Some companies offer a service claiming to be able to ‘repair’ your credit file for a fee. We advise you to avoid them because you can check your file and correct any errors yourself at little or no cost.

You can take some other simple steps to improve your own credit file:

• Ensure you are on the electoral roll
• Cancel any credit cards you no longer use
• If you apply for credit, ensure you use the same personal details each time

Experian publish a useful free site on improving your credit rating called UK Credit Repair.

Most agreements allow creditors to add charges and interest. If you feel that the charges are unfair or too high, you should first make a complaint to the creditor.

Creditors can add charges, but the Office of Fair Trading guidelines state these should be “based on actual and necessary costs” and should not be too high compared with the debt itself.

If you do not get a satisfactory response, you could contact the Financial Ombudsman Service who can investigate the matter further.

A debt management plan is not a legally binding agreement. Your creditors are not obliged to freeze the interest on the debts you have. However, we do have excellent relationships with creditors and we do request that they stop any further interest being added and charges being made.