debt and have no intention of paying it back (they see bankruptcy as an easy way out )
If you are in dificulty and you want help you have three free options....
if you owe less than £8K with less than 2 lenders the CAB will give you advice on how to deal with these debits.
More than £8K and more than 2 creditors, two companies who are excellent and FREE, CCCS
www.cccs.co.uk or payplan
www.payplan.co.uk.
There are lots of debit management companies, many of them will charge lots of money and give crap advice, CCCS and Payplan are free and charitable organizations.
hope that helps anyone who needs help