I hope you have decided that approaching your creditor(s) by letter is the best way forward. For perhaps the most important thing in your dealings with companies is making sure there is a record of what has passed between you.

While there is but one of you, there are a host of agents within the majority of creditor companies, and even where this is not so memories are unreliable and summaries may be inaccurate. Remember also that companies are bought and sold frequently, and may even go bankrupt.

You may also need that written support if you have to deal with any third party. And in third parties I include the courts should the matter ever go that far. It is open to either the company or you to involve a third party.

The written word in the form of a signed formal letter is far and away the most acceptable and reliable evidence of what has been discussed and stated.

There is a lot of very excellent advice on the net, but it does not all say the same thing. There are many good reasons for this. First there are two main sources; personal experience and professional expertise. These are very different viewpoints, and though they may have the same objective, of helping you through this trouble, for the latter it is a job—whether voluntary or paid—that thinks of set systems more than individual cases.

In the former case experiences differs, and the nature of the problem also differs. Even more the behaviour of the companies differs quite substantially, to the extent that while one company may immediately appreciate your position and work out a sensible arrangement, another may be deaf and blind to reason and simply insist on its demands being met.

Of course you do not give in!

In preparing your first letter it is as well to bear this in mind, though it will take a while to find out what your particular creditor is like.

Even if you decide to use an intermediary, and there are many, and of many kinds, that person can only get their information from you. So you will still need to go through much the same early processes to make sure your case is as fully understood as possible and that the deal struck suits your situation.