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If money is tight, independent advice is often worth more than trying to work each creditor's process out one at a time. The right service depends on whether it is the business or you personally that is under pressure — and all the services below are free and confidential.
For the business
- Business Debtline — free, independent advice for the self-employed and small businesses, run by the Money Advice Trust and available by phone and online (businessdebtline.org, 0800 197 6026).
- Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) — business support and advice for members (fsb.org.uk).
- A licensed insolvency practitioner — if the company's position is serious, an IP can explain formal options such as a Company Voluntary Arrangement, administration or, as a last resort, liquidation. You can find a licensed IP through the Insolvency Service or R3 (r3.org.uk).
- HMRC Time to Pay — if the pressure is a tax bill, HMRC can sometimes agree a payment plan (gov.uk).
For you personally
If it is your own finances rather than the company's, the leading free personal-debt services are StepChange (stepchange.org), Citizens Advice (citizensadvice.org.uk), National Debtline (nationaldebtline.org), PayPlan (payplan.com) and the government-backed MoneyHelper (moneyhelper.org.uk). None of them charges for advice.
What "free" really means
Every service above is funded so the advice is genuinely free to you — they do not take a slice of your payments. Paid-for debt firms exist, but a paid service will not get you a better outcome than a free one. If anyone asks for an upfront fee to set up a plan, treat that as a reason to switch to a free provider instead.
What we do at our end
If it is the company's loan with us that is the worry, you do not need our permission to seek advice — but a heads-up helps. Use the Hardship Variation Request form on our Forms & Requests page and we will hold collection contact while a plan is worked out. We would always rather agree something sustainable than see an account fall behind.