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How do I get out of debt when I can barely make the payments?

Stop optimising and start triaging. Protect housing, food, utilities and transport to work first — those come before any creditor. Then contact lenders before you miss a payment, because almost all of them have hardship arrangements they will not offer unless asked. Free debt advice exists in most countries and is worth using early.

This is a different question

Most debt advice assumes there is spare money and the question is where to aim it. If the payments themselves are barely possible, that advice does not apply, and following it will make things worse.

What follows is about triage, not optimisation. Nothing here is clever. It is meant to stop the situation getting worse while you find room.

Priority order, and it is not by interest rate

When there is not enough for everything, the order is by consequence, not cost.

First — the things you cannot function without. Housing, food, heat and power, transport to work, essential medication, childcare that lets you work, and any debt secured against your home or vehicle. Missing these has consequences no interest rate matches: eviction, repossession, losing the job that is the only route out.

Second — obligations with legal force. Depending on where you live, this can mean taxes, court-ordered payments, or fines. These often carry powers that ordinary lenders do not have, and they escalate quickly.

Last — unsecured consumer debt. Credit cards, personal loans, store cards, overdrafts. These are the most expensive and the loudest, and they are genuinely the lowest priority when there is not enough to go round. The consequence of underpaying them is bad and slow. The consequence of underpaying rent is fast.

This ordering feels wrong, because the credit card is the one calling you. That is precisely why it is worth writing down: the debt that shouts loudest is rarely the debt that hurts soonest.

Talk to lenders before you miss a payment

This is the single highest-value action, and almost nobody takes it in time.

Lenders in most countries have hardship processes: reduced payments for a period, frozen interest, a payment holiday, a restructured term. They are far more willing to use them for someone who calls ahead than for someone already three payments behind.

Ring before the missed payment. Say plainly that you cannot make the full payment, what you can pay, and why. Ask specifically what hardship arrangements exist — the phrasing matters, because it is often a defined process rather than a discretionary favour.

It is an uncomfortable call. It is also the one that changes the outcome most.

Get free advice, early

Most countries have free, non-profit debt advice services. Not the companies advertising “debt solutions” — those are usually selling a product. The genuine free services are often government-funded or charitable.

They can do things you cannot do alone: negotiate with multiple creditors at once, explain which formal options exist where you live and what each costs you, and confirm which debts are genuinely priority in your jurisdiction.

People wait far too long to make that call, usually out of shame. The advisers have seen every version of this and are not judging. Earlier is better in every case, because more options remain open.

What not to do

Do not borrow to make payments on borrowing. Payday loans and high-cost short-term credit used to cover other debts is the fastest route from a difficult situation to an impossible one.

Do not pay a company to do what free services do. If a “debt solution” firm wants an upfront fee, the free service will do the same negotiation for nothing.

Do not ignore letters. Unopened post is understandable and it removes your options. Court action, in most countries, is far harder to unwind than a conversation would have been.

Do not empty a pension or retirement account without advice, if you have one. In many places it is protected from creditors, and cashing it early can be expensive in ways that are not obvious.

The part worth saying plainly

Being here is usually not the result of recklessness. Costs rising faster than income, illness, a relationship ending, hours cut — these account for far more consumer debt than overspending does.

The shame is the thing that keeps people from making the call that helps, and it is the most expensive part of the whole situation. The debt is arithmetic. The silence is what makes it worse.